The “Truth” Behind US HDTV Converter Boxes
As US TV stations switch over to digital signal, the government is subsidizing the purchase of converter boxes so that older TVs can still receive television. There are a lot of places on the internet where this has been met with a bit of skepticisim as conspiriacy theorists wonder what the purpose of these boxes really is. (Aside from maintaining the ability for impoverished Americans to get some form of information via television.)
Well, the truth came to light recently in a shocking video posted to YouTube:
Actually, according to Wired and the gentleman who posted the video, it is all a simple hoax.
Last week Chronister’s video was promoted on the conspiracy-friendly Alex Jones radio show, and as of Monday the clip has chalked up almost 200,000 views and over 850 comments, many skeptical, but an equal number expressing alarm. “This is nuts! I had an odd feeling when the government planned to pay for everyone [to] get one of these,” wrote one viewer. “Yup, that’s a camera, and a mic. Holy shit. I am taking my DVR apart tonight,” added another.
In an interview with Threat Level, Chronister admits the whole thing was a hoax, concocted in about five minutes with a hot glue gun and parts from an old cell phone. The reaction surprised even him.
“I was listening to the Alex Jones show … and I heard him mention the video,” Chronister says. “I just about fell out of the shower.”
Chronister says the video is partially true: A friend really did share the rumor about hidden camera in the DTV converters. “I originally opened up the device with the intention of proving him wrong,” says Chronister. “At which point the thought popped in my head, wouldn’t it be funny if I proved him right instead?”
Still, debate can be found on various parts of the internet and the hoax seems to have taken on a life of its own. (Even as recent as a few minutes ago, comments stream into the video’s YouTube site amazed that the government is doing this.)
Me? I love a good hoax, esecially when they gain a secondary life and expecially when they exploit a segement of the internet’s perverse fear of technology. Are hoaxes like this a twisted reaction to western society’s increasing comfort with surveilence culture? Have we bought into the Participatory Panopticon to the extent that if this had been real, it wouldn’t have been much of a surprise?
I’m tempted to suggest a homework assignment where we invite you upload your own video showing a hidden camera discovered in an everyday object.
Extra points if it’s a biological object.
Any takers?
yes, the government wants to watch the 90 year old people who had to get the converter boxes because their TV is so out of date… exciting stuff to see there
Please everyone, don’t do the homework assignment. There’s enough false information on the internet already, enough hoaxes and urban legends being believed by the gullible and spammed to our mailboxes. We really don’t need to make the human race even less aware of reality than it already is.
@Alys I was thinking more in the vein of absurdest humor – the visual stuck in my head is of a big ball style webcam in a McDonald’s Double quarter Pounder, USB cord stretching out of the wrapper. Something that plays for laughs but also illustrates the ubiquity of surveillance culture.
But I have a high absurdity threshold this week.
I feel that 1) the people gullible enough to believe this without looking deserve to be paranoid and mocked and 2) the people who are worried about being watched while they veg out in front of the television are not a threat and not actually worth watching. It’s just another way for people to feel important when they’re not actually doing anything.
I’m more worried about street cameras, and using balloons to block them. I feel the best retaliations against survelliance culture won’t even be noticed until after the fact: like a good riddle or slight-of-hand.
Lol. Second blog post today that mentioned this whole conspiracy theory regarding the DTV boxes. I find it funny how so many people became paranoid.
I think if we, as grinders, grinder fans, and grinder empathics, should do a homework assignment we should create a positive hoax. A hoax that lives virally and spreads the notion that “look what you can do to save the world.”
Just to see it get completely ignored.