Idea # 1 for a more peaceful and happy, fulfilled life: KILL YOUR TV!

[PretzelWarrior]

No, you don't have to drop it out a tenth story window or hurl it into a field with a home made catapult. But you could disconnect all transmission signals from the outside world.

My wife and I were living between two households in different cities for a period of time last year. Once we consolidated back to Portland, we never turned back on the satellite signal we had before. We didn't get cable. We didn't buy an antenna to pick up Portland station signals. We are not plugged in.

And my life never felt better. I got my fill of TV through primary season, convention time, election debates, election coverage, and inauguration. I got to immerse myself in about 8 different languages of Olympics coverage. I'm sated. No more Scarborough or Extra, or Entertainment Tonight or Flavor of Love or Cribs or Hannity or Charlie Gibson or stupid local news hicks or any of that garbage.

I get my news from a variety of sources online and have rediscovered the joy of perusing an actual newspaper and periodicals. I watch Daily Show and Colbert online. Sometimes I watch Frontline or other PBS shows online. We rent or borrow movies or dig through our extensive collection of movies for entertainment.

And.....we talk. We do things around the house and in the yard. We are much more active and intellectual once we got ride of the blue, glowing beast.

I can't say everyone is ready to break free, but I would strongly advocate giving it a try.

[tabatha]

1. I have not had TV in 5+ years.

That's a savings of about $3,000+ and far less wasted time.

[DerekJ]

2. Same here, almost, I have not had a TV since 2005. All online. N/T

[Jennicut]

3. I am addicted to it.

I will watch any channel at any time. I need help.

[Cant trust em]

4. But then how would I watch baseball?

I like baseball.

[PretzelWarrior]

9. how about watch classic games on DVD and watch the really good ones at a sports bar or other venue?

just an idea. but....not telling anyone to give up something they just can't.

Oh, in replying to another person I just remembered another aspect. Listening to baseball. It was weird that in the 80's I used to listen to St. Louis cardinals games in my room or on the road, etc. and I loved Jack Buck's call of the games. Anyway, when I started watching them on TV, they seemed so small and limited compared to the larger than life panorama I had going on in my head as I listened to the game.

Admittedly, you've got to have a pretty good announcer and color guy for it to be really enjoyable.

[Cant trust em]

20. Well, classic games I already know the outcome to

If I go to a sports bar I probably blow $50 on bud light and chicken wings.

I love coming home from work and watching a few innings of a game.

Instead of killing your TV, I'd prefer the "everything in moderation" idea. Just like fried food and alcohol.

[PretzelWarrior]

24. meh. I watch it so little now that it would be hard to justify.

of course, I was more into sports in my 20's and 30's so I can understand where you're coming from.

[DesertRat]

41. I'm with you

Baseball games (in HD) are one of the main reasons we watch tv in the summer.

[nichomachus]

31. On your computer -- like I do

Go to MLB.com. Pay them $99. You can watch any game, unless it's blacked out in your area. You can choose from either home or away broadcast. You get full DVR capabilities. You can watch four games -- count 'em four -- at once. And, you can watch the replay of a game you missed.

I just plop my laptop on the coffee table and watch away.

[NJCher]

5. I'm with you

I have it and I pay for it but I only watch selectively. If they ever give us the option of paying per channel and it works out better than getting hundreds of channels for a blanket fee, I'm there.

I only watch BBC news, Dateline, and the On Demand shows on the Paranormal Channel. Oh and Keith and Rachel. We have the Roku which gives us tons of documentaries and movies and of course we get Netflix.

I find much less stress since I don't watch cable news. I know it's r-w propaganda, just based on the comments I see here at DU.


Cher

[qazplm]

6. not really

I live for sports, I'd miss all the myriad science and history programming, shows like Battlestar Galactica (although it's done now), and the chance to laugh at some of the good comedies on tv.

[PretzelWarrior]

10. I'm just saying there's more to life than those things.

that's the great thing about TV on DVD. I can watch a whole bunch of my favorite stuff without commercials at my rate and it only costs the amount for the DVD's themselves or rent them....which is much less than the total package I'd pay each month.

[Honeycombe8]

7. Give up movies? Never.

Also...you don't live alone. Big difference. I always have the TV on, sometimes just for the sound. I hate quiet. It's just so....creepy.

[PretzelWarrior]

11. that's why I have NPR on all the time when I'm alone.

when I was a drafting tech working from home back in Illinois, I used to listen to WGN and WBBM all the time. A great way to take in a baseball game..on the radio.

