Saturday June 16, 2007, 1:10 pm
that's funny because where I sit the internet is begenning to be the corporate media, with alot of extra more dishonesty etc So go ahead and turn off your tv and just rely on the inernet You gonna fine out just how dishonest you can be? Most people that call the ketle black or just as dishonest. :)

Saturday June 16, 2007, 2:47 pm
True...as I sit here reading this...internet commercials pops up everywhere. The only difference is that they want my "green" bucks for their "green" products. No matter what guise it comes in...Commercialism is made up with vanities and to make it "right" toss in a little truth & a few facts. If it wasn't for commercials...I would never knew I needed that product(s). Buyer beware...

Saturday June 16, 2007, 5:03 pm
We rid our house of the curse of TV last December and have never looked back.

Oh and you can dissable the pop-ups...or just refuse to be dictated to by the advertisers.

The world would be a richer place without TV...people would read more, converse more, might even start to understand each other more.....and our wretchedly stupid polititians would have to be able to string more than six world together and for it to make sence. As I say the world would be a better place...what a saving of energy too.

Saturday June 16, 2007, 5:20 pm
I stopped watching TV in our home over a year ago. I am able to get a wider scope of news online and also chose not to let advertisers dictate what I do or chose for my family. I think people should spend sometime researching the news, looking at various views on it and the internet, makes that much easier to do.

Saturday June 16, 2007, 5:43 pm
Excellent, and I'm with you, Barb - actually I myself stopped watching TV (I don't do it more than occasionally = a few times a year in average) in the late 70s, and I find I'm much more well informed on issues I care about than people who watch TV (news and all) daily, one difference being that I often know a lot more about the general background, the positive examples, and the viable solutions tried somewhere, and I've also taken part of critical standspoints, etc - but naturally I don't know much about popular series on TV, their plots and the actors' names etc. Using Internet as one of many sources for information is of course not the same as stopping your own thinking, on the contrary, as you start to choose more actively what to take in and what leave out, you develop your critical independent thinking. IMHO teevee might foster much negative thinking, fear and passivity. Getting rid of TV enriched my life and left more time to more important things. I'm glad you posted this! :-)

Saturday June 16, 2007, 5:54 pm
Top-quote from the article:
"My decision came to shut off the TV once and for all when I saw NBC’s White House reporter, David Gregory, dancing with Karl Rove on a stage. They’re all working together.
In fact, the reason our politicians are sold out to the same corrupt corporations is because they have to buy expensive TV ad time. If the majority of people refused to pay or watch TV, it would diminish the corruption in politics. That’s the central reason why we should turn off the TV for good."

Saturday June 16, 2007, 5:59 pm
Thanks Doris... People seem to be lost in their tv's it is amazing the things you have time for, when you are no longer sitting in front of one all the time. I feel empowered and informed more so now than ever before when tv use to be the main source of information for myself and my family.

Saturday June 16, 2007, 6:05 pm
What's the difference between wasting time watching tv and wasting time sitting in front of the computer?

Sunday June 17, 2007, 9:04 am
Good point...Donni. You can get crap from anything, anyone or anywhere. There is a word in the dictionary called "discipline." Discipline is to be used to maintain control when anything consumes too much of your time. Another word that is in the dictionary is "balance." Balance is harmony and proportion, counteract, equal, or neutralize the weight of importance.
These 2 words applies to much of the vanties in our lifes today...we have a choice, choose wisely!

Sunday June 17, 2007, 1:22 pm
Yes, it is possible o get crap from anywhere, but the difference is that on computer you have a wider range of "choice" and you also have at you disposal a "research" tool which allows you to research the facts, which you don't get from TV or Radio, unless you watch TV sitting in front of your PC...who does that? You can research TV and Radio but you loose the initiative when its not fresh in mind and can do it right then, immediately. I much prefer and trust online news over BIG MEDIA who is "controlled" by "money" versus no conflict of interest news sites that have nothing to gain in lying. Thanks Barb. Noted

Sunday June 17, 2007, 1:53 pm
Noted

Sunday June 17, 2007, 3:13 pm
The corporate media network executives’ goal is to dumb down the society. And to some extent, they’ve succeeded. That’s why they’re going after the web with a nasty vengeance because the web is the last vestige of democracy where people can learn the facts

Sunday June 17, 2007, 3:14 pm
i HAD mine (cable) shut off last year, quite some time back. They are taking over the internet. I posted an article about "real journalism", and some other issues, it got deleted. people are stlll in denail, or SOLD.

