Nefarious Plot Goes Awry, Film at 11!

Today, in case you missed it, was the first time the Emergency Alert System was tested. The test was reportedly only partially successful. Some stations carried it late, some not at all, and some people freaked out a little, even though this has been in the works for at least a few weeks.

There are those who have ascribed ill intentions to the national government for trying to "take over" all broadcast media in the country all at once. They are going to use it for good now, for evil later, doing supposedly allsortabad things with your airwaves. Okay, maybe, but you know what? This test partially failing means we needed to do this test. What, I ask you, is the point of an Emergency Alert System when some stations skip the Alerting during an actual broadcast?

Yes, Big Brother will eventually use the EAS to tell all the hicks in flyover country to turn in their guns. But before that, we are likely to never need it, sure. I actually have trouble imagining something that could merit activation of the system for real, nationwide. War? A nuclear attack? That stuff would be general knowledge before they dusted off the EAS microphone.

But hey, if we're going to have a potentially-useful system in place anyway, why not test to see if it works?