Mosbacher Quashed on HDTV: Commerce Secretary Robert...

Mosbacher Quashed on HDTV: Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher won’t concentrate on promoting a high-definition television industry in the United States after being reprimanded by the White House, a congressional source said. “Mosbacher in their eyes is a renegade promoting industrial policy, and they thought it was absolutely necessary to reprimand him,” said the source, who requested anonymity. As a result, the Commerce Department will consider HDTV only as part of a broad-based effort to boost U.S. technological competitiveness, an Administration source said. Mosbacher has said he was prepared to recommend that the Bush Administration loosen tax and antitrust laws to jump-start private U.S. industry efforts to compete with Europe and Japan to build HDTV, which promises motion-picture clarity and compact disc-quality sound.