Sunday June 17, 2007, 3:16 pm
excuse me, not an article deleted, was perosnal opinion although I have the facts, many noted on c2nn, and in my own backyard so to speak

Sunday June 17, 2007, 3:58 pm
Did it YEARS ago. How slowly people awaken.

Sunday June 17, 2007, 5:10 pm
I don't spend much of my time anywhere just wasting it away. My computer time is just a part of my schedule as work, my family and entertainment is. Yet I'd rather get my news online as it allows me to see outside the box.

Sunday June 17, 2007, 7:01 pm
Personally, I don't think TV is the problem, as you don't have to be effected by it, if you try to be an aware person, ask questions and do your own research, then you really shouldn't be effected, I make fun of some of the commercials and news. I know the news is BS on TV, so I don't care what they say, most of the time they just report what they want and not what really is important or what is dictated to them to report.

I like to watch movies and go to sleep in front of the TV, it is a good source of leisure time. They also do occasionally have some good documentaries, however it is sad that it hasn't evolved into a more educational media but then again they would have probably educated people with misinformation so maybe its better that it hasn't.

Monday June 18, 2007, 11:30 am
I have wanted to do it for years myself, yet my breaking of the umbilical cord was on a sudden impulse and was quite wicked if the truth be known. Hubby and I both have our own computers for our work, although hubby spends most of the day on his, while I prefer to seek out balance through my various other interests.
Then after dinner he would always retire to a different chair in front of the TV for another 3 hours. I often longed for the days passed when we could spend hours in front of the fire just talking and sharing. It seemed that increasingly we had less and less to say to each other.

My pent up frustration and loneliness finally got the better of me and one night while he was glued to the tube
I just lost it. Without warning, I took my own Maxwell's Silver Hammer to the damn thing. Well that definitely got his attention. He was horrified, as if I had committed some unholy trespass against him. It's not that he didn't have fair warning because I had tried for months to get him to vountarily pull the plug, to no avail.

Since that night, I have felt so much better about our life without being constantly bombarded my the blight of subliminal conditioning and rampant consumerism. I feel we have some control back in our life. He won't admit it, but he also seems so much more 'animated' now and more interested in what's going on in our little world.
If only I had done it sooner!

Monday June 18, 2007, 11:33 am
sorry for the typos in my above comment....my mind is racing fast today.

Tuesday June 19, 2007, 11:42 am
Someone else said it here ,,the key is balance .
I love to read and I do get my news online but I also enjoy watching movies and certain shows and pay little to no attention to the commercials. I never bought into all those commercials trying to tell you that you need to buy this product or another or worst yet the medication commercials that will tell you the horrible side effects of a drug in such a soft sweet voice to down play them lol,,,which brings me to the drug companies and how easily people are fooled because they think if a doctor perscribed it then it has to be good for you,, lmao,,I am a nurse and I know that 90% of the doctors perscribing your drugs have no idea what the side effects are ,,so in everything I say do your own research,, find out the facts .

Tuesday June 19, 2007, 2:27 pm
I agree turning off the tube would send a powerful message, I have canceled my cable and don't miss it period.

Tuesday June 19, 2007, 2:35 pm
I stopped watching TV in the 80's. People think I'm ignorant when they talk about people like Lindsay Lohan (sp?) or Paris Hilton and I don't know them from a hole in the ground...but am I more ignorant not knowing who those people are, or - from what I read on the net about these people - am I smarter being ignorant of ignoramuses? It seems half the "news" these days concerns the daily lives of idiots like these...

Wednesday June 20, 2007, 9:41 am
I personally don't think that TV is the problem. There are many ways to research the news and get a balanced opinion of what's going on in the world. I read several different national online news sites and see what the thinking is in other countries on various topics.
Those who believe everything they hear are the problem. In the 1700's it was those who believed everything they read. Propaganda has always been around and will always be around. It's up to the individual to sift through the many varied opinions and figure out what's really going on.

I have also found that TV seems to be evolving in the past few years, the programming is more mature in many shows. I personally enjoy a lot of things I see on the history channels, Discovery Channel, Discovery Times, Science Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic, Biography Channel and I love movies, and watch often and enjoy them, and documentaries.

