BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing

Subject: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: wilco
Date: 30 Dec 02 - 03:43 PM

Need I say more. Jerry Springer. Geraldo, Oprah, spare me!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: Genie
Date: 30 Dec 02 - 03:53 PM

So, as John Prine sang, "...blow up your TV...!" :-D

Subject: RE: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: Amos
Date: 30 Dec 02 - 04:19 PM

There's no "force" except for the slavish hunger to find some spark of a culture you can be proud of out there.

UNfortunately it is pretty clear that the bulk of your efforts are doomed to bitter disappointment when it comes to getting your answer from the television set. May I suggest the Proceedings of the Continental Congress, available on the web, or the writings of Madison, Jefferson and Paine? Much more satisfying. 'Course ya gotta know how to read first...


A

Subject: RE: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: Melani
Date: 30 Dec 02 - 04:40 PM

Stop in at our house! My son will be glad to treat you to 500 repetitions of "The Best of Ed Sullivan," his current obsession. Specifically, the part featuring the Jackson 5 (Michael Jackson before his race transplant), followed by the 5th Dimension singing "The Age of Aquarius." Over and over and over and...

Subject: RE: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: SINSULL
Date: 30 Dec 02 - 08:44 PM

Anyone remember the 60s satire that had Russian spies being tortured with repetitive playings of "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini"?

Subject: RE: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Dec 02 - 09:36 PM

Jerry Springer embarasses me when I am alone in the house. I simply cannot watch him...and Geraldo has been making new clothes for the Emperor for WAY too many years now. But what can I say? It sells...(so did Benny Hill in England)

Yep...we have real culture here in the USA, but you gotta dig for it, and you need hip boots during the project!

Subject: RE: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Dec 02 - 04:51 AM

Everyone has an off button, presumably? Of course, there has to be some intelligence and motivation to do something else, but I still don't call that "forced." Having said that, we've tried cable, once again, for about 5 months and I am calling them, tomorrow, to turn it off. Even BBC America is showing nothing but reruns!

Subject: RE: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 31 Dec 02 - 10:52 AM

Let me share some elemental truths.

1. Television is not important.

2. Most intelligent Americans have stopped watching it. They may have one favorite show a week, but that's about it.

3. The television industry (yes, it's merely another business) has boxed itself into producing ever-more stupid shows for ever-more stupid people.

4. When you get your own place, you don't have to buy a TV. When your set dies, you don't have to replace it. Then you can spend the money, electricity and time that a TV demands on something you really want to do.

5. Life without TV is more fun.

Subject: RE: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: Amos
Date: 31 Dec 02 - 10:56 AM

Leenia:

How dare you assault a great American insitution!! The noive of ya!!

Unfortunately, I agree with all your elemental truths completely.

A

Subject: RE: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: Peg
Date: 31 Dec 02 - 11:49 AM

I teach media studies so I do feel a need to watch some TV. I watch too much probably, but i do not get cable so there is only so much I can watch.

The shows I really think are very good and do not like to miss are:

The West Wing
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (dumb title, amazing show)
Third Watch
ER
Law and Order
various PBS things like Mystery! (when it's on), Masterpiece Theatre, Monarch of the Glen, and As Time Goes By...

but when I am away from TV for a while (like in the summer when I go camping) I do not miss it much...

Subject: RE: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 31 Dec 02 - 05:01 PM

Well, of course, Peg, if you teach the subject, you need to keep up to date. How do you cope with the large number of channels we have nowadays?

Subject: RE: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 Dec 02 - 05:38 PM

leeneia - Hurrah for you! Couldn't agree more.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 31 Dec 02 - 07:16 PM

To address the specific topic of forced TV viewing:

As a person who has made a decision to not watch TV, I have a real problem with televisions in public places. To me, television is a drug, just like alcohol or tobacco. The only real difference is that you don't have to ingest TV into your bloodstream. It goes straight from the box to the brain.

I do not smoke or drink. Restaurants provide me with a non-smoking area, and bars serve me non-alcoholic beverages. I also do not watch TV, but in many restaurants it is impossible to find a seat from which a television cannot be seen or heard. I have asked to be reseated to a TV-less area only to be told that such an area did not exist. A couple of times I have walked out and gone someplace else to eat, but it's a real pain-in-the-ass to have to do so. I shouldn't have to change my eating plans because I don't want the encroachment of television while I am trying to enjoy a meal for which I will be paying good money. Non-smokers have the right to not have their lungs polluted in restaurants. I think non-viewers should have the right to not have their minds polluted.

Bruce

Subject: RE: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: Nathan in Texas
Date: 31 Dec 02 - 07:42 PM

It's interesting how so many people have strong negative opinions about TV, but can't imagine not having one. I was recently in a meeting where everyone had to write a "Fact about yourself that no one knows." I wrote "I don't own a television." When I was revealed as the one who had written it, everyone broke into applause, as if not having a TV was a great accomplishment. My response - if you think it's so admirable, why not do it yourself?

