Every so often I think, “maybe we should buy a TV”. Then I read stuff like this catch at Amygdala:
Katie Couric just led off the opening story on tonight's CBS Evening News by announcing that “President Ahmadinejad of Iran, an enemy of the United States, arrived tonight….
That's just the sort of neutral reporting I want to expose myself and my family to on a nightly basis.
As Gary Farber says, is there an official national enemies list somewhere?
Nixon must be smiling in his grave. Actually, you know it's bad when the administration starts making you think Nixon was better than what you've got… After all, they stole both money and elections on a much smaller scale….
And CBS, even after he and Agnew broke its spirit, was never this deferential to Nixon.
American football is pretty good on one of those hi-def thingies. You get to see more of the field at one time, and you don’t have to pay attention to the announcers unless you want to. There are other hi-def channels, both over the air and through cable, that are pretty good. Katie, and other newsreaders, can be bad in hi-def. You can see all the blemishes, as well as hear them. Video games can be good on a hi-def screen, particularly the wii. With a wii, you can also get some exercise as you play.
Geeeez. I haven’t had a TV for close to ten years. I gave it to Goodwill one morning after watching Dan Rather on CBS news and thinking “this is supposed to be the liberal anchor?” As far as watching pro-sports: I pay the taxes that built The Seattle Mariners, Seahawks and Supersonics stadiums. I’ve done enough for these “teams.” I will not use up my time to watch and cheer these parasitic corporations on. There is a whole world out there folks. If you are lazy like me I recommend a cup of coffee under a cafe awning reading a good magazine or book while it rains.
Mildly correcting Joe, above, the Wii does not play in hi-def. You need the PS3 or Xbox360 for hi-def resolutions. Not saying you can’t get good picture quality out of the Wii, but they are not very comparable.
As for whether you should have a TV, the answer to me is “of course you should.” As bad as Katie is, you can find lots of stuff worth watching, particularly if you have DirecTV or digital cable. DiscoveryHD, Simpsons, Family Guy, Sportcenter, history channel, Adult Swim, movies, all kinds of sports in HD…Good stuff.
Mildly correcting Joe, above, the Wii does not play in hi-def. You need the PS3 or Xbox360 for hi-def resolutions. Not saying you can’t get good picture quality out of the Wii, but they are not very comparable.
As for whether you should have a TV, the answer to me is “of course you should.” As bad as Katie is, you can find lots of stuff worth watching, particularly if you have DirecTV or digital cable. DiscoveryHD, Simpsons, Family Guy, Sportcenter, history channel, Adult Swim, movies, all kinds of sports in HD…Good stuff.
We shut down the TV about 4 years ago. My family pretty much went into withdrawals for a month or two, but none of us regret the change. There are a lot of better ways to spend your life than staring at the TV.