[Mythsaje]

8. No thanks... You all are welcome to do so, as long as you buy my books instead.

Just a suggestion. :evilgrin:

[Hardrada]

16. Mine too!

[TTUBatfan2008]

12. No, I will not kill my TV...

...but I will avoid watching the alleged "news" networks as much as possible! :P

By the way, I'm a bit of a tech geek and moviephile. I use my TV mainly for Blu-ray and my use is frequent. :)

[PretzelWarrior]

13. actually, that's what I was suggesting if you had read further.

that keeping the TV for video games or movies or such can be rewarding....but the broadcasts and cable are usually full of shit and ALWAYS full of sell, sell, sell.

[Binka]

14. I Told My Newly 8 Year Old Mom's Wallet Can't Afford Cable TV Anymore

"Holy baloney" she said "We pay for that CRAP?" I had to tell her not to say crap but her reply cracked me up.

[PretzelWarrior]

25. bahahah. that's pretty insightful for 8 yrs old.

I love it when kids start making randomly very smart and "cut through the bull" comments.

It was funny when my daughter was 6 years old, I was telling her and my wife about my colleague who was around my dad's age and had been married and divorced 3 times. She immediately pipes up, "Boy, he sure is hard on women."

Cracked me up.

[tavalon]

39. Goddess, it is so hard when they say something so honest and we have

to correct the bad word when all we really want to do is laugh in appreciation.

[TTUBatfan2008]

15. Oops...

Reading is a good thing, well sometimes! :P Sorry about that.

In all seriousness, I love my HDTV. Now I spend way the hell too much time online, that's for damn sure. Some folks are addicted to TV, I'm addicted to surfing the Intertubes.

[tavalon]

40. Yeah, my addiction to the internetz keeps me from feeling holier than thou

around my lack of addiction to TV. Sure, I can say that it's higher quality and that I choose what I fill my head with but that only goes so far, really. I mean really, how highbrow can the internet really be with the porn and Ebay and Llama, Llama, Duck, you know?

[tavalon]

38. We have a TV, we just don't have it connected to an outside feed

It's our movie displayer. Haven't had cable or rabbit ears in about 10 years.

[HopeOverFear]

17. It would seem that with High Speed Internet, you don't need television

So yes, I agree. Unfortunately, I don't live by myself so I can't make the decision to rid the house of cable tv. But if I were living alone, I'd scrap cable tv altogether and just live with high speed internet.

[Scurrilous]

18. K & R

:thumbsup:

[ljm2002]

19. I enjoy my TV!

I watch movies on it, a few favorite series like The Closer, Monk, and a couple of others, and old movies on cable channels -- the ones that play them uncut and without commercials.

As for the news and commentary programs, I gave up on those long ago. Now I get my news from the Internet, and if there is a notable clip, I know it will appear online and that is where I'll watch it. So if it's one that makes me mad, at least I didn't have to sit through a whole hour show and stew about it. Even KO, Rachel, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report -- I prefer getting the "best of" clips online. This method is time-efficient too.

You are right if you are talking about watching the TV to be informed. Really it will have a different effect: either it will have you in a constant state of anger at the lies spewed, and depression at all the bad stuff that happens; or you will end up politically brainwashed and desensitized to violence.

Same reason I gave up on newspapers a long time ago -- too much blood and gore, too much lying. The news was mostly about terrible things people do or that happen to them; the political reporting was mostly lies and omissions and right wing spin; and the business reporting was bland worthless pap.

[MoonRiver]

21. Lol, for us it would have to be a mass murder!

But if I ever do it I think I should take down the three computers too. :D

[PretzelWarrior]

26. I know! We have something like 4 or 5 working TV's in our house

and now none of them get TV signal. Ahhhhh...bliss. My wife is truly enjoying the change too.

[CBR]

22. Too many games to watch... Phillies, NFL, WVU, NBA, Tennis

etc... TV is useful.

[charlie and algernon]

23. nah, just give up the talking heads on the 24/7 news channels

I haven't watched a full episode of Kieth, Rachel, Chris, Wolf, or morning joe since the election and it's great. There's no need to worry about every little thing Obama does or doesn't do. They're nothing but political gossip shows and they're paid to make you worry.

[Terran]

27. I'm considering proposing this to my husband

We're online, we have Netflix, we read; we're paying, what, $69 a month for what is 95% crap anyway. We could really use the cost savings. Phone, tv and net are all bundled, but I think we'd save about $100/month getting rid of the tv and the landline phone. I'd miss some things sometimes, but I'm always game to grab a book and just read.

