Let's do the math. From that fount of knowledge that is wikipedia, the US grid is about 4 thousand terawatts. That's 4*10^15 W.

So say we want over 4 times that, like 20*10^15 W to give 4 times the power of the US grid.

Power is energy divided by time. 1 femtosecond is 10^(-15) sec.
Let energy in joules be E, power in watts be P and time in seconds be T, then
      E = P*T
So the energy of power 20*10^15 W times times time 10^(-15) is just 20 Joules.

Say it takes 1 sec to pump the laser, that's an average power of 20W. Of course the laser pumping
isn't 100% efficient, and 1 sec might not be the exact right time, it's still feasible. It's only the equivalent
energy of having the light bulb lit for a few seconds.

As if network television even has news.

And there are plenty of news sources that are not the interweb:
- your friends and cow-orkers
- radio
- newspaper

If they haven't gotten the news about the digital TV transition, how important can the news possibly be to these people? Turning off the signal is the only way to get them to notice. And if they still don't notice after that, why would they care? It's not like they are trying to watch TV.