"Starve the Fox" - how to out-fox Fox News BRILLIANT!!!

[housewolf]

Broadband users have the power to out-fox Fox News! We can act together to "re-district" Fox News outside the basic package.

How? Broadband internet service is provided by cable suppliers. It is an EXTREMELY profitable revenue center of the cable businesses. That give broadband users some leverage to pressure their cable company.

Over 85 million U.S. Cable & Satellite subscribers pay a compulsory monthly fee to fund Fox News. This stealth stipend, collected via the monthly Cable & Satellite bill, is in effect a mandatory campaign contribution to the Conservative cause. EVERYBODY is forced to pay, including the majority who don't watch Fox News, and the many who actively reject its right wing slant.

This fee (about $3 sub/yr) totals up to $250 million annually, and Rupert Murdoch has announced plans to push through a big rate increase in 2006. By the 2008 election, Fox News is on track to take in over $400 million a year in compulsory campaign contributions.


Pressure for what? To get Fox News removed from the basic line-up and included in a premium package. Tell your cable company that Fox News is too extremist nd biased for mainstream consumption. Insist that Fox News be treated like other controversial cable channels - like HBO, or a porn channel - where customers must specifically request it, and pay a separate subscription fee. Tell them you think right-wingers should fund the full cost of their daily propaganda fix.


Then use your leverage - tell them that you will switch to your internet connection to DSL.

For more info
http://www.starvethefox.com/index.html

[Cleita]

1. I didn't know we could do this. Thanks.

There are all those religious stations I would like off my basic choice as well. I'm sure they are getting money as well.

[coloradodem2005]

2. God.

I saw a snippet on Easter and some idiot was on one of their shows talking about values and how music and the movie business undercuts their values. What a bunch of bullshit.

[Psephos]

3. It invites retribution

Soon, repugs will be screaming to get rid of stations we like that also enjoy basic cable sub revenue.

Better, in my view, to beat them up in the marketplace of ideas than to suppress them. Suppression has never sat well with me. Besides, Faux is an easy target. :-)

The most powerful tool available is the channel-change button. Our job is to spread good reasons to use it.

Just a thought.

Peace.

[readmoreoften]

5. no, beat them in the marketplace they put a premium on

Anyone who watches Fox News seriously is not selling or buying anything in the marketplace of ideas, at least not the marketplace of viable ideas.

Cable viewers shouldn't have to pay for it if they don't want it. Why pay more for a FoxBlocker when you can make the opposition pay.

[sendero]

20. That would be good...

.... cable and satellite channels should be available a la carte.

That would put an end to everyone paying for shit they don't want and don't watch. Bring it.

[ObaMania]

21. You are G.D. right!

Why should I have to pay for the 3 Hispanic channels I get in the basic lineup and FAUX, CNN, MSRNC. Bring on ala carte!

I've actually been bitching to cable about this for years, and even deducted $$ from my bill after figuring the average cost per month of each channel, but to no avail.

I I got were delinquency and shut off notices.

I doubt the handful of folks on DU who raise a stink over this will make any difference and try getting your congressmen, etc.. to address it for you. It's a waste.

Now if everyone inserted a note in their bill, deducted the amount for FAUX and any channels they didn't want to pay for, then I think cable will start noticing.

We've tried the "starve the..", boycotts, and not one damn dime day and they have all been ineffective. What makes anyone think this will be any more effective?

JMO

[merci_me]

4. I've ordered FoxBlocker

to add to my cable box. It's only $8.95 and if the company profits go up, the story will get around.

http://www.foxblocker.com:82/

I'm adding it to my cable box in the family room for when my brother-in-law is visiting this summer. Last summer we were at their home for a week and he had that damn channel on every minute he was home. Because it wasn't my home and I don't see my sister that often, I was determine to keep peace by not saying a word about it. I did spend a LOT of time in the kitchen and the backyard. LOL

Anyway, when they're here this summer, the TV in the family room will have Hannity/O'Reilly et al foxblocked. When my brother-in-law asks about what channel it's on, I can look very innocent and say, "Oh gosh, we don't subscribe to it. Sorry."

[tinrobot]

6. I don't even need Fox Blocker

DirecTV lets me customize which channels I see... Fox is NOT on the list. Neither are the shopping channels or the god channels.

You can also do it with most other cable boxes and TVs.

