35 days - Cable News Free and I don't miss it one bit!

[Lefty48197]

The last time I watched cable tv news, was on November 2, and I haven't watched it since. Mind you, I'd been watching cable news since it was invented. I remember watching headline news twenty years ago. I was a true television news junkie. I just couldn't get enough of it.

What the hell was I thinking?

For the past year, I listened to other DUers tell us to turn off our cable tv stations, and I laughed at them. "FOX is the problem, not CNN", I told them.

Somewhere along the line, I became enlightened. I believe it was with Jon Stewart's appearance on Crossfire. Jon made the point that Crossfire (and other shows like it) seem to exist for one reason only: To give the party hacks a forum to spew their lies.
Gee, what a noble life project that turned out to be.

Again, what was I thinking?

Is there a reason I should allow Chris Matthews to bring some ranting right wing lunatic like Ann Coulter into my living room? Will listening to Tim Russert interviewing Ed Gillespie, Trent Lott, or Tom DeLay somehow educate me? Will it somehow make the country better? The world?

Of course not. What was I thinking?

I now stand before you as a reformed cable news-aholic. Never again will that televised poison pass my eyelids. Good bye Tim Russert. Call me, if you know where I can find a journalist.

Matthews? Good riddance.

FOX? You've accomplished a traditional right wing goal: You've destroyed a noble institution from within.

If anyone out there is considering severing your ties with the cable "news" industry, then I would encourage you to do so immediately. Like I said, I was a 20 year junkie, and I don't miss it one bit.

[Bronco69]

1. You and I are of like minds.

I turned mine off too. Whenever I would hear someone talk about the liberal media my response was, "tell me which channel, I'd love to tune in." I haven't watched tv news since Nov. 2. I get all of my news right here on DU.

[Kahuna]

2. Me three. They are so predictable, you really don't need to

watch to know what their will be on a given issue. Bush = good. Dems = losers. :shrug:

[uberotto]

3. With TiVo, you select which channels...

you want to have show up in your TV guide listing. I've got mine set to ignore all the cable news channels. That way I don't even see the channels while flipping though the channels, and when I call up the TV listing, they don't get displayed. Even if something good was to somehow come on one of those channels, I wouldn't (and don't want to) know it.

The other good thing about doing it this way, is that even though I don't like it, TiVo collects data about what I choose to watch and record. While I would prefer it not collect any data on my viewing habits, at least what it is collecting is that I choose not to watch cable news.

[Lefty48197]

4. That's what I do too

I watch TV through my VCR tuner, so I deleted the cable news channels from my "list" so that when I scroll through the channels, it completely ignores the offending ones.

[CatholicEdHead]

5. Gave that up a while ago

I still have extended cable, but I have given up on ALL domestic TV cable news media except for CNN International (replaces CNNfn on the weekends).

I still watch some local news but most of it is also fluff. I still like my BBC World Service on MPR in the evening.

[OneBlueSky]

6. I'm entering by third year of being cable news free . . .

not only haven't I missed anything, I think my blood pressure's also improved . . . the only talking head I continue to tune in is John Stewart . . .

[Lefty48197]

7. I love Jon Stewart's show

The BBC news on PBS is great also.