Dish, Fox News Feud Again Illustrates How The Cable TV Industry Is Digging Its Own Grave

from the burning-your-own-house-down dept

If you have cable you’ve probably been exposed to one of the increasingly ugly retransmission fee disputes occurring between cable operators and broadcasters. They usually go something like this: as the two sides fail to hammer out new programming contracts, programmers pull their content from your cable lineup. Both sides then use media campaigns, on screen tickers, and websites all trying to convince you that the other guy is a nefarious, greedy villain. Frequently lost in the festivities is the fact that consumers get to pay the same amount of money for cable, even though they’re suddenly able to watch less content.

After a month or so of consumers being used as public relations pinatas the disputes end, confidential new contracts are signed, and the consumer is forgotten until they’re socked with a new, higher cable bill down the road. While it’s true broadcasters are responsible for the majority of programming increases, neither side is blameless, and both parties look for every opportunity to gouge their customers, making this a scenario where you truly wish both sides could lose.

The latest example of this dysfunction is the ongoing feud between Dish Network and Fox News, which resulted in Dish customers losing access to both Fox News Channel and Fox Business Channel roughly a week ago. As with other fights, both sides have loud websites trying to harness consumer outrage toward the other side. Also like similar fights, users get to keep paying the same amount of money despite getting less content. Unlike other fights where consumers may not actually miss what’s been taken away (as we saw with the DirecTV, Weather Channel fight), Fox News viewers really love their daily smorgasbord of “fair and balanced” dance numbers, and have been driving a significant amount of annoyance Dish’s direction:

“Since Dish dropped Fox News, Dish has focused on shifting blame instead of getting Fox News back on the air. But the facts speak for themselves ? Dish has blocked more than 10 channels in the last six months alone,? said the network statement. ?We continue to work on resolving this situation, but until Dish is responsive, we are unable to update you on when Fox News will be available.”

Consequently, Fox?s fan base has besieged Dish with calls and emails since the channel went dark. By Fox?s tally, about 180,000 complaint calls have been registered with the toll-free line Fox established for the Dish fight. At last count, 140,000-plus emails have been sent as well.”

Since Fox News has all the leverage here (Fox News continues to drive some of the only gains in cable right now) Dish will ultimately fold, offer up something close to what Fox originally wanted, and raise its rates sometime in the new year. But it’s no victory; it’s these endless programming increases that have many smaller cable companies dropping out of the TV business to just focus on broadband. It’s of course these same rates that have customers looking increasingly to less-expensive TV options like Netflix or Amazon.

It is astonishing that the cable and broadcast industry continues to bicker over the body of a dying cash cow as its house burns down around it. It requires a very particular skill set to take an industry with some of the worst customer satisfaction ratings in the country and find a way to make the consumer experience notably worse. At this point, carriage fee disputes are akin to a beverage retailer and the White Star Line bickering over Scotch prices at the Titanic bar.

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Companies: dish, fox

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Comments on “Dish, Fox News Feud Again Illustrates How The Cable TV Industry Is Digging Its Own Grave”

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123 Comments
That One Guy (profile) says:

Intervention, not dispute

Given the ‘lost’ channels include Fox News, I can’t help but think Dish is really missing an opportunity here. They should be talking about how this is a good thing for their subscribers, how, even if they may be suffering now without their drug of choice, after a while, it gets better, and they’ll find that life is better without Fox.

‘We’re not doing this for us, we’re doing it for you, and while it may be hard to deal with now, down the line, you’ll thank us for it.’

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Intervention, not dispute

I must also concur. Although certainly none of the other networks are much better. If Dish truly wanted to serve the public interest, it would replace the former Fox “News” channel with a steady scroll of actual real live journalism — still occasionally found in the newspapers and magazines, quite often in blogs and podcasts.