[hholli1]

7. DirectTv is OWNED by Rupert Murdoch. nt

[merci_me]

10. I don't want to totally block it

because every once in a while, they have a Dem on there who really rattles their "fair and balanced" mini-minds and I enjoy watching it happen. But I do want to block in in the family room. That's the only place that someone not in the family, might turn Fox on. Like a visitor during half-time of a game or something.

With the block, I can avoid a nasty showdown in my own house. Plus, every time a blocker is ordered, the company sends notices to the companies that advertise on Fox, letting them know another person has refused to turn it on. Money well spent.

[Clark2008]

17. Direct TV is owned by Murdoch - buy from Dish Network. eom

[ConsAreLiars]

8. Bad idea -- BAAD idea

Demand instead that cable add LinkTV and FSTV to their basic service. Both are on Dish Network, but FSTV is not on DirectTV. The idea that cable should provide a narrower range of content and carry nothing controversial is foolish and counterproductive.

If you want to put pressure on them, threaten to drop the cable TV service because of their exclusion of anything left of center, and tell them you can get broadband through another provider like Speakeasy and TV via Dish.

[Mike Niendorff]

9. Yeah, that'll happen ...

Look, the problem with the media today ISN'T JUST FOX NEWS.

It's ALL of the cable news channels (and most of the network news shows, as well).

So what if you do succeed in "starving Fox"? Then what? Back to CNN? That JOKE of a network?

Enough of this.

Even with the best of intents, "meaning well" is not enough.

We need to stop being dependent on these right-wing businesses for our daily news and information. We're already doing this with sites like DU, DailyKos, and a thousand others! The more we develop our own honest media, the less we'll give a damn about the propaganda channels that make up the world of cable news in near totality.

We can either "become the media" and render the propaganda channels irrelevent, or we can try to fight on their terms, and be forever at their mercy. Seems a pretty obvious choice to me.


MDN

[scarletlib]

11. kick

[Walt Starr]

12. OOOH! and I just switched my voice line to Cable, too!

Double trouble from me! I have both my voice landline and my broadband internet via cable.

:evilgrin:

[Flammable Materials]

13. Dish Network puts Fox on it's second tier basic.

So anyone who signs up for the basic "Top 60" package does not have to subsidize Fox News.

[napi21]

14. Actually, the best answer is the al la carte proposal that was

discussed in the congressional hearings. Each subscriber could choose exactly which chanels they want and which they don't. I listened to those hearings. The gripe the cable guys had against it was that some chanels, like The Golf chanel, couldn't survive without being part of a package.

To that I said BS! Who cares? I've never heard ANYONE say they spend even one day watching that silly thing! I am however a little concerned that my narrowmindedness might pose an unforeseen problem. I do sometimes watch The Sundance Chanel. Would that one survive? How about the Discovery Chanels. I don't watch very often, but there have been some shows I enjoyed and wouldn't have wanted to miss!

I have 800 chanels available on my box, and have never watched more than maybe 35 of them.

[Flammable Materials]

15. My worry that with an a la carte system ...

... is that the crap will rise to the top.

[tsuki]

19. I have big dish. I do a la carte. It is great. I get all those channels

that I want, and nix the ones that I don't. I have HBO & Cinemax, plus A&E, History, Discovery, TBS/TNT, WGN, Comedy Channel etc.

All for around $40.00 a month.

If I want the networks, I would have to have an areial. I don't. Haven't missed them in 12 years.

[Berserker]

23. Well you heard it here first

I LOVE THE GOLF CHANNEL. I have never heard of anyone that doesn't like it except those who hate golf for some strange reason.

[Clark2008]

16. Why only Blue States?

And, doesn't that seem a bit counter-productive?
Shouldn't it be us blue voters in red states who participate in this.
I'm of the opinion that most red voters in red states do so because of media manipulation; therefore, the states that need Faux off their regular cable line-ups are the red ones.

[Ganja Ninja]

18. I think we should be able to legally ...

select 3 channels from our basic cable and deduct their cost from the package. Sort of like voting them off the island. If enough people kept deducting FOX news or any other channel every month cable suppliers would be inclined to replace them with another offering.

[Maiden England]

22. talk about karma - big brother, getting big brothered

out of the house

:evilgrin:

Sweet!

[robcon]

24. If anything, MSNBC is more likely to be dropped.

The ratings of MSNBC can't be any lower, and the cable companies (who collect revenue from local advertisers who pay for gross ratings points,) don't need MSNBC. Fox has relatively healthy ratings - at least among cable news networks.