More evidence of the digital divide and of progressive arrogance. Once again, we are allowing the ignorant side of the room to have the stage.....LOL

We either should get a few progrsssives working for Fox News or urge Comcast to lower its rates on digital service so the working class can afford access to fair, progressively balanced and entertaining journalism....LOL

I wonder what the canidates for Portland City Council feel they can do about this!

Fred

Who needs MSNBC? They're just as clueless and vapid as Fox or CNN, and run even less news than either.

Paul, you're just flat wrong on that. Sure, there's plenty of idiotic celebutante coverage and the usual corporate gibberish, but there's also this:

Keith Olbermann on Scooter Libby, George Bush, and Dick Cheney

This probably has something to do with all of television going digital by 2009. It was news to me awhile back although evidently others know about it. February 17, 2009, analog (regular ol' antenna) television will be no more. You will either need to set up something specific through your cable company, or have a digital-capable television. This article can explain it alot better than I can.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shelly-palmer/the-end-of-analog-televis_b_69174.html

Kari, i've put a message out to my brother, tv writer for the KC Star (and frequent guest on NPR and other such), Aaron Barnhart (of TVBarn.com). hopefully he'll know.

did you ask at Oregon Media Insiders?

now maybe the rest of you are going to have to get your Olbermann the same we those of us without tv & any cable do -- YouTube. far fewer commercial interuptions. and not a single sighting of Scarborough.

TA! Is Aaron your brother? Is he all healthy now? I used to read his email newsletter a million years ago and we "knew" each other online (I think he was on the Well for awhile IIRC). Please give him my very best regards.

As for MSNBC, because I am a baseball fiend, I have to have my digital cable so every spring I can sign up for the MLB "Extra Innings" package (thank you Senator Kerry!), so I'm personally unaffected, but this is just terrible news. I have loved Keith Olbermann since his ESPN days and in weak moments I sometimes think that I would like him to have my baby.

It's not about bad ratings.

Last year Olbermann overtook O'Reilly in the ratings (their shows are head to head).

Kurt, no way it is ratings. Keith is soaring everywhere.

Well, actually that's what I'm worried about: That his soaring ratings may be the reason that Comcast has shoved off into the more expensive channels.

Barely-charitable explanation: They want to make more money.

Not charitable explanation: They want less people to watch.

Grr...

Most progrssive shows are kinda boring to watch. They are all hit on the same topic....how much they hate Bush and they are not very good at taking on other progressive issues. Once Clinton/Obama walk into the White House in 2009. Oberman and a few others will be out of a job or better yet...go back into sports as they will have nothing to say other than how much they hated Bush.

Now what are our City Council canidates proposing we do in Portland to address the digital divide in this city. Those that have access to the internet and digital TV and those that don't.

Fred

We subscribe to digital cable for a variety of reasons, including Noggin and Sprout. Sprout is 24/7 kiddo shows from PBS.

That's great when your family is on an altered sleep schedule like mine. I often work nights on web sites and my husband usually doesn't get home until after 12:30 a.m. That means our daughter stays up a little later than the normal kiddo (her bedtime is at 10). She's in afternoon kindergarten, so it still works out. That'll change next year.

Having Sprout allows her access to educational shows for little kids after 3 p.m., which is when Noggin ends for the day. Since she gets out of school at 2:55, she's eager for a little tv when she gets home.

I also have to admit an addiction to On Demand. I catch up on CSI (all 3 versions), Monk, Myth Busters, and other shows that way. I can't wait until ABC goes onto On Demand in the markets where their station is an affiliate (they're testing in markets where they own the local station). Then we'll get access to ABC and ESPN shows (they recently added Disney Channel, so the change is coming...).

I also love the large selection of free movies.

Most progressive shows...

Not counting cable access, can you name three? Because I can name at least a dozen right-wing shows.

And will Olbermann be out of work when a Democrat is elected. You bet! Just like Rush Limbaugh lost his job when Bush got elected. Yup. Just like that.

Some people can't get satellite service because of trees or other impediments. I used to be one of them (when I lived in NW Portland) but I got accustomed to cable then and we still have it now on the east side too.

Last year Olbermann overtook O'Reilly in the ratings (their shows are head to head).

Dream on. Check out the links on http://www.oreilly-sucks.com/politics/cablenewsratings.htm which, as the name suggests, is an anti-O'Reilly website. While their main point is that O'Reilly's ratings have dorpped, the links to actual ratings show that Olberman is still light years behind on a regular basis--O'Reilly averaging over 2,000,000 viewers while Olberman gets fewer than 700,000.