[mitchum]

28. But I want a salesman sitting in my house 24 hours a day!

[riderinthestorm]

29. Going on 20 years for this family.

Oh I wailed at the time - I had a new baby and was desperate to plunk her down in front of the boob tube for some quiet time but we were too rural for cable, too broke for satellite. We only got two stations and even those two were fuzzy.

Now I'm really aware of going into people's houses and how pervasive the teevee is to some households. 3 or 4 teevees, playstations going all the time, sports... those houses are never "quiet".

You are so right Pretzel Warrior. You read, you go outside, you talk, you watch a specific movie and then turn the teevee off. .

[Cha]

30. I killed the part of tv you're talkin' about

in Nov 2002 and never looked back. But, I can tell from DU that it's only gotten much worse.


And, guess what? Sibel Edmonds has a "Project Expose MSM" for those who want to do something about our corporporatemediaWhores.


BradBlog (1000+ posts) Wed May-27-09 01:22 PM
Original message
SIBEL EDMONDS: Announcing 'Project Expose MSM'
Source: BRAD BLOG

SIBEL EDMONDS: Announcing 'Project Expose MSM'
Whistleblowers set to name names, turn tables on media who've betrayed our trust
Newsweek reporters named in 'real-life' case example of new project...

-- Guest Blogged by Sibel Edmonds

We all have been tirelessly screaming about issues related to Congressional leaders abdicating their main responsibility of 'oversight.' We have been outraged for way too long at seeing 'no' accountability whatsoever in many known cases of extreme wrongdoing. I, and many of you, believe that the biggest reason for this was, and still is, the lack of true journalism and media coverage --- which acts as the necessary pressure and catalyst for those spineless politicians on the Hill and in the Executive branch. Or, at least it's supposed to. So, in our book, the MSM has been the main culprit.

Well, here is a chance to turn the tables. I'm happy to present an experimental project, Project Expose MSM, created to provide readers with specific mainstream media blackout and/or misinformation cases based on the documented and credible first-hand experiences of legitimate sources and whistleblowers. I am inviting all members of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), other active (covert or overt) government whistleblowers, and even reporters themselves, to publish their experiences in regard to their own first-hand dealings with the media, where their legit disclosures were either intentionally censored, blacked out or tainted.

Yes, we will be naming names -- myself included.

We will even do so below, in one real-case example, intended to help illustrate how the project will work. In the absence of the real investigative journalism and unbiased independent media we need, this is one way to set the record straight..."

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7181

Read more: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7181

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3894927

[slackmaster]

32. Yes, I have known this truth for decades

[TheKentuckian]

33. Nah, I've got sports, Star Trek, and cartoons to enjoy

No stress at all unless UK or my Raiders are losing.

[Triana]

34. I only use mine to watch DVDs and videos...no cable teevee since 2001

and haven't missed it one whit.

[tavalon]

42. One time I do remember, about three years after I got off the teat,

I was listening to the radio early one morning while painting my kitchen and the morning DJ made some crack about a lousy plane pilot and then, not too much longer after that he said that a second plane had hit the Twin Towers. I sat down at my kitchen table in shock and after a while, I went to the TV and tried to get a channel, even though I didn't have cable or rabbit ears. I got a channel with tons of fuzz and watched what I could. Then I went down to the blood bank and saw plenty on their TVs while waiting with all of the other good Americans who were flocking there to help.

That was the last time I was desperate to see TV.

[nichomachus]

35. Or, use it in moderation

If you have an addiction and can't control yourself, then by all means kill it. I haven't watched a news show or a talking head show in years. I do watch TDS and Colbert. I watch some sports -- soccer, baseball (although baseball is getting a little icky now that it's been infiltrated by the Christian Taliban). I watch Bill Maher and Graham Norton. And Project Runway -- don't take my Project Runway away. And, I'll watch some old movies.

Other than that, it doesn't go on -- and a lot of the shows I do watch, I record, so I can blow through commercials.

[windoe]

36. TV free since 2003

I am glad someone else is keeping an eye on the M$M, my tolerance for it is too low. If I were a mental health professional I would recommend turning off the TV, and do what many of us do, getting news online, renting movies and programs on DVD.

[tavalon]

37. I get so amused when cable companies call or come by to try to get me to take cable

I tell them I won't have that crap piped into my house. They never know how to respond. It's like a circuit blows in their brains.