Is It Better TV or a Clearer Wasteland?

By Nicholas Johnson

**Viewpoints, Newsday, May 28, 1997, p. A35**

REMEMBER THE movie "Network"? The Howard Beale character advises TV viewers, angry about corporate abuses in general and television in particular, to open their windows and shout, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore."

Shouting out the window may be more effective than apathy in a democratic society, but not by much. It hasn't been enough to bring Congress and the Federal Communications Commission around.

As you probably heard, these public representatives of ours have just given away to the broadcasters, for free, $50 billion worth of our frequencies.

For what? Initially for something called "high definition television," or HDTV. Now it's "digital TV." If we get it, what do we get? A clearer TV picture; maybe a much bigger screen. Great! We can look into the pores on the faces of guests on afternoon talk shows, or see the foam in the beer commercials more distinctly. "Big bother is watching you."

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Is this the "better TV" we've been demanding for 30 years? Scarcely. It's just a bigger, clearer look at the same old nothing.

Moreover, we may not even get that. The cable companies, convinced that we're all really happy with VCR-quality images, are planning on degrading the picture quality, not improving it, with something called "compression." Broadcasters may use their windfall frequencies for multiple old TV channels (not one HDTV), and offer over-the-air paging, video game and Internet services.

These greedy guys have just pulled off a heist of public property that makes the 1920s Teapot Dome oil scandal look like a modest dip into petty cash. But the law still says the broadcasters, who use public property, are licensed to serve "the public interest." So what are the odds the FCC will enforce the law, and get us something back for our $50 billion -- free time for political candidates? Quality children's programs, perhaps? No, the odds are not great. After all, the FCC has been called "the leaning tower of Jello."

The set manufacturers are equally happy. How do you sell TV sets in a country that already has two or three in every house? You go to Washington, ask the government to get on your back, pass a law making all existing TV sets obsolete, raise the price of new sets from $250 to $2,500 and invest in wheelbarrows to carry money to the bank.

Mad as hell? You'll have to do more than shout. Here are some suggestions to battle the TV industry.

Don't buy. Distinguish between what you need and what some advertiser is trying to make you want. Old TVs will work just fine for a few more years. Consider your video options: cable, satellite services, video rentals and the remaining "free" over-the-air stations. Don't like the local cable company? Cancel the service, or cut it back to "basic." Use the Internet.
It may be the best TV is none at all. Considerable evidence suggests that's true for kids under age eight. Plan your TV watching like you would your theater attendance. Ration kids' viewing. Consider the alternatives to "mediated experiences" (TV, Internet, music CDs). We used to call them "life." It's nice outdoors these days. Check it out.
The best gift teachers and parents can give children is the skills package to evaluate TV commercials and programs: "media literacy." The how and why of the lies and manipulation. The meaning of "lowest common denominator." The impact on quality of an industry whose product is the audience, and whose consumer is the advertiser -- buying the audience at a "cost-per-thousand." Show them how to make their own access-channel video.
Congress and the FCC may seem hopeless, but each is worth a 32-cent stamp or e-mail. Representatives like to be re-elected. You can participate as a party in FCC proceedings that are publicly announced. Organize your friends, build a coalition of local groups, and call on your local station manager. He or she may listen. If not, there are always picket lines, street theater and organized boycotts of the station's major advertisers.

After all, consumers contribute two-thirds of the gross domestic product. Our economic power ought to count for something.

The technology is changing. The flood of campaign contributions in our nation's capital erodes the political landscape, too. But if you're "mad as hell" you don't have to "take it anymore."

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* Nicholas Johnson, former FCC commissioner and author of "How to Talk Back to Your Television Set," teaches at the Iowa College of Law in Iowa City.

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