March 27, 2005
What I Want To Know Is How It Knows What Channel FNC Is On
See, this is why I love the Internet. Even if you're a humorless prig with a bug up your ass about Fox News Channel, you can find like-minded people willing to pay you $8.95 so they never have to see it on their TV:
It's not that Sam Kimery objects to the views expressed on Fox News Channel. The creator of the "Fox Blocker" contends the network is not news at all.
Kimery says he has sold about 100 of the little silver bits of metal that screw into the back of most televisions, allowing people to filter Fox News from their sets. The Tulsa, Okla., resident also has received thousands of e-mails, both angry and complimentary, as well as a few death threats since the device debuted in August.
. . .
Kimery now contends Fox News' top-level management dictates a conservative journalistic bias, that inaccuracies never are retracted, and what airs is more opinion than news.
"I might as well be reading tabloids out of the grocery store," he said. "Anything to get a rise out of the viewer and to reinforce certain retrograde notions."
Or... you can do what I do to avoid the ten religious and fourteen home shopping channels that Comcast inflicts on us here in the Fort: use the menu function on my TV to remove those channels entirely!
Let go of your hate, Sam - it's making you ugly:
And to the people sending him death threats? Geez, get a little perspective - It's not like he's selling a Bush Blocker or anything.
Hey, that's an idea - there are a lot of people out there with Terminal BDS who would probably pay not to see the President on their TV, and I'd get a real kick out of making money from their psychosis. To the Batlab!
Posted by Chris at March 27, 2005 10:52 AMCategory: General Weirdness
i think it is funny he is smart enough to create such a work-around, but too dumb to figure out how to delete the channel from his cable box's or TV's channel set-up. all i have to do to channels like the shopping or spanish language channels is hit delete on my remote.
"Some ideas are so stupid only intellectuals believe them." - Orwell.
Happy Easter.
Posted by: jcrue at March 27, 2005 12:51 PMThe obvious scam would be to offer a set of instructions on how to block FNC or whatever channel they find offensive (a separate set for each channel, of course). Then just list the instructions for several different set-top boxes to remove the channel.
Then you could include a warning that the cable company COULD restore the channel from their central station, and offer some other device to "prevent" that from happening.
Of course, you now owe me royalties if you use this idea (prior art, you know)... :)
Dammit! My lawyers weren't fast enough!
Posted by: Chris of Dangerous Logic at March 28, 2005 12:25 PM