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Arianna Huffington and Harry Shearer

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Re: re Memorial Day

By Harry Shearer
Posted Tuesday, May 26, 1998, at 12:10 PM ET

Arianna, in response to your Memorial Day message yesterday...

Oh, you're scratching my itch now, Ms. H. The impending, and enforced, switch to digital television is the biggest uncovered story of the end of the century, just waiting for the print media to jump all over it (no need to ask why broadcasters won't cover it). You're right, and so is Bob Dole (who made just the tiniest peep about it during his campaign, then promptly shut up): we the taxpayers gave hugely valuable spectrum space to the poor broadcasters, and in turn, we the consumers will have to scrap every single TV, VCR and videotape in our collections, and replace them all with new digital models. The reward for us was supposed to be "High Definition TV," clearer, crisper, wider. Not exactly swapping black and white for color. But the reward ain't what it's cracked up to be, since that one digital channel can be used for one Hi Def program, or six, or seven normal programs--i.e., multiple revenue streams for the poor broadcasters (already bitching in the press about cable's bite into their income). Two of the networks, ABC and the distinguished Fox, are opting for a lower-def standard of Hi Def anyway, and the cable industry is threatening not to pass through the multiple digital channels, because what channels get replaced? Why, cable networks that the cable systems own. Plus, the engineers can't figure out how, with multiple channels appearing and disappearing (the networks promise Hi Def at night, but multiplexing during the day), any soul, even the best and the brightest, will ever be able to program a VCR to record any of this crap. My recommendation: buy Sony stock.

the breakfast table:
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Re: re Memorial Day

By Harry Shearer
Posted Tuesday, May 26, 1998, at 12:10 PM ET
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Arianna Huffington is a nationally syndicated columnist. Harry Shearer is host of radio's Le Show, a screenwriter, an actor, and provider of several voices on The Simpsons.
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