Why is HDnet excluded from the High Definition lineup of a major cable operation? HD net practically defined HD TV from its inception. Thier tag line is: "The Reason HDTV Was Invented" which is not too far off from the truth since HDnet for years was the the best of a very few channels with 1080 content out there.

HDnet was everywhere on HD cable channel lineups for years. What Changed?

Note, you do not need an HD screen to see HDnet, only an HD capable subscriber set-top cable box and HD in your subscription service. The HD cable box and your TV will scale  HD channels to fit on your screen. The picture from an HD source is always far better than any other. Millions of Flat Panel wide-screen TVs are sold and HDnet is built for that. ALL wide screens from 1024 "HD-ready" to full 1080p are able to see it with no sidebar pillarbox. So if anything has changed, it is that there are MILLIONS MORE HD TV's now than ever before, and MILLIONS more properly subscribed HD enabled Set Top Boxes (STBs) out there. The change is that HDnet should be in more enabled households and in greater demand. There is no lessening of the market going on in the HD world. Removal of HDnet runs fully against the prevailing market forces. It makes no sense to pull HDnet from any financial or provisioning standpoint. This obvious fact is a clue that other larger than market forces could be in play here.

HDnet is Independant.

HDnet is uncontrollable by greater powers. This is important to absorb, since it impacts your access to information flow. All other large news networks are held by larger holding companies that are influenced by larger corporate goals, if they do not like whats there, it is gone. Even the once fiercely rigrous BBC is now caving in to such forces. The result is a watered down or re-written broadcast spin on reality.  At the HQ of HDnet the buck stops at Mark Cuban's desk. This guy is fearless. Nobody owns him.

WWW.HD.NET

Headed by the logical and pragmatic, sometimes overheated entrepreneur Mark Cuban, self-made billionaire and owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Outspoken, very Yankee and solid in his assessments and convictions, he thinks most things through carefully and expresses them openly. In Short, he is one of us, with a lot more clout, and seemingly endless energy. And, along with a brilliant production team, a new show, and Dan Rather, HDnet started speaking out in an unavoidably big way last year, around the same time that HDnet started getting dropped on Comcast. This was a step more forward than film making or random specials. These are Full Production news shows with a respected anchor.

It would seem that Dan Rather and Mark Cuban are the good guys in all this, are they causing HDnet to be punished for speaking out? This is not an accusation, but it is a question that now must be answered. see- http://www.hd.net/nocarry_comcast.html

The furor around the web over the dropping of HDnet grew dramatically at the point of the Dan Rather launch time and was easy to find in researching this article, and now stories like :

 The Trouble with Touch Screens - An investigation into the voting machine industry that reveals problems with the latest touch screen technology.  

Important stuff.. NOT available on Comcast cable, (Hdnet is kind enough to provide it in google video.)

We would like to propose to you, our readers, that Comcast and the FCC be informed of our loss in not having HDnet access, and in a larger sense, exposure to well prepared reporting. Even more so, exclusions should be carefully studied and corrected when so many people are upset with the on-going embargo of HDnet.

Add yourself to the petition here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/comcast1/

When you see a High Definition video of what is really going on in IRAQ for example, a far more complete picture in far greater detail is available. Mark Cuban has applied his resources to several well crafted documentary pieces on issues that needed attention, and cable networks until recently carried it all. We have reviewed (today Sept 9, 2007) several of the pieces we could access and in our opinion, restraint on the part of HDnet is in evidence, they have been very careful and sensitive to wording and expression of the facts, as opposed to talk show hosts and bloggers that have been inflamatory. Even more imprtantly, the quality of information available to the world is hampered when such worthy reporting is constrained. Its just un-american to have this situation persist, and it sort of feels like Big Brother just came to the house and grabbed the remote. 

Call your Local Comcast office and let them know you are NOT A PUPPET or an RGU, but a customer with a problem in having no possible access to HDnet. The HDnet people are us.

footnote:

1 We are told thet DIRECT TV and Verizon FIOS carry HDnet. Further research indicates that almost all other carriers offer HDnet in some form.

2 Opposing viewpoints are welcomed. Sign-up and voice yourself.

3. For Dan Rather.. and informal survey amongst noted editors and HDTV owners (NYC/New England) is overwhemingly in support of your current reporting quality and practices. This has everything to do with reality style reporting of HDNet and the upcoming elections. Many people are indignant that your reports are not universally available to digital cable subscribers. ( IMHO; access to Dan Rather might well be a basic american right in principle, trusted icons are hard to find. )

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