[AT] OFF Topic: 4 month Verizon WAR

Fri Sep 4 04:45:05 PDT 2015

Again, Mike M and I are 100% in agreement.  I enjoyed his comments about
"news" these days.

Have you ever had something significant happen locally, big enough to make
the Big Four national news?  I've seen this at least a few times
(typically, weather events; we've had a couple that were the lead story on
the national news).  Since it's local, I naturally have a pretty decent
picture of what's really going on.  Every single time, the national news
report is superficial, hitting only a fraction of the details that would be
needed to present something like a comprehensive picture.  I know they have
time constraints but each and every time they could have told a decent
story in the time alotted; instead what came out is just the shocking
"entertaining" details which tell a very distorted version of the real
story.  It is reasonable to believe that every single story is the same -
there is NO comprehensive responsible journalism in the news.

I am politically pretty neutral, and I am bothered by most news sources,
which almost always have a bias, typically either a subtle liberal slant or
a strong conservative slant.  One of the news sources I tend to like these
days, which makes a real effort to focus on facts and responsible
journalism, is called The Conversation.  It's much more oriented toward
news analysis, versus useless up-to-the-minute "late breaking news!" sound
bites.

https://theconversation.com/us

SO

On Thu, Sep 3, 2015 at 7:04 PM, Mike <meulenms at gmx.com> wrote:

> I've never felt better than after cutting the cord, I don't care what's
> on TV because I watch so little of it. If you're the type that thinks
> you are actually getting news from any of the major outlets, then you
> are fooling yourself, and that includes FOX news, which I used to watch.
> Having two people on with opposing viewpoints and watching them talk
> over each other for 10 minutes is not news, it's crap. If you can't find
> independent sources for news on the internet, then you are part of the
> problem in my opinion.  Just remember the editor chooses what to run, so
> you are letting one person decide what you see and what you hear.
>
> Mike M
>
>
> On 9/2/2015 10:08 AM, Stephen Offiler wrote:
> > I'm with Mike M!  Over the 12 years I've lived in my current home, we've
> > been back and forth with DirecTV, cable TV, brief periods with both, and
> > now for the last couple years, none of the above.  The future of home
> > entertainment is streaming from the Internet.  We use the cable now for
> > nothing but Internet service which is somewhere around $60 a month.  And
> we
> > pay $8 a month for Hulu Plus.  (Seems like almost everyone does Netflix,
> > but somehow we get along fine with just Hulu.)  We don't have rooftop
> > antenna, because according to some website that analyzes your terrain
> > versus the signals from local towers, I'd need a really tall mast and a
> > fancy amplified antenna to grab about two channels.  I guess I live in a
> > hole.
> >
> > The huge upside to streaming, that I have not heard anyone mention yet,
> is
> > that the whole Internet acts effectively as your DVR.  You can watch
> > anything the Internet offers, and unlike either cable or satellite DVR's,
> > there's no need to decide upfront what you want to record.
> >
> > Downside to streaming is pro sports.  Or at least so I am told.  I'm not
> a
> > fan of any conventional sports like baseball or football or basketball
> so I
> > can't say for sure but I hear that it's either expensive or impossible to
> > stream sports.  I think that's where the rooftop antenna comes in.  And
> you
> > can get fairly inexpensive DVR's for antennas these days (TiVo OTA for
> $50
> > and $15 a month subscription fee).
> >
> > SO
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 11:50 PM, Mike <meulenms at gmx.com> wrote:
> >
> >> As I said before Charlie, I recently cut the cord, and couldn't be
> >> happier. I have a roof top antennae, ($40) , and I have have Netflix and
> >> Hulu, each $8.00 per month. We have not run out of stuff to watch, and
> >> were quite frankly getting sick of the PC crap the networks were
> >> cramming down our throats. My wife gets up early for work, and by the
> >> time we get evening chores done, we have about 1 hour for TV. It will be
> >> years before we run out of content, if ever. It saved me about $1000 per
> >> year, that's  a nice tractor implement each year. :)
> >>
> >> Mike M
> >>
> >> On 9/1/2015 7:16 PM, charlie hill wrote:
> >>> Steve,  I threatened to leave Dish Network off and on for years
> >>> and they would never do anything to help me.  I called and
> >>> asked for some new equipment and they refused to supply that.
> >>> I was there customer for probably 20 years or close to it myself.
> >>> Finally they sent me a letter telling me they were changing their
> >>> satellites and my equipment wouldn't work any longer.  I called them
> >>> and told them the only way I would agree to their changes was if they
> >>> did something about the amount of money I was paying them. It had
> >>> gone up over the years from about 70 bucks to over 100.  They kept
> >> wanting
> >>> to come and put in new equipment.  I refused unless they would cut the
> >>> price down to something close to what they were offering to new
> >> customers.
> >>> They wouldn't budge.  Finally the day came when channels started not
> >>> working.
> >>> I called them up and cancelled my service.  They begged me to stay but
> >> never
> >>> would offer to lower the price.  After I cut them off they started
> >> trying to
> >>> induce me to come back.
> >>>
> >>> I was going to switch to Direct TV for a couple of years but now with
> >> AT&T
> >>> buying them
> >>> out I'm not sure I want to go there either.   I've got access to fiber
> >> optic
> >>> cable but
> >>> for what I had with Dish Network on Cable would cost me over $150.00 a
> >> month
> >>> and I still
> >>> wouldn't be watching more than about 20 channels.  They structure their
> >>> "packages" so that
> >>> you can't get all of what you want in a certain category without
> buying a
> >>> high end package.
> >>> It's ridiculous.
> >>>
> >>> Charlie
> >>>
> >>> -----Original Message-----
> >>> From: Steve W.
> >>> Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2015 6:18 PM
> >>> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> >>> Subject: Re: [AT] OFF Topic: 4 month Verizon WAR
> >>>
> >>> charlie hill wrote:
> >>>> I've recently dropped Dish Network for the same reason.
> >>>> My problem is, the few stations I do want to watch are only
> >>>> available on satellite or cable and some of them aren't even
> >>>> on our local cable.
> >>>>
> >>>> Charlie
> >>> Many shows are available online as well.
> >>>
> >>> I have Dish here but hardly watch it I was all set to cancel it but
> told
> >>> the wife it was up to her as she watches a few shows. She called to
> >>> cancel and shocked the company, "You've been with Dish for over 20
> >>> years"!!  We can't let you go, how about we drop the price by $30.00 a
> >>> month...
> >>>
> >>> I've switched to watching shows online. Fewer commercials and you can
> >>> pause it when you wish.
> >>>
> >>> I just started watching Downton Abbey. Great show IF you know some
> >>> history. It follows an English aristocratic family from just prior to
> >>> WWI as they deal with the changes around them.
> >>>
> >>> LOTS of other shows out there as well as entire networks
> >>>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> AT mailing list
> >> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
> >>
> > _______________________________________________
> > AT mailing list
> > http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>