Take Fox "News" off basic cable

[Joanne98]

A few years ago, on the Al Franken radio show, a guest suggested that there was a way for individuals have the cable companies block Fox from their particular packages. I suggest we work on moving Fox from the basic package to an optional one. This would be an extremely powerful and elegant solution to taming this tumor on our political conversation.

blueingreen's diary :: :: Imagine if even 30% of cable users insisted that their providers take Fox off the basic package and put it into one that had to specifically opted for. This would be an huge blow to the bottom line of the beast. And why not? We won the election in a landslide, we despise Fox, and especially despise the idea that we have to pay for it in our basic cable. Let the Republican rump have Fox, but make them pay for it. The moral argument is easy to make. Fox is demonstrably biased against the majority opinion, so why should it be presented as part of the mainstream? Even if this can't be argued definitively (of course it can to any reasonable thinker, but we're not in a rational environment), it doesn't matter. If you define the case as just a matter of opinion, the majority of the country doesn't want to be represented by this lunacy. This works even if you grant the weakest possible argument-that only a large minority feels this way. And, it's not censorship-Fox can say what it wants but the wingnuts have to pay for it. The market in action!

How does one do this? I'm not sure. Maybe instead of just boycotting Beck's advertisers, we also focus on the cable companies in a sustained campaign to remove Fox from our basic package. Maybe we begin a coordinated campaign to support legislation to make a la carte cable the law of the land. Franken's guest suggested that the cable companies had a legal obligation to come out to your home and physically block any channel you found offensive in the basic package-a tremendous expense to them if they had to do that thousands of times.

In any case, this seems to be a pressure point that we haven't focussed on and may be the Achilles heel we've been looking for.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/8/763722/-Take-Fox-News-off-basic-cable

[sharesunited]

1. If you're going to mobilize an effort like this, go for the brass ring.

Ala carte cafeteria-style self-directed selection of channels with commensurate pricing for what you take and only what you take.

Then you would be advancing a real consumer movement.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[zoff]

3. Now that's a good idea ...

... if a good number of subscribers in one area can mobilize and pressure the cable guys. Why should we pay for something we dont want!

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. I feel the same way about QVC...but its all about the numbers

If Fox charges little or nothing, then the cables system will carry it, most likely to rounf out its free offerings

[spartan61]

4. Good idea!!!

If you check into the Direct TV and Dish Network offers, the lowest priced packages have Fox News and maybe CNN. If you want MSNBC, you have to go up to the more expensive package. I say put Fox on the most expensive package only and see how many people will pay that price. No wonder Fox has higher ratings than MSNBC...the comparison is between apples and oranges. Not an accurate comparison.

[Faryn Balyncd]

5. K & R -- Put them in with the other porn channels.

[ingac70]

6. I don't get FAUX.

Not available on my basic cable

[jurlie]

8. News available at the basic level

Rather than removing FOX News, CNN (and others) should be encouraged to add their channel to the basic television service. People should have access to all news. You need a variety of sources to get a well rounded view that limits any one station's/journalist's biases. I recently cut my expanded cable thinking I could get by, but all I had access to in terms of 24 hour news was FOX and that was NOT acceptable - trying to listen to them made me sick (BTW, access to FOX was not listed by my cable company as a channel I should have been getting, yet there it was). I added back expanded cable just for the CNN. Good for the cable company's pocket, not good for America. My guess is that FOX news is available to the majority of rural areas and low income families, but the other stations are not. I am also guessing that these people make up the majority of those showing up screaming in town hall meetings about such ridiculous things as the government is going to kill grandma. No wonder, if this sort of right wing information is what they largely have access to. Suppressing FOX news is not the answer - they will shoot themselves in the foot if people have access to more rational and honest reporting - suppressing them just goes against the ideals of freedom that we seek to support.