Of course they would have to ease it in: the inferior minds of Fox “News” viewers would likely be unable to comprehend higher-order concepts such as “facts” and “logic”, so I would suggest dumbing it down to a 5th-grade level or so for the first six months. After that it might be feasible to slowly ease them into a world where science and reason prevail over ignorance, superstition, fear, prejudice and full-blown batshit crazy crap.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re: Intervention, not dispute

O yes, lets bash the fox watchers like they are less intelligent than the non-fox watchers.

You are just as ignorant and foolish as they are. I do not watch Fox or the Trash you watch either… guess that makes me better than you all!

Get off your (dead) high horse and stop picking on specific news broadcasters… they are all biased and slanted, you just hate the ones not slanted in your direction or sporting your favorite dogma or pseudoscience of the week.

You won’t find “facts” or “logic” in abundance anywhere and those speaking the most about having them are typically the ones most devoid of them!

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:2 Intervention, not dispute

You poor, poor, ignorant person. I don’t watch any of the pseudo-news trash on television because I recognize it for just that: trash.

And yes, watching Fox “News” does make people stupid: see, for example: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/study-watching-fox-news-actually-makes-you-less-informed-20120524

Perhaps you should turn it off before it has even more of an effect on your already-inferior mind.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:2 Intervention, not dispute

There are a good number of both psychological and sociological studies that show that Fox “News” is actually less intelligent to watch that children’s TV.

It’s not that the people sre morons; it’s that Fox News is designed to reduce your ability to think critically, and it clearly works.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:3 Intervention, not dispute

…it’s that Fox News is designed to reduce your ability to think critically, and it clearly works.

Actually, watching FoxNews makes one think even more critically. I routinely fact-check much of what is reported on that channel, leading me to learn even more about the particular subject. But, well – that’s me..

FWIW – the Fox morning show does occasionally have some fun cooking and, during the holidays, gift idea segments. 😉

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:5 Intervention, not dispute

This is the AC you replied to responding from another location.

Nope. Reading either WSJ or NYPost for accurate information on current events would be like poking my eyes out with a stick. (I have a rather jaundiced view of news media in general. Just commented re Fox as that was the topic to hand.)

nasch (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re: Intervention, not dispute

Of course they would have to ease it in: the inferior minds of Fox “News” viewers would likely be unable to comprehend higher-order concepts such as “facts” and “logic”, so I would suggest dumbing it down to a 5th-grade level or so for the first six months.

Hey, 5th-graders are smarter than you think!

Nick (profile) says:

Re: Fox News

Yeah, I understand the confusion. Fox news is the 24/7, fox-branded, news-only channel. You were probably thinking of the local fox “affiliate” in your area that is broadcast over the air for free. This channel often has a morning/evening news segment, but also has other shows like Simpsons, Family Guy, etc.

Ironically enough – despite them being free over the air – local channels charge re-broadcasters like Dish a large amount to be able to show these local channels to their subscribers. And implement strict rules on ensuring ONLY the people in the area normally covered by the over-the-air signal can get the rebroadcasted signal from the satellite.

nasch (profile) says:

Re: Re: Fox News

And implement strict rules on ensuring ONLY the people in the area normally covered by the over-the-air signal can get the rebroadcasted signal from the satellite.

We can’t have Dish paying us to deliver advertising to the wrong people, after all (though I’m guessing it’s the network that enforces that, probably local affiliates would love to be viewed by more people).

Vidiot (profile) says:

The house sinks, or the boat burns

“… the cable and broadcast industry continues to bicker over the body of a dying cash cow as its house burns down around it…”

“… carriage fee disputes are akin to a beverage retailer and the White Star Line bickering over Scotch prices at the Titanic bar.”

So many metaphors, so little time.

Have that cow buy me a Scotch before he goes. But none for Fox or Dish; for all I care, they can burn. Or drown. Or both.

Roger Strong (profile) says:

Re: The house sinks, or the boat burns

So many metaphors, so little time.

Rather than speaking ill of the dying, Karl could at least have the common decency to choose a metaphor that makes what they’re doing sound impressive.

Something like, “pounding the last nail in your own coffin while you’re on the inside.”

We wouldn’t bad for applauding.

