On November 9, there was a test of the emergency broadcast system. Not just one of those annoying little local tests where the TV screen is taken over and all you receive is a test pattern. Not one of those eardrumdestroying radio tests with the high-pitched whistle, followed by the calm voice, “This is a test. It is only a test…”
No, on November 9, for the first time ever, there was to be a nationwide emergency broadcast, with calming words from the president. Apparently, it was a flop.
According to ABC News, the test, planned by the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Communications Commission, was not effective. I must have been away from television and radio so I missed the whole thing. But apparently, there were millions of people who didn’t receive the test emergency message.
ABC reports that people in Los Angeles, California had an emergency broadcast symbol, but no audio or further information. Washington, D.C. had two minutes of dead air time. But most interesting, in Birmingham, Alabama, television viewers with DirecTV reported seeing Lady Gaga.
This may make some citizens nervous, but I am very glad. I don’t like the idea of the president of the United States taking over the airwaves. I don’t care who the president is, what his or her political affiliation is. I don’t want the leader of the country controlling what is broadcast to the entire nation.
I remember all too well the story of Big Brother watching every move of citizens of Oceania in George Orwell’s 1984. The novel was required reading—I think it was in Margaret Rasmussen’s class— but I’m glad that I read it. It’s an interesting, albeit frightening, glimpse of what could be.
The November 9 nationwide broadcast of the president’s face is hauntingly like the telescreen receiver/transmitter that is omnipresent in 1984. The Department of Homeland Security is an Orwelliansounding name, if you think about it.
We seem to be heading toward that “future.” We are giving up our freedoms voluntarily in the name of convenience. We have GPS tracking devices in our cars and our phones so we can find our way. We are micro-chipping our pets—how long will it be before we’re doing it to our children? We have cars that park themselves. We get most of our news from media conglomerates with hints of 1984 newspeak.
I remember the first computer class I ever took, when our family was living in California. The instructor gave me chills when he talked about how computers were connected— and would eventually be connected. Even back in that era of DOS operating systems, he knew that we would eventually all be linked. And, he said, if we can send out data—data can be received. The televisions and computers that we look at—could also be looking at us, ala 1984.
So I’m not terribly disturbed that this attempt to have government control over all radio and television broadcasts failed. I know that the Department of Homeland Security and the FCC will keep trying. They may eventually get the bugs out and create an efficient emergency alert system.
But if they do, I won’t tune in. I don’t want Big Brother watching me.
Predicting the future is easy. It’s trying to figure out what’s going on now that’s hard.
Fritz R. S. Dressler
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