[CS-FSLUG] Television

[Timothy R. Butler]

Hi Christopher,
> I can not help but wonder what it is that is happening to America. I 
> constantly hear radio broadcasts about various "reality" television 
> shows, sitcoms, and dramas. I regret that I have watches at least one 
> or more episodes of some of these shows and I
[...]

> not bother me, as at least my son is growing up without a need to 
> watch cartoons and he isn't exposed to all the garbage that the cable 
> companies are trying to sell us as entertainment.


	You'd hate my house then. I have cable internet and cable telephone 
(plus a dish -- cheaper than cable TV).  ;-)

	Our cableco around here allows you to buy their services ala carte, 
and their internet and telephone service are the best values in town. 
For TV, Dish Network is the best.

	Why do I like "cable TV"? Because its the only thing that provides 
anything worth watching. While I recognize that many cable TV stations 
have nasty programing, many also have far more wholesome, edifying or 
otherwise useful fare than broadcast TV. Take for instance C-SPAN -- 
I'm really starting to love that channel. It has so many great things, 
such as wall to wall coverage of the political conventions this summer, 
book reviews (one of which was filmed during a live radio broadcast 
that I was in this summer... yes it is true, I was seen on C-SPAN2 
asking a question of an author on June 20, 2004 :-)), etc. I also enjoy 
CNN/CNN Headline News and Fox News occasionally to find out what's 
going on in the world.

	Then, when you want to watch a movie or TV sitcom, you don't have to 
deal with the repulsive stuff on broadcast networks. Instead, I might 
tune into TV Land or another channel with a classic sitcom (I Love 
Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, Dick van Dyke, I Dream of Jeannie, etc.) or 
-- very occasionally -- perhaps watch a classic movie on AMC.

	For whatever reason, I also find the Weather Channel strangely 
enjoyable to watch. It's peaceful and interesting. If I'm hungry, the 
Food Channel can be entertaining as well. HGTV even has some fun stuff, 
such as a recent special event where they showed what the insides of 
RV's look like -- I mean, how often do you get to see a the inside of a 
$400,000 RV? I'm not even remotely looking to buy one, but it was 
interesting. TBN even rarely has something good on -- for instance, 
they had a concert with CCM singers such as Michael W. Smith, Steven 
Curtis Chapman, Twila Paris, etc., at the White House this spring. The 
Catholic station -- EWBT, I believe -- had a wonderful Easter special 
on this year too.

	I'm not saying cable television is right for everyone, but I do 
believe there are more wholesome, informative and even more enjoyable 
programming on these channels than one can find on broadcast TV. The 
only time I ever tune into ABC/CBS/NBC/Fox is if they have some 
Christmas special... or, most recently, I watched some NBC to see the 
Olympics. Otherwise, broadcast television is mostly filth. The only 
reason I watch any TV at all is because of the excellent, non-filthy 
stuff that is available only by subscription on cable or dish. Plus, of 
course, without satellite, the best I could hope for is an extremely 
snowy picture -- reception is tough these days -- I wonder if perhaps 
cellular towers interfere or something? I know my GSM phone messes with 
the TV.)

	(For those figuring that I must be a big TV buff, that isn't true. I 
may watch a half hour to an hour a day, many days I watch nothing at 
all... but I make especially good use of it when something is happening 
-- for instance, during Operation Iraqi Freedom, I kept CNN on in the 
background while I did other things. I'll likely do the same when the 
election nears.)

	-Tim

---------------------------------------------------------------
Timothy R. Butler       Universal Networks      www.uninet.info
==================== <tbutler at uninet.info> ====================
| Christian Portal:      | Have you not learned great lessons |
|      www.faithtree.com | from those  who  braced themselves |
| GNU/Linux News:        | against  you   and   disputed  the |
|            www.ofb.biz | passage with you?   --Walt Whitman |
---------------------------------------------------------------
Presently on "Albert" (DP PPC 970 "G5" running at 2.0 GHz)
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: PGP.sig
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 194 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <http://ofb.biz/pipermail/christiansource_ofb.biz/attachments/20040919/71927f7c/attachment.sig>