This is my experience too.
Most people won’t care. But they can’t please everyone.
I can only think of two places I frequent with TVs. There’s a short-order food place I go to sometimes with a TV; it’s usually on CNN. And the place where I donate blood has TVs visible from the donation couches, which usually seem to be on the Food Network.
Oh, and in my experience places which sell TVs usually seem to be showing Disney movies on them.
Slightly off-topic:
The exam rooms at my dermatologist’s are set up so that the exam tables face a mirror fixed to the wall, so that you have no choice but to sit and stare at your wrinkly mug in unflattering fluorescent lighting. Meanwhile, there’s a television just to one side of the mirror which shows a never-ending slide show and videos of before-and-after plastic surgery images. Jeez, talk about aggressive up-selling! Next time I think I’m going to yank the mirror off the wall and hide it behind the exam table before the doctor comes in.
Northwest Arkansas - usually Fox. My doctor’s office has Disney, which happily seems to lull smaller children into silence.
My doctor has a huge TV screen in his waiting room. It used to display before-and-after pictures of skin treatment (the doctor does laser treatments). Now it shows Korean TV–the doctor and most of his patients are Korean.
Yeah, Fox News is what I expect up here, too. Disney for kids is pretty popular, too. Though my doctor’s office often has the TV on HGTV. It seems to be based on the doctor’s own preferences, even though he’s never in there to watch it.
Fox News has been the top rated cable news network for the last dozen years. A business who wants to put on a news channel that appeals to the largest number of its customers will tend to choose the most popular option.
Regards,
Shodan
We might go to the same gym. Most the TVs have daytime dramas, talk shows or maybe sports but the only news on display is Fox and at least two of the TVs always have that on. Are there people who actively tune public TVs to this junk?
Here’s why that is. There’s roughly 25% of the population that would vote for a wet dog turd if it was red and shaped like an “R”. Those are the people who watch FOX “News”. FOX gets 100% of that 25%. The rest of the people want to see actual news and not the Goebbels production that FOX is, but they don’t really care what the source is. So that 75% gets split up several ways.
Those are true statements, but I disagree with your conclusion. Choosing the highest rated program isn’t what they should be going for. It should be the most acceptable to their entire customer basis. Here is what I mean:
[ul]
[li]Business A follows your logic and plays FN all the time. A divisive and polarizing choice. Some percentage ( I have no idea what it is, so I’m going to say 51%, just for arguments sake) Blue customers are unhappy.[/li][li]Business B is right across the street, does the exact same thing as Business A, and plays MSNBC constantly, appealing to the other 49%, but pissing off red customers[/li][li]Business C, same street, same everything else, but they play something non-divisive like HGTV or the Food Network. They alienate no political group.[/li][/ul]
No natter the political leanings of the owners, Business C is most likely to get my business, all other things being equal.
Going by your logic of the most popular thing being what is best to use, you better get use to explicit hip-hop music taking the place of the background music heard in stores, lobbies, restaurants, etc.
I’m always amazed when I see a small business vehicle like a contractor or painters truck with an advertisement on the tailgate of how to contact them, and then right below it see a “Send the 1st Nigger back to Kenya” bumpersticker.
It simply cracks me up reading the histrionics on this site about Fox News. But nary a peep about the liberal bias, in varying degrees, associated with MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, etc., etc. Yes, FN is biased to the right, but nearly all the rest are biased to the left, with MSNBC being the most glaring. People want to have their opinions validated, whether they are right or left. The liberal belief that FN is biased crap, but failing to see the same situation with other networks on the other side of the coin, is amusing.
As to the topic at hand, businesses think that customers/visitors want to watch TV news. Or just as likely, customers/visitors are actually tuning the TVs to news networks. And, yes, prepare to bunch up your panties, girls, many prefer to watch Fox News to try and escape the relentless liberal news bias of most TV networks and daily newspapers.
No, the other media have standards, Fox does not. Elected Republican official has a problem? No problem for Fox, just “accidentally” put a (D) after his name. Their audience is too dumb to know any better and it will reinforce their preconceived notion that Democrats are evil. President appearing with German Chancellor to discuss Ukraine? Cut away and complain that nobody has asked about Benghazi.