And I really have no dog in this fight; I hate Olberman and O'Reilly. They're both arrogant jerks whose shows are only about themselves and their narrow view of the world.

Gee, I can't understand why Olberman is Kari's role model. :-)

Stephanie

yes, Aaron is my "baby" brother; he's 10 yrs younger. i used to change his diapers, something he doesn't note very often on his blog. he is healthy; it took a while to find the right treatment for his leukemia, including a visitor to the huge hospital center in Houston, but he's doing well. he's back to the regular tv writers gig fulltime, all twice-a-years, the whorefests for advertisers, etc. he's able to endure American Idol and Survivor, not to mention local news, so i guess he's pretty damn healthy.

he said he'd probably cover this in his blog today. he knows why this happened (he's not just a tv writer, he's a tech geek of some measure) and he needed something for his blog today. will big brother get a tip 'o' the hat? i'm thinking, not so much.

I don't have it in front of me at the momment but I've got an issue of Discovery magazine from earlier in the summer with a feature article on forced the conversion from analog to digital. As I recall it indicated that even the conversion boxes may be iffy. The technical reasons escape me at the momment but it seems very plausible that this is at the root of this decision.

Why are we being forced to covert from analog to digital? So the government can earn billions more selling bandwidth rights. It was no coincidence that the law forcing the conversion was part of the Republican-crafted (and signed) Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. Of course it also throws a bone to television manufactorers because there are literally millions of analog television sets which will be useless very soon. There is no pressing public need or even desire for this forced conversion. It's all about $$$.

I blogged about this early this month when I first received the letter about the change from Comcast.

This is a changeover that's apparently taking place at Comcast sites throughout the country over a period of months. Atlanta last year. Colorado late this spring. So it's been in the works for a while. There doesn't seem to be any reason it had to happen this month, either.

MSNBC is the lowest-rated of the three news networks, but quite frankly there are a number of other channels on the Extended Basic Cable package that seem like they'd be ripe for moving.

I think Comcast might figure that the people who are desperate to watch Olbermann or "Hardball" during the upcoming political season might feel obligated to upgrade to digital cable. But I do wonder about the effect -- intentional or otherwise -- of restricting the cable news prime time voices to Glenn Beck, Nancy Grace, and FOX for people who are just flipping through channels.

Kari,

I can name as many progressive shows on Radio and TV as you can and then some. But that is not imporant. What is imporant is that 95% of them suck. They are all one trick platforms.....They hate Bush. Rush Limbaugh lost his TV show when Bush walked into the White House, but his radio show has continued and thrived and he makes as much in speaking fees as most of the other progressive taking heads put together. Face is, that fat, child molester is easier to listen to than the progressive visionaires of today.

There is a chance the arrogant bastards at MSNBC did us all a favor by only allowing the well financed members of progressive society to watch Oberman.

Now what are our Portland City Coucil Canidates proposing we do to address the digital divide in Portland?

Fred

Kari, here is the inside story, courtesy of TVBarn.com ("It's not tv, it's TV Barn") & my brother, Aaron:

"Please, oh please, tell me that this isn't Comcast turning out the lights on the only cable news channel that even bothers to air one progressive voice," wrote this blogger. Actually, the real reason is not as sinister as that. But you're still not going to like it.

Read the lengthy details (and if you have an interest in tv beyond who's no longer dancing this week, bookmark Aaron's site).

Aaarrrrgggghhh! The only reason to have cable (besides Comedy Central) is now gone! The one voice of reason, Keith Olbermann, is now not freely available. Another reason to move all my information gathering to the internet.

Curse all of you who had any hand in this decision. You so suck.

Fred wrote: I can name as many progressive shows on Radio and TV as you can and then some. But that is not imporant. What is imporant is that 95% of them suck.

Fred, you miss my point. I can name exactly one progressive show on cable news - Keith Olbermann. You make all kinds of claims about how many of them suck. Is there more than one?

the cable tv sorrows continue

First the Yellow Book, now Comcast--Kari, you're becoming Oregon's slightly dyspeptic Ralph Nader. I like it.

And for all of us who live in apartments, getting a dish system isn't easy as well. Some don't allow you to connect the dish to the building. Others will, but you can't connect the dish to your wiring inside the apartment. Which means you have to get the cables into your apartment within cutting any holes, and then you have to run those cables through the apartment.

We did that at our old place and it was a nightmare. When Comcast started offering broadband that was much faster than our DSL, we switched away from Verizon and DirectTV to Comcast.

