Did Obama help Sprint and hurt Verizon by pushing a DTV delay?

Washington Examiner ^

[theruleshavechanged]

A telecommunications company has confirmed for this columnist that its vice president for policy—who is also an Obama donor and a former lobbyist—is advising Barack Obama’s transition team on telecom policy.

[Edizzl79]

Not surprised with raising almost a billion in his campaign, and we thought Clinton was dirty!

[Redbob]

It’s inevitable that, as inexperienced, naive, and downright amoral as he is, Zero is going to do something stupid at some point.

And when he does, someone sitting around in his pajamas will catch him!

[livius]

Wow. This is pretty blatant.

[newheart]

This is, of course, a pack of lies. Not even possible. We all know that Obama loathes lobbyists and will have none of them in his see-through administration.

</sarcasm, just incase you couldn’t tell>

Mommy, mommy, the emperor has no clothes!

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Three of Hillary’s inner circle, including former ambassador Laura Tyson, sometimes called Hillary’s best friend, sit on the AT&T board. Clinton IS dirty. 0 is just dirtier, that’s all.

[Izzy Dunne]

And when he does, someone sitting around in his pajamas will catch him!

So what?

It's already happened.

Several times.

And not enough people care.

[Edizzl79]

Oh I know Clinton was dirty, I was on Arkancide.com all time.

[mvpel]

The comment I submitted:

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Government as usual - screw one business in order to help out another business.

What about all the television stations across the country who bought licenses on the new channels in good faith last year, and who have been spending hundreds of millions of dollars in new equipment, to prepare for what they thought was the deadline?

What about the public safety bandwidth that is to be reallocated from UHF channels 60, 61, 68 and 69? Are we going to sacrifice the communications safety of our firefighters and police just because a handful of people can’t be bothered to go to Radio Shack or buy a $115 TV at Wal*Mart?

It’s sickening to see politicians use “human shields” to cover up their pay-to-play pandering to corporate interests.

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[R_Kangel]

"Did Obama help Sprint and hurt Verizon by pushing a DTV delay?"

Answer: Who cares, as long as it sounds good to the masses, and makes you look like a champion of the people!

[djf]

All I know is I’m seeing Comcast commercials night and day trying to scare the pants off of people about whether they’re DTV ready or not.

[Ciexyz]

Hey friend, I'm retired and I have to budget my money, and I'm mad as hell that the government is making me go buy a box for my TV. (All my life the signal has been free and now the government is making me LESS free.)

Haven't bought a box yet. Am still hoping the government will permanently delay this crap and that my rabbit ears TV will work till it dies. How does that grab you, friend?

I want to turn on my TV on Feb. 18th and see at least one community access station and a weather station. If not, I'll be writing a heart-wrenching letter to President Obama, my congressman, and the newspaper.

[mvpel]

Haven't bought a box yet. Am still hoping the government will permanently delay this crap and that my rabbit ears TV will work till it dies. How does that grab you, friend?

Amortize a $40 converter box over 65 years and that's what, five cents a month? And how many televisions have your purchased over the course of your life?

Or do you still have your Philco, and are content to wait 5 minutes while its vacuum tubes warm up?

Modern TV broadcasts would STILL WORK on this unit. Analog broadcast technology is that outdated.

Were you mad as hell when the phone company switched to phones without cranks? To Touch Tone^®? When you had to buy a new radio to get FM stations?

Obama's telecom advisor may very well be pushing this delay to protect the interests of Sprint, his employer, at the expense of a competitor, Verizon. Just like when FM radio first came out:

History of FM Radio
Armstrong took his invention [FM radio] to a friend, David Sarnof, who was head of RCA and had said he would help him develop it. RCA bought into the patents and helped Armstrong develop an experimental radio station.

But, then it became evident that Sarnof and RCA were out to protect their existing AM radio empire and they didn't want the competition from a new and much better form of radio. Years of costly legal battles ensued that RCA could afford and Armstrong couldn't.

Among other things they closed down the FM station that they had helped Armstrong build.

Armstrong eventually committed suicide in despair over the financial and emotional toll caused by the knife in the back from his onetime friend.

How would it feel to have Obama use your heart-wrenching letter to line the pockets of a multi-billion dollar corporation through regulatory crushing of their competition? Would you feel like a ten-dollar hooker when it was finished?