Mike C. (profile) says:

Re: How sad...

If Dish could grow some corporate cojones and be a bit more open about pricing, they could “win” this dispute in a heartbeat. Imagine if they contacted their subscribers with this poll:

Fox Broadcasting (Fox) and Dish Networks (Dish) are in negotiation to determine the rate Dish will pay Fox per subscriber in order to carry their content. The last request Dish received from Fox was an increase of 175% over our previous contract amount. Since we cannot absorb the full cost of this increase, this means that we would have to increase all rate plans by at least $3/month. Please indicate below which option you would like to see us pursue:

1) Continue to aggresively negotiate with Fox so that we can keep the increase to a minimum
2) Agree to the increase which will mean a corresponding increase to your monthly bill
3) Investigate alternatives to Fox Broadcasting content and keep monthly bills static.
4) Drop Fox Broadcasting content entirely, do not find an alternative and reduce monthly bills by $3/month.

(yeah, yeah, I know… #4 would never happen. Be funny if it did though)

art guerrilla (profile) says:

Re: Re: How sad...

not that your prescriptions don’t make sense (if not cents) from the perspective of the current system; however, the starting premise (that ANY of these media korporations have ANY respect for the consumers AT ALL) is flawed…

we are caught in a game of rooting for ‘our’ rapacious bandits, instead of those other rapacious bandits who are engaging in internecine warfare we can hardly influence within the constraints of the system…

SWMBO and i are being amused with our dish favorite lists: while we only have a local fox for sports on our favorites lists, we have noticed a bunch of other channels which have bouncing around on our list with red shading, denoting they are not available… our list basically stays the same, but the channels flip in or out of availability/red in a seemingly random fashion…

that’s all for our benefit, richtig ? ? ?

idiot media kingpins slit their own throats and wonder where all the blood is coming from…

notreal says:

Re: loss of Fox news

Anonymous Coward is really close.

Atually, Dish agrees that Fox News deserves a raise, given ho wmuch its viewership has grown. The thing is that the Fox Corp. has other channels (FXX, etc.) and they’re trying to get more money for them as well. Dish doesn’t want to pay more for them because these channels don’t have the viewership to justify the rate increases Fox wants. You’d think that these channels would get knocked off but there are two problems with that.

1 Thoise channels are still under existing contracts, so Fox can’t pull them anyway without breadhing their contracts.

2. People may not complain too much because there aren’t tha tmany people who would miss them, so Fox hs no leverage.

Instead, what Fox did was say, “OK, you cna keep showing our not-so-populr channels, but we’re going to not let you show our channels that are really popular unless you give us the extra money (as a “surcharge”) that we want for our other channels.

Dish, meanwhile is apprenlty not looking at this as juct a super rate increase for Fox News, but rather two separate issues.

Who knows, when Fox New’s contracts on Direct, Xfinity and whoever come due, we might see the same thing happen agian.

Meanwhile, the viewers lose out in this story, “A Tale of Two Greedies”

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: loss of Fox news

Wait a sec … Fox deserves a raise? Why? What makes them special?

Fox pundits quite happily berate the underemployed, implying it is their own fault they make minimum wage and they do not need an increase. Some of these mental midgets at Fox claim that a decrease in the minimum wage could eliminate unemployment – and yes … they are serious. Sure, pay them less because the taxpayers will make up the difference.

notreal says:

Re: Re: Re: loss of Fox news

Although Fox News is a news organization, one of ther main reasons for their existence is to sell product while deliveirng the news. This is no different from other news orgainztions, or other channels for that matter. This is what the busines is all about. When Jon Stewart’s ratings rise, he asks for more money. As Katy Perry’s popularity rises, so does the cost of tickets to her concerts. That’s what makes Fox “special”.

CNN’s ratings for example, are not what they used to be; they can no longer command the kind of deals they could in the past. MSNBC has tanked so much they have very little leverage at renegotiation time.

