VIEWPOIN7 S
EOlTORIAtS OPINIONS. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Arms good for hugging
but some have to fight
■ OUR OPINION U S
military rnemb#*s should
know the job description
before fO*nmg service
When Johnny awnw
marching home again, hur
rah. hurrah
Sadly. Johnny doesn't
always tome home.
Men and women who
decide to Join the U.S. mili
tary (all In rank with one of
the best trained and
equipped military forcer th
the world
In exchange for two or
more year* of your life. Sam
will send you to some form
of bask: (raining or officer
school, give you a stylish
haircut and some cool uni
forms, put you on a great
Iibysical workout schedule,
louse and feed you, pay for
your medical and dental
needs, provide you with
leadership skills, and pay
you while you're doing all
of the above
In addition, most military
members have the option of
signing a contract that guar
anions them some money (or
college Service member*
usually get the chance to
travel and most likely got to
see some sort of adventure
Oh, and by the way, the
U.S may send you to your
bloody death
While the many benefits of
military' service make volun
teering an attractive career
move for thousands of young
people e*«:h year, it seems
manv of them are unaware of
the price they may one day
he called ii|»nn to pay
It is quite possible that
thousands of military mem*
hers sign on the dotted line
without ever really thinking
about what they afe < ommt!
ting themselves to
The lad is, military life
CM be exciting and reward
ing, but St can also get you
killed
The military exists to pro
tact our nation and to aid
our international neighbors
when they are in trouble
I .ike it of not. the US t» the
single remaining superuow
of and ha* linen given trie [fib
of lining the big strong polic e
officer, more by default than
for any other mason
When i! come* time «o
pat L up the troop* and send
them into battle. CNN and
the rest of the media are
always there to broadcast
and document the emotion
al goodbye hugs and tear*
between military members
and their loved one* TV
crew* always seem to catch
that one soldier who bawls,
"I never thought I’d ac tually
have to go to war."
We saw theif tear* and felt
their pain during the Gull
War when reserve and guard
force*, traditionally resigned
to the mission of responding
to natural disasters or large
scale international hostili*
ties, were tallied Into active
duty by George Hush
We are sewing the same
kind of hardship stories
now - families separated by
fear and thousands of mile*
- as our men and women in
uniform go to that hopeitt**
mess in Bosnia
But they go willingly
They don't have a choice.
To their credit. American
military members have a
tough job to do. and they do
it better than most
We need to Mipporl our
service member* All that
society need* in return is
the assurance that military
people understand the risks
Involved with the career
they have chosen.
War should not lie roman
tic i ml And warriors should
not kid themselves into
thinking their military bene
fits will always outweigh the
ultimate sacrifice they might
one day have to make
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TV news serves itself, not public interest
Turn on any TV new* program today, and
you will hear about trudge* defied*.
Medicaid cot* and welfare reform What
vou will no* hear about la a $100 billion
corporate giveaway (ongres* t« about to enact
You will no* hear about it because the corporate
recipient* are the television broadcasters tWm*
wive*
Under the (xanmumtalmn* Ac* of ttt.14. the
federal t ciimminN alums liommiMunn (FtXT) was
given the authority to dec id* who get* to broad
c**t ova* the electromagnet!. spectrum and for
what purpose* Only a limited portion of the
spectrum i* utable tor broadcasting, and «o every
Iwued<aster mu*t get a license from the FCC that
M*" ihe* where when, what and how they may
broad***!
In the tOMtis. digital tec hnoiugv made High
Definition Television (HDTV) possible HDTV'
can pro*id# a television picture appro*# lung
l'w him in quality with compac t disc quality
audio
In Itt'D the ft X set aside an HiortiMNu puriitm
of (lie public spectrum fur each currant licensee
The idea wa* that each hrua.lt aster would con
\«ui to HDTV in the new portion of tin* spectrum
and then diw ontinue using tile old portion The
K2C could llien malic* ale the old portion fee
caber use* Two iwrct developments have .-ft,- .
tiraly eliminated the original n,lent
The first development t* social
Survey aflet survey indicate* (hat the viewing
public is nu* interested m HOTV at thi* time
While everyone like* the idea of receiving a hot
ter picture with CD-quality sound, few are will
ing to pay $2,000 plus to buy a low-end televi
sion that um display the unproved picture
HOTV* * appeal drop* even mure when people
find out that they will have lo buy a converter
ho* for their evicting televisions if they want to
receive any picture at all The converter won't let
you we a HDTV quality picture on your current
television; it will only let you see HDTV brood
cast* at the same quality you are now getting
The second development is technologies!
Video technologies have prugreswd far
heyond what the PCC*. expo, ted- Digital compre*
sion now make* it possible lo broadcast six or
seven tunes the information in the same hand
width This means that sis or seven channels
can now be broadcast in the same band width
that used to be needed lot only one- These addi
tional channels can he used to carry multiple
television broadcast* but they can also be used
!>» ‘ c'liucjr plume data tioiixmixsiun »nd paging
systems a* well
The broadcasters responded quickly by spend
mg million* lo lobby Congress and the FCC, con
v iruing both to accept the concept of "spec trum
flexibility What this boil* down to is that the
broad* asters want the free use of the new par
lion of the spectrum but with no limitation* or
requirements as to what they can do with It.
Thu broadcasters offer no guarantees of imple
menting any form of television broadcasting, let
alone HDTV, using this new
portion of the * peri rum They
offer nothing in return No foe*.
no public wrvic* programming,
nothing!
They don't (ran want to be
required. an the)- now are. to
. " —- operate in me own immwi oi
UVJ the public a* ihe Coramumu
(ion* Acfl of 1934 demand*
In the |us! few year*, the
FOC he* auctioned off use of
small portions of the public sped rum to private
companies that operate cellular phone and pag
ing system* Using the values established by
those auctions, the portion of the public spec
tmm that current broadcasters want for free u.
w<*rth up to $100 billion. Not only do they want
the licenses for free, they want distribution of
the licenses limited to only current broadcaster*
Don't take my word for any of this, look at the
legislation that i* about to he passed Section 20?
of Senate bill S (452, the "Telecommunication*
C ompettnon and Deregulation Act of !«<>'•
give* the FCC discretion to give the new spec
trum only to existing broadcaster* If the FIX
doe* give the new spectrum to them, it has to
allow the use of "ancillary and supplementary
*ervua»" {cellular phone, paging and data trail'
mission services)
House bill H R 1555. the "Communication*
Act of 1095," Section 301 compels the FtX to
give the extra spectrum to the current broadcast
The impact of these two bills is far too com
pie* to examine in much detail in this column,
but some of the other major implication* are
• Access to the public bruadcasting spectrum
will continue to lie limited to a few enormous
corporations
• No requirements lot public access, program
ming diversity, improved programming or any
other use are being required in return for using
the extra spectrum.
• Television broadcasters will be free to go
into the cellular phone, data transmission and
paging businesa using the extra spectrum with
little or no return to the government.
• Affordable HDTV will probably be **>l back
decades
One more thing has been lost in these political
maneuvers — the last vestige of integrity in
broadcast journalism
The complete failure by television news to
cover this story clearly shows that what they
mean by thepuhhi has a right to know i* that
the public has a right to know only what they,
the broadcasters, wool the public to know
Dim Haiti a senior majoring m journalist
columnist for the Fmerald