>>not to take anything away from George, but you should check your details, and I would suggest doing so in the definitive and VERY detailed book on the history of HDTV by highly regarded and Pulitzer prize winning author/journalist Joel Brinkley (one of David Brinkley's sons) - "Defining Vision".
Too much complexity to go into at this point, but Gore battled for government funding of research on HDTV in general (not analog vs. digital). Mr. Gilder was not mentioned in this otherwise Balzakianly referenced tome. It would be interesting to hear from George his participation in this process.
I would not Joel Brinkley all too seriously, he has been a reliable shill for the Dems, something his father did not share given his long perspective, especially regarding the current administration.
The battle was well documented at the time in the pages of the Wall Street Journal and the Democrats did try to get the government to fund a huge effort to "catch up" with the Japanese in analog HDTV, arguing that was the future which we could not cede to the Japanese. Enlightened others, including George Gilder I believe, testified to make their plans abortive, arguing that digital was the future. Thanks to men like him, the US missed that particular train wreck.
The whole effort by the Dems was part of their scheme to create in the US an industrial policy like the state capitalists, ie. Japan and Europe. As events have proved out, that model has failed miserably for everyone but the political class and their bureaucracies. Heck, they win when they get more power, every failure but a clarion call for more intervention.
The problem with Joel Brinkley is that he's all too political an historian. Too bad, Columbia used to have one of the finest history departments extant. Oh well, Northwestern has Gary Wills to live down.
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