Don't Panic! Your TV is fine

The intense attention given to the impending February 2009 shift to purely digital television broadcasting from a digital/analog mix has reiterated two major truths, as I know them: education campaigns work and telecommunication communities have way too much money and are terrified of losing even one of their expanding viewer populations.  The telecom industry has invested ample funds and ad space to assure all demographics (we have the house-mom, the little leaguer and the active elder) that they will not have to miss a single moment of the Real Housewives of Orange County or a second of Jamie-Lynn's Disney Sponsored pregnancy play out on their ever expanding plasma screens.  

The information campaign serves as an excellent prototype of the possibilities inherent in such campaigns that could carry (arguably) greater benefits to Americans- the Truth campaign regarding tobacco is another great example.  I would love to live in a nation that tolerated information campaigns regarding the Islam Religion vs. Islamist Extremism, clearly defined and t-charted Main Street dangers of our reliance on fossil fuels, or plain spoken reassurance regarding the need for women health issues to be considered human health-not open invitations for accelerated promiscuity.  

Unfortunately, the money is not behind such messages.  The sustenance of the status-quo keeps the wealth concentrated and the unquestioning masses glued to their huge, digitally broadcasting televisions.