You can't blame the incoming Obama administration for trying to head off a DTV transition fiasco in February. The last thing the new president wants is millions of Americans squawking that the new Islamo-Socialist government is taking away their TV. What's next, they'll wonder. Their guns?

So, I guess you can't blame the Obama transition team for inviting TV industry lobbyists to its Washington offices last Friday to press them for more help in managing the anticipated flood of complaints and questions in the wake of the Feb. 17 cut off.

But it is presumptuous, isn't it? After all, as even Obama acknowledged at his first post-election press conference, he is not yet the president and he has not yet placed his people at the executive branch agencies and departments, let alone the independent agencies like the FCC.

And from what we can gather, one-time cable and cell phone lobbyist Tom Wheeler, who chaired the meeting, was a bit heavy handed, making it clear that he wanted money from the broadcasters and the cable operators for call centers.

Anticipating objections, Wheeler reportedly argued that broadcasters can't refuse because they use billions of "free" spectrum and cable operators can't because they are picking up new subs as consumers give up on their antennas.

Perhaps Wheeler hasn't been paying attention to what broadcasters and cable operators have done. They have given over countless hours of air time for PSAs and other DTV educational efforts — time whose value must run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Recognizing that a smooth transition is in its own self interest, the NAB has also poured several million dollars into its DTV awareness efforts, including a five-person DTV office, a four-person "road show" that has logged 95,000 road miles carrying the DTV message to community events across the country and a speakers' bureau that can deliver a DTV expert to any Rotary or Lions Club meeting on short notice.

But it appears that the Obama folks have already concluded that all that isn't enough. No recitation of broadcasters' in-kind and cash contributions to the cause to date is likely to change that.

So, broadcasters need to dig deep into their reserve fund to come up with extra cash to fund calls centers or whatever else the Obama people believe is needed.

It will help in the transition and it will buy badly needed goodwill with the administration and the next FCC chairman in the coming policy battles.

With retransmission consent reform on the 2009 agenda, I don't think broadcasters want to be outspent here by cable.

Broadcasters have a reputation among Washington Democrats of being takers. They take spectrum and they take other government benefits like must carry, but they give little back. It's a grossly unfair perception, but it's there and it's deeply ingrained.

Stepping up with more cash for the DTV transition could be part of a broader campaign to scrub broadcasters' image among the people who matter for at least the next four years.

The NAB has accumulated a large reserve fund, piling up the big profits of its spring convention year after year. Using several million to ease the DTV transition and to win favor with Obama administration makes sense.

Given the current state of the economy, I can think of no better investment.

P.S. A discouraging aspect of this matter is the secrecy surrounding it. Nobody from the administration would talk about the meeting, and the industry sources that did were fearful of being identified.

Every administration comes in promising, to one degree or another, openness in its dealings as a guarantee of good, honest government. Inevitably, the press and the public are disappointed. Government's natural inclination is to try to do everything it can out of public view. That's why we have journalism.

But, come on. DTV? This is not a matter of national security. Why can't the Obama team talk candidly about its meeting with the TV reps? Maybe Wheeler and company are embarrassed. Presumption and heavy-handedness, after all, are not attractive qualities.

Harry A. Jessell is editor of TVNewsday. You may contact him at 973-701-1067 or at hajessell@tvnewsday.com.