# Fox TV, Fox News, take the pledge. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 16, 2010, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310 "2010-10-16T01:30:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/21 "2010-10-16T04:02:20Z")
HOUSE and GLEE have enough merit to think this is a bad ides. I avoid Fox News easily enough. That registers my displeasure adequately. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/22 "2010-10-16T04:12:34Z")
If you think I’m going to give up watching [the Pens](http://pittsburgh.fsninsider.com/), you’re out of your goddamned mind. (And would that also include Fox movies, like _Star Wars_?!?!) ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/23 "2010-10-16T04:45:24Z")
> [@sinjin](#): > > So no more House, Glee, Simpson’s, Hell’s Kitchen…etc for me. I have lots of books to read, movies to watch and interwebs to search. No more tithes from me to Fox. Join me or not. 🆒 You lost me at no more House. Actually, I either download all my shows or watch them on Hulu. I haven’t had my own TV for two and a half years now. I guess I could stop watching FOX shows on Hulu. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/24 "2010-10-16T04:53:42Z")
Since I’m pretty much disenchanted with House at this point, it’d be easy enough… except for Terriers over on FX. And that poor show needs me. (Well, it doesn’t, since I don’t have a Nielsen box, but it still needs my moral support.) ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/25 "2010-10-16T07:08:04Z")
It does not strike me as a necessary or wise sacrifice. Watching the Simpsons does not imporvie the rating for Glen Beck. Fox News lives or dies on its own ratings. Just not watching Fox News is enough. That said, there is one think you can do. I have noticed that a LOT of business owners, and by that I mean almost all of them, leave the TVs in their customer lounge area,s etc., why not go to them whenever you see Fox News on and ask to have the channel changed, tell them it offends you. That might make more of a dent than not watching a show when no one is measuring your not watching of it. I mean, those kind of boycotts only work if you are a Nielson family. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/26 "2010-10-16T07:20:16Z")
Fine by me, seeing as I don’t receive Fox anyway. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/27 "2010-10-16T07:59:14Z")
I’m not advocating this because it would be illegal and wrong but if an individual really wanted to twist the knife, there’s always torrents. That way one can enjoy the show but the network and the advertisers get totally screwed because the commercials are already cut out. It’s the digital equivalent of kicking them in the nuts, especially if you watch a competing network while your Fox torrents are downloading. But of course this is a moral event horizon one shouldn’t cross: jackbooted internet Nazis may kick down your door and seize your computer, the MPAA/Fox/government may sue you, your ISP may cut you off, your milk will go sour and your VCR will forever blink 12:00 12:00 12:00 et cetera. It’s bad and wrong and you shouldn’t do it. It’s rude and evil to kick people in the nuts. You know what I’m saying? ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/28 "2010-10-16T08:10:51Z")
I’m still pissed over _Firefly_. I’m in A website to promote/explain this might be useful. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/29 "2010-10-16T09:01:18Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > > [@RikWriter](#): > > > > Why would I do something so incredibly, massively silly? > > That would be like boycotting NBC just because MSNBC is so incredibly left-wing. > > I would note that MSNBC is way-fucking-way less Left Wing than FOX is Right Wing. > > Every single one of their commentators regularly chuft at the administration. Except maybe for Ed Schultz. 😃 The existence of “Morning Joe” is the simple counterexample. Until the Fox News Network gives a show of similar standing to a left-winger it is clear that Fox is more right wing than MSNBC is left wing. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/30 "2010-10-16T09:13:33Z")
> [@sinjin](#): > > I’ve always mentally separated Fox News from Fox TV, mainly because I enjoy so many Fox shows. However, I’m basically so pissed at all the Fox News lies that I have decided to boycott Fox TV as well as Fox News. I feel that by watching Fox TV I am implicitly supporting Fox News. > > So no more House, Glee, Simpson’s, Hell’s Kitchen…etc for me. I have lots of books to read, movies to watch and interwebs to search. No more tithes from me to Fox. Join me or not. Fox News is not the same thing as the Fox programming that carries Hannity, O’Reilly, etc. So you’ve really got three different entities going on: the programs you like to watch; the news outlet itself; and the commentary programs. I despise The View but I wouldn’t stop watching the network that carries it. Being a good conservative I believe that everybody has a right to their opinon (unlike those morons Goldberg and Behar who walk off their own show when a guest expresses a view they don’t like) and I take the bad with the good. What is it with you guys anyway? I thought liberals were supposed to be all about free speech, but I swear I’ve never seen a more intolerant, inflexible and would-be censorious bunch in my life. And frankly, it’s beginning to concern me. In France it’s against the law for Brigette Bardot to say things like “…the Muslim community [is] destroying our country and imposing its acts (customs)”. For this she was fined almost $24,000 (for “inciting racial hatred”) and she received a suspended two month prison sentence. Is that where we’re headed in this country? Philosophically I’ve opposed liberalism all my life, but that’s mostly been because I thought liberal ideas were unworkable and ruinous in the long run. But the more time that goes by, the more convinced I become that the most dangerous threat posed by liberalism in this country is its threat to freedom of speech and dissent, ironically two of the primary tools that liberals have used over the last several decades to advance their own cause. So go ahead and close off your mind and refuse to listen to what is being said by people you disagree with, even if it means giving up entertainment that you enjoy. But keep in mind that what you’re really doing is promoting censorship and intolerance and doing your (admittedly small) part to bringing us that much closer to having a society in which we’re no longer allowed to freely speak our mind. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/31 "2010-10-16T09:33:10Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > > [@Lobohan](#): > > > > I would note that MSNBC is way-fucking-way less Left Wing than FOX is Right Wing. > > > > Every single one of their commentators regularly chuft at the administration. Except maybe for Ed Schultz. 😃 > > The existence of “Morning Joe” is the simple counterexample. Until the Fox News Network gives a show of similar standing to a left-winger it is clear that Fox is more right wing than MSNBC is left wing. Also intensity. Hannity, Beck, O’reily and the news clones are not thinking humans. They are blind, jingoistic machines reading punch-cards from the RNC. MSNBC is more like actual traditional bias. They want the Dems to win, but they don’t insult the viewer. Even Olberman regularly attacks the Obama administration for their mistakes, whereas FOX never met a Bush policy it didn’t like. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/32 "2010-10-16T09:41:00Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > > [@sinjin](#): > > > > I’ve always mentally separated Fox News from Fox TV, mainly because I enjoy so many Fox shows. However, I’m basically so pissed at all the Fox News lies that I have decided to boycott Fox TV as well as Fox News. I feel that by watching Fox TV I am implicitly supporting Fox News. > > > > So no more House, Glee, Simpson’s, Hell’s Kitchen…etc for me. I have lots of books to read, movies to watch and interwebs to search. No more tithes from me to Fox. Join me or not. > > Fox News is not the same thing as the Fox programming that carries Hannity, O’Reilly, etc. So you’ve really got three different entities going on: the programs you like to watch; the news outlet itself; and the commentary programs. I despise The View but I wouldn’t stop watching the network that carries it. Being a good conservative I believe that everybody has a right to their opinon (unlike those morons Goldberg and Behar who walk off their own show when a guest expresses a view they don’t like) and I take the bad with the good. The problem with FOX is that they outright lie in the guise of news. And the lies are grave enough that they drive the less-intelligent members of the right into angry motion. I am unaware of any liberal movement that wants to outlaw FOX News. Performing a boycott is as American an activity as you could do. > [@](#): > > What is it with you guys anyway? I thought liberals were supposed to be all about free speech, but I swear I’ve never seen a more intolerant, inflexible and would-be censorious bunch in my life. That’s because you don’t actually see what’s going in with any clarity. You pick and choose what you count as significant because you want your warped view of reality to be true. > [@](#): > > And frankly, it’s beginning to concern me. > > In France it’s against the law for Brigette Bardot to say things like “…the Muslim community [is] destroying our country and imposing its acts (customs)”. For this she was fined almost $24,000 (for “inciting racial hatred”) and she received a suspended two month prison sentence. > > Is that where we’re headed in this country? Liberals are the ones fighting to keep free speech alive. You can send a donation to the ACLU when your next Social Security check arrives. > [@](#): > > Philosophically I’ve opposed liberalism all my life, but that’s mostly been because I thought liberal ideas were unworkable and ruinous in the long run. > > But the more time that goes by, the more convinced I become that the most dangerous threat posed by liberalism in this country is its threat to freedom of speech and dissent, ironically two of the primary tools that liberals have used over the last several decades to advance their own cause. > > So go ahead and close off your mind and refuse to listen to what is being said by people you disagree with, even if it means giving up entertainment that you enjoy. But keep in mind that what you’re really doing is promoting censorship and intolerance and doing your (admittedly small) part to bringing us that much closer to having a society in which we’re no longer allowed to freely speak our mind. Yeah. Those darn liberals and their censorship and intolerance. Keep fucking that chicken, SA. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/33 "2010-10-16T10:35:34Z")