The Simpsons is the longest running prime time show in history. Yet their ratings are not what they once were and the actors were told a season or two ago they actually had to take pay cuts or the show would not be renewed. Cartoon Network stopped buying episodes of Futurama becasue its ratings had fallen so much the network didn’t think it was worth what it cost. There are many excellent shows out there that we no longer see for that reason, and converesly that’s how come the cast of “Friends” were able to demand vastly higher salaries to come back for those last few years.

That’s the way it is. Fox News “deserves” a raise because they continue to deliver higher ratings. Apparently some of the other Fox channels don’t do as well, so they can’t ask for a lot more money. So what seems to be going on is that Fox wants more for their other less popular channels, but knows they’ll be told to take a hike; so they’re trying for a subsidy for those channels by witholding Fox News, which a larger audience does want. Essentially what they’re saying is that if you want this, you have to also pay more for that.

Happens all the time. To keep big stars happy, studios will create roles or vanity movies for them or their offspring. John Wayne did it, so did Will Smith. The buzz is that “After Earth” was made and starred Jaden Smith in order to keep Will Smith, the box ofice Goliath, happy. Clint Eastwood years ago said that to get the small jazz films made he liked to do during those years, every so often he’d give the studios a Dirty Harry movie.

Essentially, that’s what we’re seeing here. If Dish wants to keep Fox News, it’s going to have to cough up more for Fox’s other channels, even though they’re already undre contract.

Of course Dish isn’t totally blameless, witness how often programing has been pulled just this year (Turner, CBS, etc.).

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:2 loss of Fox news

Your wall-O-text does little to justify why they deserve a raise.

One could go on forever about how business as usual demands certain things, but no matter how exhausting the excuses are it lacks the rational and the justification for said action(s). “Because I can” does not cut it and neither does “Because it has always been that way”. I don’t buy it and neither do many others.

Again, high ratings do not equal high quality.

notreal says:

Re: Re: Re:3 loss of Fox news

Let me make it real simple for you.

Deliver more goods (i.e. ratings), you’re worth more.

Top salesman make more than average salesman. This is true with actors, doctors, artists, musicians, business, etc. That’s the way the free market works, which is much better than some bureaucrat who has no familiarity with the operations arbitrarily assigning a value.

As you say, high ratings do not equal high “quality” (and who defines “quality”?), but that’s irrelevant to the situation at hand. If consumers were willing to pay more for quality, among 2013 movies, “Jackass Presents” wouldn’t have made 80% more money than “12 Years a Slave”, and “Fast and Furious 6” wouldn’t have made almost 4 1/4 times as much.

Andyroo says:

Again

Why oh why do American people accept it when big business steals from them , yes it is theft even if it is legally covered and the law allows it.
you have the likes of Comcast who commit blatant fraud against their customers, and AT&T who openly lie to their customers and to the lawmakers.

Now they want to pass laws that prevent the FCC from doing what millions have asked them to do, this is not a bipartisan issue everyone wants title II but the isp’s.

When are the American people going to realise that their system of governance is corrupt and a failure and do something to stop big business from stealing from consumers with the support of their corrupt and failed political system.

Americans try to claim they are a republic and the best example of a democray, well at this moment in time i think it is obvious to anyone with a reasonable IQ that the American political system has failed and needs to be changed for the people not big business.

Just because corruption and bribery is allowed by law does not make it right and the fact that Americans are accepting it as it is is just sad , very sad.

The big political collapse is coming, this corrupt system has lasted too long and will eventually break itself when people refuse to participate in the corruption and it will not be the conservatives or democrats who resolve the problems , it will be an outside force that takes the power away from both of them.

open your eyes Americans you are allowing your country to be more corrupt than Zimbabwe.

Anonymous Coward says:

It’s somewhat astounding how blind these cable companies can be. From a technology standpoint, the day is coming that “set top boxes” and “tv watching” is going to have more in common with using the Netflix or Hulu apps to watch something on your Playstation or Xbox than it will with past models of broadcast and cable. There’s really little reason to keep the antiquated channel system when you have more advanced methods of sorting and searching content. When people don’t expect to have “channels”, but a broad range of “shows”, available on one app or another, something like carriage fees are going to be meaningless.