MSNBC is not the left equivalent of Fox. NBC holds them to journalistic standards and suspends or fires them if they deviate. Hosts like Rachel Maddow research their stories for factual truth and acknowledge and apologize for any errors that slip through. Guests with opposing viewpoints are welcomed and treated with courtesy. MSNBC has a Republican-hosted show in the morning, to Fox’s ZERO liberal-hosted shows. With FOX, the only journalistic rule is that if it smears Democrats, run with it.
(Long story made short) I had an experience a few years ago with a veterinarian who had militia magazines in his waiting room. THAT was a weird experience.
Even though I’m Christian myself, I avoid businesses that promote themselves as Christian when it isn’t relevant to the nature of the business. For example, there’s an oil change place down the road from me that puts Bible verses on their marquee. IMNSHO, that isn’t the place for it.
Benghazi is the new Godwin.
Let’s put it this way- is the “public” tv or radio at a business intended for the entertainment of customers or of the owner/employee?
I have little use for either rap or country music, but if I’m just dropping off a pair of shoes at the shoe repair shop, and the guy behind the counter is listening to Toby Keith or Macklemore, what do I care? I’ll be out of there in a minute. Let him listen to whatever he wants, as long as he gets my shoes fixed. In the same way, I have no use for soap operas, but if I take my pants to the local seamstress to be mended, and she has a TV on showing SPanish soap operas (telenovelas), what do I care? I’ll be out of there in a minute. Let her watch what she wants while she works.
I’d say the same about political shows. I’d gladly take mys business to a guy who’s listening to Keith Olbermann or Al Sharpton, as loing as he did good work and I didn’t have to stick around and watch/listen myself.
It’s different when you’re at a barber shop, or a tire store, or a dentist’s office. Those are places where custmers HAVE to wait around a while. A captive audience shouldn’t be subjected to political shows of ANY stripe. It’s just good business sense not to bombard your clientele with stuff you know it going to offend, annoy or infuriate a good chunk of them.
Why piss off paying customers if you don’t HAVE to?
Furious? Really? Someone does something in their place of business, as a totally free courtesy, and doesn’t force you to watch, listen, discuss the topic at hand nor take notes and you’re Furious?!?!
That utterly fascinates me. You must have virtually no ethical constitution to be so effected by such an inane, temporary, potential influence.
A place I go for lunch once in a while has fox news on w/ captioning. The captioning is so bad it’s actually entertaining! (but, I must admit, I’m not inundated by the fox propoganda - because it’s that bad)
You are correct that MSNBC is not equivalent to Fox News, but they are certainly not held to journalistic standards. 85% of their airtime is opinion.
BWAHAHAHAHA!!! This is nottrue.
Regards,
Shodan
Depends on the time of day. Prime time stuff is opinion, early afternoon is news, morning is a mix, and weekend nights are Lockup.
If Rachel had a few lapses of accuracy, she very likely acknowledged and corrected same. Or it could be that Politifact is incorrect.
Disregards,
Bob
Could you please provide a cite where Maddow apologized and corrected this lie?
Regards,
Shodan
We have walked out of restaurants that couldn’t seat us out of hearing from a TV, if not the more preferred out of sight or turn the damn thing off. No matter what, all the purty pitchers keep dragging at your eye and attention and distracting from the meal and the conversation.
I had to take someone to counseling sessions for a while, and the waiting room had a blab-box turned to the vapid brain-dissolving shit shown at 4-5 pm - Judgey Judy, Bombastic Black Host, Goofy Audience Time, all that drek. It couldn’t be turned off because it was the sound-mask for the counseling office. Between that and a couple of sessions waiting for some car service to be done… are ALL daytime-TV ads for semi-geriatric pharmaceuticals?
It does provide me with time to analyze commercial structure - they are overwhelmingly crafted to deliver their message at a single glance and to do everything they can to draw those glances. Far more so than the last time I looked at commercials regularly, perhaps 7-8 years ago. I know where all the behaviorists are employed these days…