When you stay at hotels around the country, visit a bar or restaurant, find yourself in some public place where there’s a tv, you’re more than likely to see on that tv either a commercial for Dulcolax or Fox News.
The way you tell the difference is that one of these promotes the expelling of human waste and the other…hmm…let me get back to you on that.
Why is the exhibition of Fox News in public places so ubiquitous? Less than 30% of the country would describe themselves as Republicans, are there really millions more who think that the way to deal with the Republican party being repugnant is to just hide one’s membership?
Or, should one instead look to the corporations and business owners of the hotels, bars, etc. as the public purveyors of this News porn?
If one is interested in politics, it is wise to stay informed on what one’s adversaries are saying or screaming hysterically as they lean desperately on their chalkboards with tears stream down their faces. Since Fox and the Right Wing have successfully constructed a talking points pipeline, it’s actually hard to escape the piles of dead grannies, Marxist-Socialist-Muslim-Kenyan-Hitler presidents and racist black people oppressing white people.
Still, even though prolonged exposure to Fox News may be hazardous to your healthy gray cells…especially if you do as I do and keep a large wooden mallet next to your couch for smacking yourself in the head each time something especially asinine is said and agreed to by a collection of RW talking heads….it can be educational.
Today on Fox and Friends, it was once again a bone of contention and a big cause of dissatisfaction that Obama has not given every American a unicorn or at least a pretty pony. The criticisms came from every direction, Obama promised there would be no more flatulence in the world, that we’d all get super powers, he hasn’t once turned time back to get there before Lois ‘s car fell in the earthquake-caused crevice nor has he french kissed a single oil company CEO. The guy is a total failure!
I also learned that prior to January 2009, we have no idea who was president or what they did. Apparently, Al Qaeda used some kind of a Men In Black memory-wiping thingy on us, we probably had a president before Obama but in the midst of all the disasters we’ve been going through in this nation and the world, it’s probably not worth the energy to try remembering anyway. Then again, I do subscribe to the Lindsey Lohan School of Strategic Planning.
In a PPP poll in January 2010, Fox News was rated as the most trusted news network. Unfortunately, the results of an OMG poll out the following month showed that a majority found that PPP poll the least trusted results of polls that month. The following month, a BS poll showed that a majority of people don’t believe in polls and would never participate in one. The following month a FUBAR poll found that 200% of poll results are unreliable.
There’s an old saying, “History is written by the winners.” Fox News would add, “…but history is re-written by the losers.”
I had the same understanding PatsyT did: namely that FOX supplied its stream of drool for free. Exactly the way Clear Channel does on AM radio. Tough to compete with “free,” unfortunately. The low education voters have an unlimited supply of Megyn Kelly/Limbaugh anger-crack.
Now I gather that Verizon and Google have formed an unholy alliance that may have very baaaaad effects on net neutrality. One more thing the Obama administration has to deal with…
OK AdLib you are quite right. I travel a lot and stay in middling priced motels where I can get almost anything BUT MSNBC. Fox – always. Of course the place I most recently stayed had mostly Korean and Spanish language TV since it was on Olympic near MacArthur Park in LA where Latino populations cross with Korean. It was pretty funny. But – NO MSNBC at all, CNN had a huge “buzz” making it unwatchable, and I had to live with local LA news which is increasingly as lame as Sacramento’s. I think news anchors are now paid to look like, talk like, think like, and report exclusively on Lindsey Lohan. She’s either VERY busy or these stories are rerun continuously. Not sure which since I don’t listen.
My only genuine options are usually PBS, and then it depends on the time/day/place as to whether I watch a “how to paint in oils” or Frontline. If the latter, I’m golden. If the former, back to my book.
We are quietly, creepingly, insidiously being brainwashed by the presence of Fox Noise everywhere. I do have to salute Hollywood Burbank and Sacramento airports – they are pretty much still tuned to CNN and the Weather Channel. Other than that, yup, I’m bombarded with Faux Noise. I feel brain cells dying by the thousands when I’m forced into the same room against my will with that stupid, venal, suck up channel. NOT a good thing for America.
ChoiceLady,
I just sleep so much better at night
if I know that someone at FOX has their eye on that Lindsay Lohan.
Yup, and when FOX talks about their ratings (but not their black ratings), they leave out that finding MSNBC isn’t always easy.
And yes, I’ve noticed just this AdLib. Hotels, even bars, are always on FOX. I remember back in the day complaining about it in a bar where my friend was the sound guy. It was back in 2001 and he, more liberal than I, didn’t even know the insidiousness of FOX yet.
Of course, still enough of Hotel lobbies, especially when there’s a free remote lying around, are often on CNN, still.