30 Something says:

Fox News

We watch Fox News and if Dish doesn’t get it back soon, we’ll go to whomever does have it. Not sure if you knew this but they are the highest rated cable news network in America and its not even close. My parents and grandparents basically watch it all day long! Half this country still leans right, many of which feel alienated by NBC, ABC and CBS news broadcasts. Fox created a network for us and bingo found an audience.

Rob (profile) says:

Re: Re: Fox News

Let’s see “What difference does it make?”…”If you like your health care, you can keep it”…”Trayvon Martin could have been my son”…”Mr. Brown was a good and honest person”…”There’s nothing to the IRS scandal”…”The Benghazi Attack was in response to a video”…shall I continue with “your” so-called truth?

Leit says:

Re: Re: Fox News

And every other news network lies as well, but only Fox provides a right-leaning perspective. All of the others are left-leaning, and tend to push the same condescending or even directly insulting attitude whenever addressing conservative viewpoints that I’m seeing from a lot of the commenters here.

Watching shows that misrepresent and prevaricate on issues that are important to Fox viewers is just as frustrating as it is for you. So Fox it is, until someone else in the industry works out that the left’s big weakness is a smug tendency toward seeing themselves as inevitably morally correct and everyone else as fools deserving of mockery.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re: Fox News

“And every other news network lies as well”

– Gee, that makes it ok then.

“Fox provides a right-leaning perspective. All of the others are left-leaning”

– You need to get out more often.

“left’s big weakness is a smug tendency”

– Actually, there are several more pressing issues for them and you might have been made aware of these issues had you not buried your head in the ol’ Fox Hole. Seriously, look around and you might find good journalism, what have you got to lose?

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Fox News

I have a better idea. Let’s get Fox “News” to start covering a story about how the sun is about to be eaten by a mutant star-goat, and thus it will be necessary to evacuate the planet. Now…into the A Ark will go the visionaries, scientists, artists, and into the C Ark will go the plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc….and into the B Ark will go alllll the Fox “News” viewers. Since there are so many, it will have to be enormous, of course — but it won’t be necessary to fuel it for extrasolar flight, doubly so since the primitive subhuman savages who watch Fox “News” think the Sun revolves around the earth anyway.

And then…

Mike C. (profile) says:

Re: Fox News

Do you even have a clue as to how ratings are generated? An eon ago (10+ tyears) I worked for a competitor to Nielsen but both companies generated their “ratings” the same way. They measure the viewing habits of a relatively small subset of people willing to be monitored. They then “extrapolate” (i.e. half-assed guessing) up to a local market, regional and national “rating”. That “half the country” rating could be based on as few as 10,000 households. You read that correctly… your belief that 50,000,000+ HOUSEHOLDS watch Fox News is likely based on the viewing habits of less than 10,000 people. Yeah…. totally reliable…

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Fox News

Statistics has been called many things, half-assed guessing is one of them. Although the guessing in this case is a bit more sophisticated than that of your typical bullshit artist. They attempt to get diverse samples that represent the whole of the viewing public and then perform the magic of statistical analysis whilst waving hands and muttering non sense.

Fox may have a large group of viewers, but it is no where near half the population.

jack farnsworth says:

Re: Fox News

I hope fox 4 news never stops fighting for what most americans believe in. you keep the American people informed as to what our leaders are doing or not doing. Obama has ruined our country and destroyed our constitution and what it stands for what he has done to our religious practices is total unacceptable. if we the American people do not stand up to Obama it will be to late I have a feeling the worst is yet to come.
he has left united states defenseless may god help us and maybe we can put a stop to any more damage that may be caused by Obama actions

nasch (profile) says:

Re: Re: Fox News

what he has done to our religious practices is total unacceptable.