I will NOT turn off my TV, but I will continue to form my own opinions of the news reported and read with interest on the internet.

Thursday June 21, 2007, 7:58 am
The media is owned in North America by what, five corporations? Any news that may affect their profit margins by showing their advertisers in a bad light gets censored or spun.
The TV flickers and literaly hypnotizes viewers (hence the 'zoned out' expressions) and leaves us open to conditioning.
Why do they even call it "television programming"? Hint: it is not the TV being programmed.

Friday June 22, 2007, 5:19 am
Until recently (not my choice, either), I didn't own a TV and had the local NPR station on in my home, in my car, or at the pool. Cutting yourself off from the mainstream garbage and selecting for yourself what you're exposed to is truly liberating.

Sunday June 24, 2007, 1:04 pm
i have never owned a tv, never plan to. i get all my news and good stories online anyhow. besides, online you can get news from a much wider source such as progressive news web sites. the variety is so much better. here one can truly find independent news stories, which never happens with tv stations.

the pop ups can be disabled. also the internet is far more interactive, it is not as passive as tv watching is.

Tuesday June 26, 2007, 11:46 am
LOL, Kevin. We haven't had 'TV' in about 6 years, just well chosen dvds, and we occasionally check up on what the public is being fed at a friends house.

People make decisions based on the information at hand. This includes everything from voting for the next president, to setting priorities on our time, or what issue to talk about around the proverbial water cooler. The country is not controlled by the government, the government is controlled by the media via the viewers.

Corporate censorship is a fact. Rupert Murdoch, when asked to what extent he influences what is aired, said "Considerably. The buck stops on my desk. My editors have input, but I make the final decisions."
Former FCC Commissioner Nicholas Johnson said "The first amendment rights belong to the owners, and the owners can exercise those rights by hiring people who will hire journalists who don't rock the boat, who don't attack advertisers, who don't challenge the establishment. That is a form of censorship." This has led to stories being suppressed, and a move from censorship by the editors, to self-censorship. Johnson sums it up thus, "The story is told of a reporter who first comes up with an investigative story idea, writes it up, submits it to the editor and is told the story is not going to run. He wonders why, but the next time is cautious enough to check with the editor first. He is told by the editor that it would be better not to write that story. The third time he thinks of an investigative story idea, but doesn't bother the editor with it because he know it's silly. The fourth time he doesn't even think of the idea anymore."

Journalists are people, just like you and I. They became journalists for a reason, some have not lost sight of that, others may need reminded. They are caught up in the day to day, with bills to pay, subject to the same numbing influences as the rest, and those who speak up too loudly risk not just their jobs, but their careers.
Sophisticated propaganda is not noticeable. 'Flying under the radar' of the editors, some journalists are hinting at the truth, and undermining the 'programming'. These reporters may be our best hope. Just like the soldiers, it is the journalists who are on the front line, with the decisions to make.

Tuesday June 26, 2007, 11:14 pm
I have a TV in my computer room, well actually a TV in almost every room of the house. I don't watch more than about 6 hours a week, but it's on almost 24/7 cause I like my satelite music. And I like my blood and guts, car chasing, cop killing games. If I had to choose between the telly and the puter, I would pick the puter.
You can disable popups and block all ads by using Firefox browser with their AdBlock Plus, which is free.
You can't trust the news you get on the telly.

Friday June 29, 2007, 4:51 pm
what is this thing called "TV"??

Sunday July 1, 2007, 10:48 pm
I'm a Baby Boomer, but I was raised in a home without a TV. In school I would feel cheated when others chatted about some program that was on the night before. Now I am so thankful to never have gotten addicted to that thing. You are force fed what the media tells you what you should know. There is no effort on your part, all you have to do is passively listen and accept what you are "suppose" to know. TV has turned our nation into a very passive people, with no ability to think for themselves. And now we suffer from it, no one to rise up in arms as our founding fathers and say enough is enough. They sputter and complain, but don't have the knowledge to realize we all unted CAN make a difference. I read a news paper every day, and deside myself what I want to read and give extra time to. If I want to go back and reread some thing I can. Cann't do that with mass media.
On the side, my siblings raised their children with out TV. They all graduated in the upper percent of their classes. One has just received his doctorate. One is a commercial piolet. Our family has always enjoyed sitting and talking amd sharing ideas, and willing to listen to those that differed from ours.
Kudos to those of like mind who have disconnected from the evil god.