> [@sinjin](#): > > > [@RikWriter](#): > > > > Why would I do something so incredibly, massively silly? > > That would be like boycotting NBC just because MSNBC is so incredibly left-wing. > > Does MSNBC’s left-wing agenda infuriate you as much as FOXNEWS’ lies infuriate me? If so why _don’t_ you boycott NBC? Because we are not a Neilsen family, so they’d never know I was gone. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2010, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/34 "2010-10-17T00:23:17Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > What is it with you guys anyway? I thought liberals were supposed to be all about free speech, but I swear I’ve never seen a more intolerant, inflexible and would-be censorious bunch in my life. Oh for the love of sweet Beavis – you’ll look for ANY excuse to bash “liberals”, won’t you? :rolleyes: Boycotts ARE free speech. They have nothing to do with censorship. If I disaprove of something, I’m free to express that. Boycotts were very common during the Civil Rights Movement. Just…go away. Get a new hobby. This one is stale. (Granted, I said I do NOT agree with the OP at all. I’m watching FSN as I type this. But again, this isn’t censorship. Why would I give MY money to something I adamently despise?) ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2010, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/35 "2010-10-17T04:12:45Z")
[News Corporation - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_Corporation) The parent company is News Corp., one of the 3 conglomerates that owns all the entertainment in the world. It would be hard to boycott them all. It will be easy for me to boycott Fox very soon. they are in dispute with Dish/ and Comcast over the huge price raise they want. They are only worth 120 billion or so , so i understand their desperation. So they will shut all Fox programming down. they have already stopped the baseball playoff in New York. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2010, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/36 "2010-10-17T06:06:43Z")
Unless you’re a Nielsen family than the boycott is pointless. If no one knows you’re watching, then they also don’t know you’re NOT watching. The better thing to do is watch the show and write down who is taking ad time. Then write to those sponsors and say, “Not only will I not be buying your product, but I will go out of my way to purchase the product of your competitor.” (Make sure the competitor doesn’t also advertise on Fox or again the exercise is pointless) ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2010, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/37 "2010-10-17T06:54:07Z")
The thing is, the potential audience is likely a bell graph where the people who hate Fox and the people who love it are pretty evenly distributed at the far ends. Thus for every person who hates Fox on the left, there’s another one who loves it on the right. So in reality, the more Fox can alienate people on the left, it’s that many more viewers they’ll gain on the right. So in a perverse sense, the OP is providing Fox with another viewer by refusing to watch it. Things don’t work out that neatly on an individual basis of course, but generally speaking the numbers hold true. And advertisers know this. So for every letter a leftie sends refusing to buy an advertiser’s products, that advertiser knows that it’s picking up a corresponding viewer on the right. So from the advertiser’s point of view - at least with regard to this kind of programming - a boycott letter from someone on the left is like a love letter from a new viewer on the right. So I wouldn’t expect much to come from a boycott letter to the advertisers. They know what they’re doing, who the programs they sponsor alienate, and which side their bread is buttered on. (And I imagine there’s some double-dipping going on too, where the same advertisers who advertise on Fox also advertise on MSNBC, etc. too. Ain’t _that_ a bitch! :D) ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/38 "2010-10-18T15:10:58Z")
Boycotts are stupid. My refusal to watch Fox or Fox News would mean nothing to them or their sponsors since they are the number one rated news network without me already. They have huge hits such as Glee, House, and American Idol. One person not watching them could never even be noticed by them. Yet I get a good deal of enjoyment out of watching The NFL and American Dad on their network for free. So your asking me to make my life less enjoyable in order to hurt Fox to such a small degree that if a thousand people did the same thing they still would not be harmed in any fashion. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/39 "2010-10-18T15:42:47Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Boycotts are stupid. My refusal to watch Fox or Fox News would mean nothing to them or their sponsors since they are the number one rated news network without me already. They have huge hits such as Glee, House, and American Idol. One person not watching them could never even be noticed by them. Yet I get a good deal of enjoyment out of watching The NFL and American Dad on their network for free. > So your asking me to make my life less enjoyable in order to hurt Fox to such a small degree that if a thousand people did the same thing they still would not be harmed in any fashion. More importantly: Even if I were a Neilson family, if I started boycotting Glee, say, it would only affect the ratings for that show, with the eventual result that Glee would be cancelled. It wouldn’t have any affect on Fox News at all. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310/40 "2010-10-18T22:33:50Z")
This is an unbelievably stupid idea. You are trying to produce change in one small branch of a giagantic multinational by boycotting a different branch of that same multinational. [Here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_News_Corporation) is a list of NewsCorp holdings. A change in Fox TV ratings isn’t going to change the editorial content of Fox News any more than a change in circulation numbers for The Wall Street Journal is going to change the editorial content of The New York Post. Stupid idea. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-tv-fox-news-take-the-pledge/557310.md?page=3)