When did watching television become a right?  Friday, the FCC received over 300,000 calls from people in the United States that “suddenly” lost the ability to see their favorite shows.  The FCC reported that approximately 30% of those calls were about converter boxes that wouldn’t work, so those people get a pass, but why did the other 200,000 people not know about this switch to digital?  How many hundreds of commercials and news stories do you have to watch to realize you may not be able to see Jerry Springer interview midget transvestite swingers after June 12? 

I have two problems with this situation.  1.  We have far too many citizens that have become unthinking drones unable to decide for themselves what to do and consequently rely on the government to take care of them.  2.  Why are tax dollars paying for converter boxes?

I have read the Constitution of the United States of America a few times.  I don’t remember seeing an article that says the government will take care of all your needs and make sure you can watch the State sponsored news put forward by ABC, NBC, and CBS.  It never ceases to amaze me how Americans can sit around and wait for scraps to be thrown to them by elected officials instead of relying on their own potential and hard work to get ahead.  There are citizens incapable of taking care of themselves, and the government, families, church and community groups need to step up and help them.  However, “I want my MTV” is not a cry for help that the government needs to answer. 

My second issue concerns the government (meaning taxpayer funded) coupons for $40 to go buy a converter box.  We should not be in the business of providing luxuries, like television.  According to the FCC, almost 31 million coupons have been redeemed.  $40 doesn’t sound like much, but let me do the math for you.  $1,236,559,890 for converters.  That is an outrageous use of taxpayer money.  The bad news is, there are another 29 million coupons out there floating around that could be utilized.  $2.5 BILLION to watch television.  What a waste of money.  I was looking at the FCC website and those bureaucrats are patting themselves on the back for this tremendous success.  I see it as an incredible waste of our tax dollars.  Here is a picture of the $2.5 billion converter:

Here is the link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/29/protecting-black-panthers/

I had seen the story before, but what raised my interest and generated my desire to write this blog was the website that John got the story from.  The Washington Times.  I had seen the story on Fox News, but I didn’t recall seeing it anywhere else.  That got me thinking, Where do you go to be well informed about the happenings around the Country?

Everyone that knows me knows I dislike and distrust the media.  I believe that a free press is a cornerstone of our liberty.  Without investigative reporting, officials may be tempted to trample the rights of citizens without consequences.  We are governed because we allow ourselves to be.  The free press is suppose to be one of the checks and balances in our system of government. 

Unfortunately, our current media outlets filter news stories and information to shape public opinion and society norms.  The vast majority of media outlets have become agents of ideology rather than purveyors of facts.  They claim to “report news” when they in fact produce “editorial comment”.

Back to the story John sent me…I did some searching of news sites.  Guess what?  No network news site, not ABC, NBC, CBS, nor CNN, MSNBC, or my local fish wrapper, The Miami Herald, have word one on the Justice Department dropping charges in this voter intimidation case.  You can read the article and ask yourself, why don’t I know about this?

Isn’t the Justice Department supposed to protect the rights of the citizenry by enforcing laws against intimidation of voters?  And when a socialist President has his representative (the Attorney General) drop charges in a case like this, who do we rely on to bring this outrage to the people?  An unbiased and free press.  We don’t have that anymore.  So what is a person of conscious to do?  Maybe start blogging…maybe make it easier for people to get all sides of a story or even know that there is a story, as in this case.

There is a place that is developing into a storehouse for information, YouTube.  Now when I see a story, the first thing I do is look on YouTube for information.  I looked at YouTube and found many videos on this story.  There are almost 2 million views of the various videos.  So the “mainstream media” can bury their heads in the sand, be an agent of the government’s current ideology, and pretend things don’t exist or only report stories that fit their political ideals.  Thankfully, there are people in this Country willing to stand up and report the good and bad.  That is the only way that the government will continue to work for us, rather than the other way around.

In case you want to see the video of voter intimidation, here it is, but remember that as far as the U.S. Government is concerned, this is fine:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neGbKHyGuHU