Well that piqued my interest. Exactly how have your personal religious practices changed since Obama took office, and why? I know mine are exactly the same.

he has left united states defenseless

Really, defenseless? We don’t have any kind of effective military any more? I would ask where you get your “facts”, but you already told us.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Fox News

I too would like to read your most thorough analyses leading up to the conclusions stated. Certainly these points you have made can be substantiated in the most concrete manner possible, because they are rather damning accusations which deserve some amount of evidence. Or you could admit it is simply regurgitated GOP/Fox talking points.

Luke says:

Re: Quick Question

1.I—Changes in Services Offered. We may add, delete, rearrange and/or change any and all programming, programming packages and other Services that we offer, as well as the prices and fees related to such programming, programming packages and Services, at any time, including without limitation, during any term commitment period to which you have agreed. If a change affects you, we will notify you of such change and its effective date. In the event that we delete, rearrange or change any programming, programming packages or other Services, we have no obligation to replace or supplement such programming, programming packages or other Services. You are not entitled to any refund because of a deletion, rearrangement or change of any programming, programming packages or other Services.

DCG says:

Re: Re: Re: Quick Question

you can drop dish, and get cable or direct tv only to have the same problem when another channels contract is up. Fox calls itself the most watched CABLE news network. they are not available over the air, but ONLY on cable or satellite. fox should be paying dish to broadcast the channel instead of the other way around which only results in a $200 subscriber bill each month. dish, direct tv and all the cable cos. should inform fox they no longer wish to broadcast the channels, and unless fox pays there will be no more fox news!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous Coward says:

I’m a cord cutter. I don’t care if they box each others’ ears till all that is left is cauliflower. I am not going to pay higher rates with no benefit. I couldn’t find the value in cable prices years ago and it sure hasn’t gotten better.

⛔ I expect that if I PAY there will be no commercials on my dime.

⛔ I expect that if I PAY there is something on besides a program geared to the lowest common denominator of moron.

⛔ I expect that if I PAY that there are far, far, fewer reruns because I am financing it for that purpose.

⛔ I expect that if I PAY that there be shows and programs I am interested and looking forward to seeing.

⛔ I expect that if I PAY to get reasonable service when needed because I am paying.

Since none of those were met, I see no value in ever paying for cable tv again.

ECA (profile) says:

Remember

Remember when Broadcast was/is free??
When there were GOOD shows on broadcast..its getting really Crap now..Some reason Broadcast is turning to Cop shows, Judges, repeats of other crap..
This came from a time when CORPS had to setup their OWN broadcast system and relay stations…ALL OVER the country..
It was/is free..

Cable companies TRIED to give a better system, that could hold more stations and give a better selection in the areas..
FAIL. and Failed worse over time..

Other countries setup Satellites.. 1-2 to cover Large areas, and many countries.. For free TV service.
Insted of placing cables all over, or Thousands of Broadcast antennas and relay stations..

So Why pirate?
Watch what you want..
When you want..
Including all the OLD stuff, New Stuff, and Stuff thats not available in the USA..Stuff released FROM USA to other countries, no longer in the USA and you cant watch it..

Spaceman Spiff (profile) says:

Bad because?

“The latest example of this dysfunction is the ongoing feud between Dish Network and Fox News, which resulted in Dish customers losing access to both Fox News Channel and Fox Business Channel roughly a week ago.”

And this is bad, why? Fox is a worthless bit of junk that just fills the pockets of Rupert Murdock. I say, leave it off the air. Most Fox watchers will enjoy a sudden boost to their IQ’s…

Margaret Long says:

Fox News Blackout......

This is the first time we have ever used dish network…Words can not describe how I am feeling about your company…We have never had such a con put up on us. You lie, To me you are dirt. To drop Fox News is like a train wreck….How do you sleep at night knowing what a dirt bag you are. as soon as possible you will be forever dropped from our household..

