The letter was written and organized by Commercial Alert, an anti-commercialism group. The letter follows:

Dear Senator:

On October 4th, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell announced that the FCC was launching a campaign to convince the public to buy digital television sets. The campaign even has a website, at www.dtv.gov, bearing the slogan “DTV: Get It!”

Many of these new digital TV sets are extremely expensive – some cost $3,000 dollars or more – which says a lot about why consumer electronics companies such as Sony and Panasonic are “partnering” with the FCC to promote them.

Do you really believe that with all the troubles facing our nation, the federal government should be on a crusade to encourage people to buy costly new television sets?

Television is a major public health problem. It is a factor in many diseases, syndromes and unhealthy habits, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, violence, aggression, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, poor fitness and smoking.

Television is an incubator of disrespect for parents. TV ads are crafted to set children against their parents and stir dissension in the home. In addition, some political theorists, such as Robert Putnam, believe that television is in part responsible for civic decline in the United States.

Americans don't need the federal government telling them to buy new television sets, and they certainly don't need their hard-earned tax dollars spent in this manner.

We strongly urge you eliminate all funding for this campaign immediately.

Sincerely,

Nicholas Johnson, former Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission

Tim Kasser, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, Knox College; author, The High Price of Materialism

Diane E. Levin, PhD, Professor of Education, Wheelock College

Susan Linn, EdD, Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Co-founder, Stop Commercial Exploitation of Children; author, Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood

Bob McCannon, Executive Director, New Mexico Media Literacy Project

Peggy O'Mara, Editor and Publisher, Mothering Magazine

Alvin F. Poussaint, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Director, Media Center of the Judge Baker Children's Center

Jonathan Rowe, writer

Gary Ruskin, Executive Director, Commercial Alert

Juliet Schor, PhD, Professor of Sociology, Boston College; author, Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture

Victor Strasburger, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, Chief, Division of Adolescent Medicine, University of New Mexico School of Medicine; co-author, Children, Adolescents, & the Media

Frank Vespe, Executive Director, TV-Turnoff Network

Rob Williams, President, Action Coalition for Media Education