Outside the Beltway

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Right-Wing Musical Chairs on Satellite TV

Weirdly, politicians who don’t understand the debt ceiling also don’t understand other things.

Steven L. Taylor
18

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Photo by SLT

In case you were worried that DirecTV was out to rob viewers of the chance to see right-wing media outlets, the Daily Beast notes: DirecTV Adds Another Right-Wing Network After Dumping Newsmax.

Among the programs featured on The First are The Dana Show, hosted by former NRA flack and firebrand Dana Loesch; No Spin News, the podcast hosted by O’Reilly after his Fox News ouster; a primetime show, titled The Liz Wheeler Show, hosted by ex-OAN anchor Liz Wheeler; and a program helmed by right-wing radio host Jesse Kelly.

I am sure everyone is relieved to know that O’Reilly hasn’t been denied a platform.

One of the things about this overall story, such as it is, is that I am old enough to remember when Republicans allegedly believed in the market’s ability to make these decisions and believed in the wisdom of corporations. These days people like Lauren Boebert rant about getting the government involved (via Newsweek).

The House Oversight Committee is going to investigate DirecTV’s joining the “woke mob” to “censor conservative speech,” according to committee member Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., on Newsmax.

“I’m absolutely disgusted at DirecTV, who’s owned by AT&T, at what they’ve done to join the woke mob and censor conservative speech,” Boebert told Thursday’s “Prime News.”

This is just the latest attack on conservatives by Big Tech, she added to host Jenn Pellegrino.

You know, as limited government does.

(Side note: I cannot tell you how ridiculous the usage of “woke” has gotten. The most absurd example I have seen is this one from Fox News: Xbox becomes first ‘carbon aware’ console, but not everyone is happy: ‘Woke brigade is after video games’. It is about the horror of saving power. You know, as Marx predicted).

Of course, it is all about money, and the dispute between AT&T and Newsman was about fees (and viewership was part of that). Indiewire has some of the numbers: DirecTV Dropping Newsmax Is ‘Censorship’ — or, Just Good Business. The numbers show Newsman’s relative position vis-a-vis other news outlets, but I would note that they are overall figures, not DirecTV rating alone.

Regardless, Boebert and company seem not to understanding what “censorship” is. To wit:

“Anyone, including our customers, can watch the network for free via NewsmaxTV.com, YouTube.com and on multiple streaming platforms like Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and Google Play,” DirecTV’s Wednesday statement continued. “We continually evaluate the most relevant programming to provide our customers and expect to fill this available channel with new content.”

Because, having the channel accessible by various means that are in all of those cases easier to access than satellite transmissions is not the hallmark of silencing Newsmax. Granted, if you are an older customer in a rural area who lacks internet access then satellite TV may be your only option.

Wistful side story: the above photo was taken in my grandparents’ backyard in 2008. My grandfather was an early adopter of satellite TV (hence the big dish) back in the late 70s/early 80s–I don’t recall exactly when. When he first got it he could get a host of unscrambled TV for free, but that changed over the years and he eventually had to move to the small dish. To my amusement you used could see the big one if you looked up their house on Google maps. They had to move out of that house in 2018. The house was demolished to make way for a bigger one (their place was in a prime location in north Dallas). They passed not long thereafter. My grandfather died in 2019 and my grandmother in 2021.

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18 responses to “Right-Wing Musical Chairs on Satellite TV”

  1. Flat Earth Luddite Avatar
    Flat Earth Luddite

    I enjoyed the wistful side note and your memory of the grandparents. And noting that they seemed to be using bricks to hold the small dish in place

    My side note is that I hope Roku doesn’t add this new package. I’ve got enough work skipping stuff I’m not interested in there already. Ah, 1st world problems at Casa Luddite

    3
  2. Just nutha ignint cracker Avatar
    Just nutha ignint cracker

    @Flat Earth Luddite: I think you’ll be safe. SWMBO has never struck me as a “let’s surf the ‘Search’ feature of Roku looking for new stuff to add to the library” type. (Unlike yours truly.)

  3. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @Flat Earth Luddite: I am honestly not sure if the bricks were necessary, but it was the kind of thing they would do.

    I only look at Roku’s “live” lineup on occasion and did note at one point that OAN was in the there, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Newsmax is as well.

  4. Sleeping Dog Avatar
    Sleeping Dog

    Yes the R’s were once the party of markets, business and capitalism, but those days are gone.

  5. Flat Earth Luddite Avatar
    Flat Earth Luddite

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:

    Yeah, but unlike her, I’m likely to be surfing at 3am waiting for the meds to kick in. Oooh, an episode of Supercar I don’t remember… and wait, is that Route 66?

    1
  6. Flat Earth Luddite Avatar
    Flat Earth Luddite

    @Steven L. Taylor:
    Yeppers, Newsmax is in the lineup. Wasted bandwidth, IMO

  7. gVOR08 Avatar
    gVOR08

    @Sleeping Dog: It is entertaining to watch conservative attitudes toward markets, business, and capitalism. Undying, immutable conservative verities seem rather fluid these days, as they always have. Part of it is a no true Scotsman thing. Newsmax can’t be unpopular, all their friends watch it. Disney accommodating gays can’t really just be marketing. But mostly, as with woke, it’s just that they can’t understand our culture has moved on and left them standing alone. Unfortunately, they insist on waging a culture war with political weapons.