Of course Verizon continued to charge us for more than 6 months for our DSL even though it was canceled. We're still fighting them on that one, even though they admit themselves that after 2 months of non-payment it would have been shut off anyway, so there was no way to reach 6+ months of non-payment. They have the worst customer service of any company I've ever dealt with.

We did digital cable since it was the only way to get Noggin and several other channels we like. And then it was their OnDemand feature we fell in love with.

But I'm no huge fan of Comcast either. They've cut off our cable for non-payment even when it's paid, the digital signal locks up occasionally, etc.

I did hear that there are apparently some members of Congress who are looking at laws that would allow those who live in an apartment complex the choice of cable carriers. Right now you're pretty much stuck with whoever the complex contracts with, as they're typically the only ones with access to the box that provides cable into all the units.

Does anyone have a choice of cable providers? Where I live, it's only Comcast.

On MSNBC....there is just one. However, Kari, there are other cable channels I guess you never watch BET....LOL I was also addressing Radio programing as well. Generally speaking. Progressive shows suck. On TV, on Cable on anything. Most are just one issue shows that offer up new ways to talk about how bad Bush is.

Now what should we do to address the digital divide in this country? An progressive canidates feel this is an imporant issue?

Fred

Been a Dish subscriber for around fifteen years now, and they're not exactly lily white either. Where I live it's a choice of two satellite providers, period.

Called 'em up about HD service a month or two back. They quoted me, I asked careful questions, consulted with my SO and called 'em back. At that point I was transfered to a service rep in Mumbai where I heard the "rest of the story" about monthly rental of hardware which was not included in the initial internet pitch or in the first follow up call.

Classic Bait and Switch.

My only alternatives at this point are to either;

1)Purchase the hardware at a local Radio Shack for around $600 and then pay Dish's $20 per month forever;

2) Rent the hardware from them by the month per the last hook of the Bait and Switch, in addition to the $20 for the HD or;

3) Switch to the other satellite service and do the whole thing there.

Dish Network, of course is owned by a smiling Colorado Wingnut who's been very active and very effective in fighting for everything that I oppose in the the whole telecom and communication universe.

1) Julian is right on: Change how the courts give corporations personhood status and you can begin to tweak changes in how politicians get money and how we elect them. If only that could be done in our lifetimes.... 2) In my area of Beaverton, where it has been Dish or Comcast, Verizon has been very busy ruining the residential streets and many folk's lawns & gardens laying the fiber-optic network that will be the backbone of their new digital internet & TV service program. Let the price wars begin! 3) Once you find Comcast Ch128, make it a favorite. Block out Fox and most of the other garbage & crap. Spend a couple hours with some good beer and the remote and set up your TV the way you like it. You can even make different groups for a particular viewer. For me, it's CSPAN I & II, Oregon Channel, TVCTV, Sci-Fi (yeah, what about it?) Comedy Central for the best news, CNN (sparingly) Cartoon Network (for Adult Swim) MSNBC, Science, History, Discovery, AMC, TCM and a couple others like that. Have resisted blocking FOX and Headache News but their days are numbered.

Sci-Fi (yeah, what about it?)

LOL no need to get defensive about it. When I'm looking to talk Sci-Fi (as in books) with fellow political junkies I head over to Center Field. Few of them are, IMO, the "centrists" that they claim they are - most tilt heavily to the right and the editor tilts pretty heavily left. But the regulars definitely know their Sci-Fi!

Fred, what's the progressive political show on BET? (To be fair, you're right - I don't watch much BET.)

I was also addressing Radio programing as well.

No, Fred, you weren't. Here's what you wrote:

Most progrssive shows are kinda boring to watch.

I suppose, if you're watching your radio, rather than listening to it, it's almost certainly kinda boring.

This is a side issue, but it makes my point: There's exactly one progressive on cable news. And now, huge numbers of Americans are being asked to pay extra to watch it. That's a travesty.

Kari,

You are not as progressive as I thought. You do not watch BET? The most sucessful Black (African American to progrssive whites) Cable stattion in human history? Geeze, you must feel the black folk that make it on to MSNBC are speaking for the avaege Black person in America....LOL

You would find more progrssive talk shows Kari if you would be open minded enough to watch the ones produced by well funded and educated people of color. No worries, you are not the only average white progressive that only watching MSNBC.

One clear example why progressive political canidates should be addressing the digital divide in this country.

Fred

OK, Fred. I'll watch. What's the the name of that progressive cable news show on BET? What time does it air?

Uh oh, "girl". You're going to be surprised by my post later today or tomorrow. I've been seeking comment from NBC Corporate. Stay tuned.