Jaquandor wants to know:
What do you think of the trend today for a teevee blaring news to be present in nearly every public or open-to-the-public space there is nowadays? Every doctor waiting room, every super market cafe, even some of our favorite restaurants — teevees in all, and they are ALWAYS set to either CNN or FOX News. This bugs me. How about you?
Well, yes, it’s true that the phenomenon has grown. There was a time, particularly in airports, when the default network was CNN, because it was “neutral.” But now, it’s more often FOX. And I ALWAYS remember.
Nice diner in Catskill, about 45 miles south of here – FOX News. The Burger King in the same town – FOX News.
The Bible Guys breakfast in Albany at a local diner – FOX News. I wonder if the owners figured that, since we were a religious-minded group, that FOX would be amenable to us; it was most assuredly not, and we asked them to turn it off.
FOX in the morning, BTW, is particularly awful, actually. I’m especially annoyed with that dumb blond – what’s his name, Doocy?
Some venues, figuring that ANY news is controversial these days, have opted for HGTV, the home and garden network, which I see it at my allergist’s office – and I have to wait 30 minutes AFTER my monthly shot.
So I see folks getting their homes renovated a LOT. I saw a couple recent articles explaining that not everything was as it seemed on air. Here’s a piece that will tell you more than you ever need to know about the network. I really got to dislike Christina and Tarek of Flip or Flop, especially him, but am actually sorry their marriage broke up.
There’s a pizza place in Albany that used to show the local news, but now airs movies, some of them not amenable with wanting to eat.
I went to a now-defunct barbershop near my house, and they were showing some shoot-em-up movie with vulgar language on DVR when children were present.
I wonder if they feel they need to compete with all the handheld devices their customers undoubtedly own.
Oh, I hate teevees in public places, as someone who was raised to carry a book with her everywhere where there might be a wait. (I can’t read with a lot of noise around).
The least-offensive lately was the car-repair place: they were showing an ancient re-run of “The Waltons.”
The worst is a tie between when my dentist’s office used to show video of cosmetic procedures you could choose (sorry, I’m a dental phobe and I don’t need video of someone getting veneers) or the local wal-mrt with the end-cap TVs that blare endless ads for whatever product is on that endcap – I am already in your store spending money, could you please not advertise to me while I must grocery shop?
I don’t know what it is about modern culture that would rather replace quiet with noise, but I don’t like it.
What she said. If the capture of our eyeballs is so essential to their business plan, we should be compensated for it.
MOST of the places I go don’t have TVs, at least, not yet. But on a related note, I watch far too much of HGTV, and while some of the most obviously faked ones can be a bit annoying, they can also be entertaining. And, I’ve gotten a lot of good ideas, or things to learn about from watching them. I originally really liked “Flip or Flop”, but it’s painful acting made it harder and harder to watch. The thing is, I was somehow aware that some nurse had spotted Tarek’s cancer, but I didn’t know anything about him or HGTV at the time because it wasn’t in New Zealand yet. Once it arrived, I read that Tarek had had cancer, but STILL didn’t know a nurse had spotted it—until today. Your post has closed a previously open information loop I didn’t even know existed. So, um, thanks?