  8. Scott F. Avatar
    Scott F.

    I cannot tell you how ridiculous the usage of “woke” has gotten.

    The power of “woke” comes from how meaningless the word itself is. “Woke” is infinitely adaptable to any “anti-me” sentiment the rightist wants to apply it to.

    For myself, I get a chuckle. If “woke” is the thing you are not, then you would be its opposite – “asleep.” (If you haven’t seen the Star Wars series Andor, I would recommend you do, especially the season finale wherein being “asleep” in regards to a governing fascist state like The Empire is properly repudiated.)

    2
  9. Gavin Avatar
    Gavin

    Conservatives never believed in markets at all — they just wanted to use that word as a stalking horse to achieve their goals which haven’t changed.

    This isn’t a discourse on the definition of the word Market.. but rather an observation that Conservatives aren’t [and never have been] some sort of impartial analysts who have a slight disagreement.

    They were only in favor of corporations if and when those entities Did As They Were Told — meaning generate a result R’s magically already agreed with.

    1
  10. Kurtz Avatar
    Kurtz

    Re: X-BoxThe update doesn’t disable anything, it merely changes the default mode. Nor does it cause much of a difference other than slightly increasing startup time. Users are free to enable sleep mode if they cannot wait a few seconds.

    That didn’t keep Ted Cruz from tweeting.

    First gas stoves, then your coffee, now they’re gunning for your Xbox.

    So the manufacturer of a device implements a change that reduces power consumption. Many users wouldn’t even notice a difference if not for a sitting US Senator and his supporters in media amplifying said change. And this is somehow ‘them’ coming for the devices.

    Not to mention it stands to reason that the new default settings will save money on the electricity bill. But I am pretty sure this shit will be repeated at least for a little while.

    This is America on Ted Cruz.

    1
  11. Sleeping Dog Avatar
    Sleeping Dog

    @Kurtz:

    Not to forget that providing the device with the ability to go into a “sleep” mode also has the effect of extending the functional life of several components, most notably the power supply.

  12. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @Kurtz: It is just so utterly ridiculous.

    1
  13. gVOR08 Avatar
    gVOR08

    @Scott F.:

    “Woke” is infinitely adaptable to any “anti-me” sentiment the rightist wants to apply it to.

    As are “CRT”, “grooming”, “anti-police”, “BLM”, “Antifa”, and any number of other words and phrases. The principle also applies to “collusion” which allows moving the goalpost past whatever Trump is currently known to have done.

    When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.

    1
  14. Mister Bluster Avatar
    Mister Bluster

    Aunt Tenna

    One of my earliest memories of visiting my grandparents house in Danville, Illinois for summer vacation, a 600+ mile pre interstate/turnpike drive from Rochester, New York on US Route 20 in the ’50s, was the TV antenna tower next to the house that extended above the second floor. Complete with rotor. There was no TV station in Danville and this is what they needed to pick up 2 television stations. One from Champaign and one from Decatur.
    Gramps was a true Boilermaker. He never went to Purdue. He retired from the C&EI Railroad shops in the late ’50s.
    He had two easy chairs. One in the living room next to an old AM radio to listen to the Cubs games and one in the dining room where the TV was so he could watch the Three Stooges every afternoon.

    5
  15. Flat Earth Luddite Avatar
    Flat Earth Luddite

    @Mister Bluster:
    The family farm had 2 channels that (sorta) came in during daylight (1 Seattle/1 Canadian), and 2 additional channels sometimes available late at night, via “skip.” Wasn’t until we were in town that I realized that the static and “click-click” sound I attributed to “media” was in fact the bleed-over from the electric fence and milking equipment. Good times (and memories) indeed.

    1
  16. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    In the summer of 97, I spent a few days at a borrowed house with a satellite dish. This was either before all worthwhile feeds were scrambled, or when you could still upgrade to a new circuit board every few months and keep up.

    There were magazines available with the schedules of what would show when on which channel. Or one could channel surf, if one had the patience to wait for the dish to move.

    I don’t recall much of what I was able to see, except two things. One was part two of B5’s War Without End, possibly the best ep in the series. The other was CNN’s coverage of NASA’s Mars Pathfinder mission, the very first Mars rover (though it only roved near the landing site).

    It was great compared to cable at the time, and let’s not mention over the air offerings. Still, IMO today’s streaming-centric TV experience is even better.

  17. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @Kathy: My Granddad would get those magazines and he had a list of satellites you could point the dish at.

    I remember early on he could get any NFL game he wanted and even listen to the commentators banter during the commercial breaks.

    But yes: I concur about today’s streaming. My kids don’t know how good they have it!

    1
  18. Mister Bluster Avatar
    Mister Bluster

    I was born in 1948. Can’t say exactly when I was first aware of TV but I do remember seeing tanks and other war scenes on TV newsreels from the Korean War. My brother was born in 1953, the year the war ended. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t around yet when I was asking my parents about why there was war. I vaguely remember them saying that there were bad people in the world.
    Doesn’t seem that the human condition has changed much in my 75 years.

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