Marbran says:

Laughing at FNC Critics

I love the many Fox News bashers on this site. It is highly likely that not a one of you has ever watched Fox News; you simply parrot what you are told. There is a reason why FNC has the highest ratings 13 years running. If you have watched FNC, and you really don’t like it, then you are a lib/prog, so it is understandable why you’d hate it. At least you tried. Everyone else – go back to your silly MSNBC/CNN crap news.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Laughing at FNC Critics

Interesting how one is labeled a Fox News basher simply because they state a few facts about Fox News.

Why is it highly likely that Fox News bashers have not actually ever watched it? Is this based upon polls or something you pulled out of your ass?

Ok, what is that reason? That fact that many people watch something does not in any way imply that said program is good, truthful, knowledgeable or worthwhile. For example, how many people watch the Kardashians? Yes, I said it … Fox News is like the Kardashians!

Anonymous Coward says:

‘carriage fee disputes are akin to a beverage retailer and the White Star Line bickering over Scotch prices at the Titanic bar’

or perhaps an industry that relies on people watching its’ media but refuses to offer them how customers want, insisting that customers dont really want the stuff like that, they want it how the industries say. the fact that their is no returning to the 60s, 70s, 80s, or even the 90s is dismissed, because losing millions of customers and dollars doesn’t mean the industries are wrong, just that the customers are in a muddle!! what fucking crap!!

Blake says:

To say fox.news watchers are stupid is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of. It just proves my point that left wing liberals are the intolerant ones. If you believe in what’s right and the truth then you are a “bigot” and whatever else liberals calls us right sided conservatives. The truth hurts and that’s why people hate fox.news. If you want to keep believing lies don’t watch fox.news. so keep on being “bigoted”

Anonymous Coward says:

Nobody actually watches MSNBC or CNN, assuming that people must watch MSNBC or CNN is one of those bizarre things Fox News fans mention alot, most liberals I know get there news from John Stewart or John Oliver(actual comedy shows) and whatever buzzfeed/salon article bounced around on facebook.

In general informed people(of either party) follow a multitude of blogs from people that have similiar views on some issues they find important, and pull from a variety of news sources and are pretty good at parsing out fact from speculation in a story and can use a combination of sites with different views to put together their view in their own head.

Pretty much all big media is drive-by media(I’m including Fox here) where they just sit on a big story and roll over it for views fact checking is optional and often means wasting time you could be getting views. The main reason I do prefer Fox over the other main stream news when I do have to watch something in a bar, is they have a much much lower tendency of looping the same 5 stories on a 15 minute loop that gives me normally just enough details to throw it on google. Meanwhile Fox normally tend to have multiple hour shows where a host will sit on 2-3 issues and give at least 15-20 minutes of wild speculation mixed with some facts. So not only do you get an hour loop instead of 15 the hosts may decide to focus on different stories or hop on different trains of speculation.

dennis teel says:

dish,fox news,,etc

I can’t believe that anyone would seriously claim that online(internet) new,especially via blogs are accurate and truthful accounts of the news and expert journalism as compared to network broadcast news as in FNC etc…to seriously claim that you actually believe the internet media over broadcast network media is proof of authentic stupidity…the internet media is less reputable than all of the network news broadcasts combined.good grief!!

T Gloc says:

Dish Fox Feud

After many years with Dishnetwork I cancelled my service as a result of the on-going feud with Fox.
Dish never once attempted to contact their customer base and offer compensation. I initiated calls, and during one call asked a “supervisor”, why they had not done so. The person stated, they had no way to do so! She sure tried back peddling when I pointed out, they somehow manage to contact customers re billing!

TG

Trou says:

Access to Online Content

If I have access to online content via internet connection from my phone, why hasn’t a company come up with television content via internet? Why do I need a provider for Internet, a provider for cable, and a provider for content? I want to bypass the middle guys, pay one fee (the internet connection) and watch whatever I want. You can only watch one program at a time anyway. I was suckered into Dish using a promotion to give me a $200 gift card if I signed up for two years. After never receiving it, I contacted the BBB and Dish called me to say it was mailed out a month ago. But what I’ve learned in this is that they’re desparate probably because someone has already figured out how to bypass them. I’d like to know how.

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