As to the LA “news” The Soup savages them enough for me to be familiar with them.
I do like the local stations though – the Korean, Spanish, and Chinese stations.
It’s a good thing I don’t have cable TV.
Bravo Dildenusa!
I am proud to say…neither do I.
OK, I am going to get this info backed up.
But for now
FOX comes free in most all basic cable & satellite packages throughout the country.
That makes it very attractive to the commercial users.
It is all about penetration
MSNBC is only available for “premium packages”.
Even CNN is not available for all markets unless you
subscribe to the upgraded or premium packages.
Patsy, if Murdoch has his evil way, look for them to start charging in the future. I went to the “Sunday Times.u.k.” online a few weeks ago, it’s owned by Murdoch and they have started to charge for access to their news stories. We know what a greedy and ruthless bugger he is.
Gee Kalima, I hope he does charge and charge big time.
If you had to pay for that Foxaganda dribble you would think twice.
It takes away from your beer money!
It sure would. The Sunday Times used to be quite a respectable paper until the Aussie “Terminator” and his bunch of goons took over. Now I suspect every publication ending with the word “times.”
I used to click on very rarely, but deleted the site from my bookmarks when I realized they were charging.
It would be interesting to see how many fools would be prepared to pay, wouldn’t it?
I heard about that, their site traffic was slashed by 2/3. As time goes by, as long as it doesn’t rise much, the loss of ad revenue could force him to back off charging.
Wait until he starts this greedy nonsense in the U.S, who would pay and who would pay for anything written by a Murdoch owned company. Then again, how many Faux viewers use a computer, or rather use it to check facts. My last two words “check facts” just made me laugh out loud, I almost choked. 😆
I remember the LA Times tried charging for their site a few years back and it was a huge disaster.
As it is now, LAT is charging for its iPhone app, I think around $1.99, that’s fine (as long as you don’t need to buy a subscription to the service too) however the NYT offers its iPhone app for free.
The question is, can they live with online ad revenue or do they risk that to go for subscriptions? The iPhone apps can offer a little bit of both but the web access is important too.
I totally agree with your point, I would be open to paying for the NYT, McClatchy, BBC, etc, not a fortune and not a monthly subscription but an annual one.
But what idjit would pay Murdoch or Fox to be BSed? It is crazy and I hope it totally tanks for him.
I have an image of the Beckie fans crying in their beers in local bars, or tearing their hair out in front of their tv screens. It could be a theme for a new soap, “The Desperate & the Brainless.”
The un-official back up, but it still counts !
😆 😆 😆
Hey Kalima, I hope the heat is being kind to you over there for once!
I wish we could do a little experiment and replace the fox feed to those commercial establishments with something like Ed Schultz.
Could we expect any changes at the voting booth?
Hey there yourself Patsy, unfortunately it’s still a furnace over here.
I just wish that Faux would implode, full stop. There are some really dozy sounding announcers there, I’m sure they wouldn’t be missed.
*
I did come out…of L.A. and while connecting on a flight through the nauseatingly named, George Bush Airport in Houston, I came upon a Fox News store in the terminal! Two plasma screens blaring Fox propaganda, one in each display window, and books and shirts and more inside. Plenty of people inside. I didn’t go in out of concern that I would set of alarms and miss my flight.
And this was after having to see Fox News in the breakfast area of the hotel I was staying at.
BTW, sorry to all for not being around much over the last week, had a trip right after NN, finally back home for a while!
Talking about Faux news, there was this. It wasn’t so much that she made the mistake and apologized, it was the comments underneath that made me feel quite sick. Please tell me that these comments are mainly from ignorant school kids. Yahoo comments are comprised of many comments in this vein these days, who in their right minds would want to join in?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100804/pl_yblog_upshot/fox-host-apologizes-for-shirley-sherrod-maxine-waters-mixup
It’s best not to bother reading comments on a news story at Yahoo, for whatever reason, because it’s simple I suppose, it is the home of the most moronic, juvenile baggers and repub trolls. Openly racist, sexist freaks for the most part, a total wasteland and not worth any response.
I don’t usually bother to look at the comments, but the story in the link was on my Home Page there, so I just checked out of curiosity, and then wished that I hadn’t. Vile.
Yes, AdLib, I tried Yahoo for a month or two, before HP.
I have horror stories.
And, I’m not kidding, it was LITERALLY making me ill.
NO. JOKE.
I laugh at anyone complaining about trolls at HP. They ain’t nothin’. I’ve dealt with FAR worse.
I don’t touch it anymore. Whenever I see a mosque story, or Prop 8 buzzed up, as today, I don’t need to make myself sick by going in there.