I don't feel that I'm missing anything, even though I've never seen any of Peg's favorite shows. I don't understand how TV viewers have time to do anything else, such as play music, read, exercise, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 01 Jan 03 - 12:37 AM

Bee-dubya-ell, when there's a TV in a restaurant, you can always sit with your back to it. Other people might be tired or lonely and just wish to vegetate, you know.

Anyway, I've noticed recently how often people won't even look at a public television. I was waiting for a plane in Dallas a couple years ago, and American Airlines had installed TV's everywhere. In my gate area, not one person was looking at them. All they did was add to the noise and stress. (It was a miserable night of storms and cancelled flights.) It would have been better to have saved the money and passed the savings on to passengers.

A month ago I went to a coffee house near home. There was a TV going in the first room, and no one was in it. Yet twelve or so were in the next room, talking to one another. Tada!

Subject: RE: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: Peg
Date: 01 Jan 03 - 01:02 PM

Leeneia: I have noticed too that public TVs installed in dumb places ended up simply being ignored. MBTA stations in Boston had them, they never worked, and not many people watched them. A building I used to work in installed them in elevators! They only played stock quotes, weather and sports updates. I hate the fact that Greyhound shows movies on their buses (I ride the bus more than a lot of people as i donot have a car). I resent being subjected to this. I now have to bring a walkman with me so I do not go nuts from listening to some stupid movie (always some horrible Disneyesque thing suitable for kids but with an adult storyline).
What the heck is wrong with reading, looking out the window, or talking? Or just THINKING, alone with one's thoughts?
As for all those channels, I do not get cable, like I said, so I am barely aware of how many channels there are. I do wish I had the Independent Film Channel, or BBC America, or Discovery or the Learning Channel. But you have to pay a lot to get these. I wish one could subscribe to cabel and get ONLY the channels they want and pay accordingly! It don't work that way.

Nathan wrote:
I don't feel that I'm missing anything, even though I've never seen any of Peg's favorite shows. I don't understand how TV viewers have time to do anything else, such as play music, read, exercise, etc.

well, I do watch TV, and also play (or sing!) music, read, and exercise! and go for long walks, and hang out with friends, and find time to work and write, too. I guess it depends how MUCH you watch. Four hours every night would leave little time left over. I can do other things while watching TV, though. Like mend clothes, peruse the newspaper, do yoga, clean, etc.

peg

Subject: RE: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: Amos
Date: 01 Jan 03 - 10:21 PM

Peg:

Well, I suspect for some people being alone with their thoughts overlong is viewed as paramount to being locked up in a cell with an uncontrollable hive of stinging, ugly insects, or worse! :>)

A

Subject: RE: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 12:02 AM

I tend to treat the television like radio, and don't just sit and watch it, with few exceptions. I was transfixed, standing in the middle of the room watching the World Trade Center explosions. TV brought in the information more completely than the radio could have. The trick was to turn it off when it started the endless repetitions.

I had a running feud going with the cable company and when I moved last winter I didn't reconnect. I've never gotten around to putting in satellite and don't miss much of it. Except the British mysteries and biographies on A&E and the old movies on a couple of channels. Basically, I have too much other stuff to do, think about, and watch (I borrow movies from the public library). I do miss the DIY programs (but I'm so busy doing it myself I don't have time now to watch someone else doing it!).

We have lots of tvs in the house; it just kind of happened, it wasn't intentional. My kids as of this xmas have small black and white tvs in their rooms, but they know I still have veto power. Around here, they're very useful in bad weather. It's the most reliable weather news around, when you're huddled in the hall with blankets and pillows as the wind and rain roar past the house in tornado alley. The kids will have these into the future--as demonstrated, they're useful for a number of reasons. I watch the news in the morning on a small black and white on the counter next to the stove. My son listens to his for his after school programs as he plays with legos. My daughter doesn't turn it on much at all. We've simply learned to ignore it, not turn it on a lot or to put it in it's proper place, in the background (and I like the local Public Radio lineup on KERA, so I listen to that all weekend).

I don't care for the public televisons either, and we have one in the lobby of the library where I work. Students have figured out to bring in programmable remote controls and now bypass the locking device on the front of the tv. Some real trash gets turned on down there.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: JennyO
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 09:17 AM

I don't watch as much TV as I used to, since I became addicted to Mudcat, and when I do, I usually do other things at the same time.

I've noticed that people generally don't like to admit that they LIKE watching TV. I have cable and don't mind admitting I like watching it. Helps me wind down at the end of the day. And I do have time for other things, and especially time to be alone with my thoughts, which I am NOT trying to escape, although some people may use TV for this.

Jenny

Subject: RE: BS: US Torture: Forced TV Viewing
From: John Hardly
Date: 02 Jan 03 - 11:08 AM

Sure, you have an on-off switch, but...