No, I’m sorry, sweeetie. I can’t change it. I’ll lose my job.
This is what a staffer in the Duke Hospital Radiology Department said to me after I, after 90 minutes of agony, requested that the television in the waiting room be switched from Fox News to anything else.
So I listed to Fox’s panel of analysts mock the the enthusiasm around the country for Barack Obama as if people who might be inspired by someone refreshing on the political scene were as crazy as…a bunch of Benny Hinn apostles (my analogy).
Then I heard about a half-hour on sexual predators, which seems to be the favorite topic of an loyal Fox News viewer. Slow news day? What’s going on in sexual predator legislation? And the story is always delivered with mock sincerity by one of those provocatively-clad blonde Fox NILFs.
And then, did you hear how low The New York Times has sunk, accusing John McCain of having had an affair? What gutter journalism by those liberal smear-mongers! Of course, the “fair and balanced” fact that Fox News ignores is that the Times story did not accuse McCain of having an affair. It simply reports that McCain staffers were very concerned that McCain was engaged in an inappropriate relationship. The Times wasn’t trying to make it a smear story about sex. The story is about how unstable McCain’s ethics might be, in direct contrast to his crusades for lobbying and campaign-finance reform. Those who worked closely with McCain had reason to believe that McCain was behaving inappropriately. That’s a legitimate story.
Anyway, anyone who either volunteers to watch or is subjected to watching Fox News on a regular basis without other news sources truly is getting a distorted view of the world. I don’t care if those with conservative leanings want to watch it. I do care that any place of business would force its patrons to watch it, let alone a health care facility where keeping patients calm and relaxed should be a top priority.
So, who is the big shot at Duke Radiology responsible for the don’t-turn-off-Fox-News-in-the-waiting-room policy?
The audiology clinic has had the entire TV removed. But if the woman did that for you, she probably would *really* lose her job. :)
Universal Remote.
@Valerie: You mean something like this? Just $8, fits on a keychain, and it’s on its way. I’ll be able to be a remote control vigilante now…
I have never never, never understood Fox’s tagline “We report, you decide”. Decide on what? it’s news for goodness sakes. I detest fox news.
Love it! :)
Dear Toastie – I feel your pain. That’s the way I feel when I visit the other 99,999 establishments who force me to watch CNN.
I love it when people make that lame-ass CNN/Fox equivalency as though CNN somehow represents the same blind adherence to some terrorist/communist/generic lefty principles that Fox has on the right. Y’know, that Fox only exists to balance out the liberal bias in the rest of the media.
Robin, darling, the only difference between CNN and Fox is that Fox is prouder of its right wing bias than CNN. You should try watching the BBC once in a while.
Personally, i’d rather watch cartoons when i’m stuck in the airport or other public place with a TV on.
I’m pleased to report that the waiting room that forced Fox News into my brain six months ago now shows (or at least showed today) Discovery Channel, which means I got to watch a show reenacting a Thai poltergeist that had haunted an American businessman’s family during the 1980s.
They also had free Crystal Light.