Beyond Infomercials

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I watch commercial TV off an antenna, 62 stations that come in fairly good.
I know...junk programing, much of it out of the last century. Reruns of old 60s-70s sitcoms that are essentially reruns from the Honeymooners and Life of Riley era. You know, when AM radio and green stamps were king.
I learned then that if I wanted to watch TV, black & white as it were, I had to sit through the commercials. Or jump on my brother in an impromptu "wrassling" match, until the cartoons came back on, or we broke something on accident.
So, I gave up cartoons long ago, even the newer adult cartoons (Simpsons, Family Guy, etc. I couldn't stomach) but have monitored the MSM newscasts to keep my finger on the pulse of our rulers and what they want us to believe. Actually, they are pretty accurate if you reverse everything they want us to believe and view the truth as totally opposite.
A fine example of Orwellian speak, lies are truth, truth is lies.
The latest is Scripps News airing a "National News Literacy Week" program to teach
American viewers how to access real news, lamenting young people are turning to online sources for their news.
One expert from the News Literacy Project insists young folks wind up limiting themselves to a single source of online news and consequently, only get one side of the story.
To counter this single source dilemma, in a classic Orwellian double speak, it is implied we should watch Scripps news for up to the minute, accurate, trustworthy news.
In the interest of fair disclosure it should be noted that many of the MSM organizations are donors to this NLP non-profit, and includes such outfits as the Dow Jones Foundation, Google, News Corp, the Chandler Foundation (New York Times), and the Hearst Foundation.
Wikipedia informs this is a collaboration between NLP and the Scripps organization.
Personally, I find the online community a much, much more rich and diverse source of news.
If they would just leave it alone and stop censoring.
Clearly, they would rather have much, much more control over what we are exposed to.
Can you say Nanny State?
What do you watch?
The thread is open.

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earthling1's picture

there is very little actual news on broadcast TV. Almost every segment is trying to get you to part with your money. Some couch it in "news" of a local business opening up or some new product on the market.
It could be said that news of how Ukraine is !winning! is just to tamp down any complaints of how our taxpayer money is being spent.
If not for the traffic and weather report, there is no credible information on Mainstream broadcast TV.
Still, I muddle through it all because somebody has to do it and I can dutifully report: Nothing to see here.
Hope everyone has a great day.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

QMS's picture

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Don't miss it much. Got one of those 'free' analog to digital converters and put up an
antenna to catch whatever signals were still available: shopping channels, religious
broadcasts and the like. I thought the airwaves were once the property of the public?

You can find out just about everything on the inner tubes now, so broadcast programing
is generally losing its charm.

Thanks for the OT E1!

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earthling1's picture

@QMS
a lot of us on antennas. Cable is bleeding subscribers. I see Disney has slashed prices to lure people back.
I gave up cable decades ago. Had satellite dish for a few years, but gave it up when I moved to the PNW.
Thanks for stopping by.

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6 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Lookout's picture

They can't stand we have sites like C99 and uncontrollable news feeds.

1 min

We owned the news and controlled the facts

This years theme was "restoring trust"...sorry elites, that ship sailed.

Hope all is well on the homestead. After a week of freezing weather we're due a week of rain...but at least the temps are mild.

Thanks for the OT!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

earthling1's picture

@Lookout
of the Rising show.
You are right, "restoring trust" is a real laugher.
When they are talking about it at Davos, you know it's a BFD. Look for them to start turning the screws in an attempt to re-own the news.
Thanks for the clip.

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6 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

get burned.

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6 users have voted.
earthling1's picture

@humphrey @humphrey
to the International Court of Justice wishing a speedy decision on Israeli genocide charges as it will give Russia direction on how to proceed in Ukraine.

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4 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Sima's picture

@earthling1
That made me snicker in agreement!

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Socialprogressive's picture

@humphrey
I love the poetic justice.

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I'm great at multi-tasking. I can waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at the same time.

UK took this into consideration before attacking Yemen.

The rest of the tweet which is quite meaningful:

But if America stands to fight us, it is a pride that we are fighting an enemy of the world, an enemy that incites wars, terrorism and problems all over the world."

"We did not find anything from America or Britain except murder, destruction and terrorism. The tragedy of Palestine, from its beginning to its end, is the result of the policy and injustice that the British committed against our people in Palestine."

"The plane that bombed us in 2015 is the same plane that bombed us last week. The missiles that exploded are the same missiles that have exploded on us for 9 years. The bombs they bombed us with are the same bombs we were bombed with by the US and Saudi Arabia for 9 years. They have nothing new. The more we are bombed, the more power we have."

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7 users have voted.

options.
I have one of those free tv antennas, still have cable package and access to a streaming service. The strange part is that I seldom turn on my tv until after supper except on weekends as I only watch sporting events (mainly as background noise).

I gave up on the news after Bernie's Presidential efforts after which he became a sheepdog.

I rely selectively on the internet to keep me informed.

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6 users have voted.

The only time I watch tv is then I am traveling. The commercials are so irritating. I am repulsed by the fund raising for a children's hospital by featuring children actors with horrible birth defects or the obvious effects of chemo therapy.
The OT brought back mories of better days. Thanks, friend!
Meanwhil, we did a drive around Galveston to spot a parking lot for the concert.

Good grief, they are expensive!

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3 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981