Saturday, November 06, 2010

Comcast and Keith Olberman

This started out on my Facebook page and I will mix in some comments from some friends.


I've had enough of Comcast. They sent me a piece of mail today saying I won't be able to watch TV unless get one of their boxes. Blackmail. My TV's aren't that old but they are moving more channels to the digital tier that I will need a box to tune in. I miss Adelphia, they were run by a bunch of crooks but we had great service but I'm actually happy with the internet service. I've had it for 5 years and only had one brief outage. I'm reluctant to get a dish because many of my friends tell me they have weather issues and my late father-in-law would roll over in his grave if we defaced his brickwork on our house.

Keith Olberman has been suspended by MSNBC because he gave some money to Democratic candidates. A host of another MSNBC show gave money to Republicans

Joe Scarborough did the exact same thing


IOKIYAR

My friend Tony quotes Rachell:


"I know everybody likes to say, 'Oh, that's cable news, it's all the same. Fox and MSNBC, mirror images of each other.' Let this lay that to rest forever. Hosts on Fox News raise money for Republican candidates. They endorse them explicitl...y, they use their Fox News profile to headline fundraisers. Heck, there are multiple people being paid by Fox News now to essentially run for office as Republican candidates....They can do that because there's no rule against that as Fox. They run as a political operation; we're not."- Rachel Maddow

This should be a case of don't do that again because you violated company policy so take a few days off and don't do it again. But even MSNBC will grovel before the FoxNews/TeaParty/Republican noise machine.


What Role Did Comcast Play in Keith Olbermann's Suspension?--UPDATED with Comcast response

10 comments:

Dana said...

If you get a high-def TV, you'll need the box anyway.

I'm pretty happy with Blue Ridge Cable here in the backwoods of Carbon County, for both cable TV and internet.

Rush Limbaugh has been calling that network PMSNBC for years; I think he got it right! :)

Anonymous said...

I don't see what the big deal is. What does Keith reach like 5 viewers a night?

D.B. Echo said...

And since FOX just plays to a bunch of brain-dead zombies, they could suspend every one of their on-air personalities and people would still tune in and nod and shout.

Stephen Albert said...

If it involves Comcast, then I'd be suspicious.

As for Olberman, I'm fine with the suspension provided that the same rule is applied uniformly across the network. It appears that may not be exactly true.

Anonymous said...

Olberman's ratings have been in decline. If you are a money maker for a network, bosses will look the other way.
I think his days may be number at MSNBC. Bad economy, bad ratings will more than likely lead to no more Keith. Which would be a shame. I get a kick out of him.

Dana said...

Kind of reminds me of NPR firing Juan Williams for expressing his opinion while on Fox, saying that it's news analysts aren't supposed to engage in punditry, while Mara Liaison and Nina Totenberg, both of whom appear regularly on Fox, still have their jobs.

Anonymous said...

Yep Dana, probably looking to dump him and just trying to find cause to get out of paying out his contract. The suspension is a warning, next thing they find he will be gone.

I was a little suspicious of things when he got yanked from football night in America. I thought he and Dan Patrick's chemistry was great and made the show a lot of fun, but then out of the blue he gets the boot.

Pope George Ringo said...

The GOP calls it "deregulation"; we all know how that worked out.

Big Dan said...

Gort: the two best channels are on DISH & directv: free speech tv and link tv. Comcast carries NEITHER!!!

I recommend going satellite and get those two channels, or get free TV, put an antenna on your roof and say FU to paying for TV. Then join netflix streaming.

ACM said...

Not to mention that going to a required digital subscription made my monthly fee jump from $20 to $70 -- switching to dish or satellite doesn't help with that part (after the intro deal), unfortunately, and the antenna on the roof won't be getting anything after 2012, when they stop broadcasting analog at all. Screwed: pay ursurious rates, quit watching TV, or limit yourself to things made available online (by the networks or by Netflix, etc.). Progress!!