SpearsofTruth

George Will’s High Definition Omission

Every once in a while you read a column and, at first blush, you say to yourself, this writer is “so right.” But then like reading a mediocre mystery novel, something the writer led you to believe turns out not to be the whole story. In fact, the writer left out a really important detail and now you feel cheated.

That’s how I felt after reading George Will’s Washington Post column of December 8, 2005. (Yeah, I’m slow to respond, but I’m busy putting the food on the table and a roof over the heads of my family.)

George takes on the entitlement culture that has permeated Washington and cites it the obvious give away of $3 billion dollars tax payers dollars to consumers in the form of vouchers for digital HD televisions.

[To read the column yourself, see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/07/AR2005120701891.html]

George calls the give away the “No Couch Potato Left Behind “ Act. He states:

“Yet Americans have such an entitlement mentality, they seem to think that every pleasure -- e.g., digital television -- should be a collective right, meaning a federally funded entitlement.”

But what George fails to mention is that consumer never asked for the conversion of their broadcast spectrum to go from analog to digital. They were just fine with the analog sets. If someone hadn’t decided to force this new format on consumers, I don’t think they would have made the move themselves.

Who wants this digital, high definition revolution anyway? The electronics industry and the government do. The electronic industry gets to sell another large round of televisions to consumers. Electronic retailers will reap the benefits of selling these new high def TVs, too. The government gets $10 billion worth of analog spectrum to sell. But what does the consumer get? The consumers get $80 worth of vouchers to spend toward considerably more expensive televisions.

Oh yeah, they get a lot more image resolution, too, but they didn’t ask for it.

Here’s some fun facts. The average lifespan of a traditional television is 7 years. (Now, I’ve had several TVs work well for over 15 years.) The average lifespan of LCD monitor is 5 years and a plasma screen is 4 years.

It’s like the industry is building in planned obsolescence into their product thus ensuring themselves a continual profit stream.

Anyway, I’ve always had respect for George Will, but this sort of shell-game reporting is intellectually disingenuous. By trying to raise the ire of the average Joe by only telling part of the story, Mr. Will has met his goal, but he also does a disservice to those that think beyond a narrow self-serving polemic.

Yes, the entitlement culture is alive and well in Washington, but policies that are, in essence, large corporate give ways need to be exposed too.

If you only tell half the truth to make the point, then you’re telling half a lie. Next time, George, tell the whole story.

Sources:
http://www.mtprog.com/ApprovedBriefingNotes/BriefingNoteTemplate.aspx?intBriefingNoteID=248

posted by Random @ 4:46 PM