So ... I took my car in to have some work done, yesterday ...

[1StrongBlackMan]

When I walked in, fox"news" was on the TV and there were about 5 people in the lobby waiting, one appeared to be in her late 70s, 3 appeared in their mid-50s and the other appeared to be 30ish. The 50-somethings were engaged in an animated discussion of what was being "reported" on the TV; the other two seemed to be listening, but were clearly annoyed by the comments and/or reporting.

After three or four segments, I asked the counter-person if it was possible to change the channel, or failing that, just turn the TV off. She indicated that the new Service Manager had directed that the TV was to remain on at all times, and to be tuned into fox only. The group waiting got quiet as I returned to my seat; but not before one of the 50-somethings said, "I bet he's a 'Obummer nut' ... they all are."

Just then, there was a segment where the talking heads were mockingly talking about the ridiculousness of the msm's coverage of the Seamus Incident. And this seemed to set the 50-somethings off, e.g., "Who cares", "Why is that news" and (my favorite) "well at least he didn't eat the dog."

I listened as they began talking more and more loudly, and more insultingly.

So I piped in saying, "You know? I have to agree with you ... How Romney treated his dog was ridiculous and stupid; but it really isn't news-worthy."

I guess the group took that as me supporting Romney, but I think they were disabused of that notion, when I added: "But what is, or should be, worthy of consideration is how Romney is handling the matter. It gives a a look into how he would handle other unfortunate events. While he could have ended this whole narrative by merely saying, 'You know what? What I did to my dog was stupid and once I realized that my actions could have had tragic results, I thanked God my dog escaped unharmed. Everyone has done something stupid in their lives ... the smart ones learn from it and don't repeat it.'

But that's not how he is handling it. Rather he's defending his actions by minimizing it as a non-event. I, personal, look for a leader that is willing to admit that he did something stupid, when he does something that everyone knows is stupid. Do we really want a president that is unable or unwilling to admit when they are wrong? Isn't that what got us into two wars?"

I think I saw a tear in the 70 year old's eye and the 30-something nodded his approval; but the 50-something group only glared at me.

[PearliePoo2]

1. I would take my vehicle to another shop....

right there and then and tell the manager why.

[Horse with no Name]

38. Yep. Me too.

it sucks bad enough to have to sit and wait on car repairs but is infinitely worse when the atmosphere is made to be adversarial.

I guess the Service Manager likes his own little Thunderdome fiefdom.

I would have asked to talk to the Service Manager and then, barring action, took my business elsewhere and filed a complaint against the place to the proper person.

[Lionessa]

2. What a disappointment that you gave that owner your business.

With continued acquiescence like that, we'll never get anywhere. All three of you that didn't want to watch that should've immediately upon hearing that your patronage doesn't matter a hoot to that owner left the premises with your cars and your money.

[FoxNewsSucks]

3. Good for you!

I often hate the way many good liberals and democrats quietly let crap like this slide. More of us need to speak up like you did, both by demanding that the lying channel be changed and by not letting other people's lies go unchallenged.

I also would probably have left immediately after telling that 'new service manager' why. If it was a shop I'd frequented for a long time, I might give them a chance to take care of it.

Or I would discreetly use my Flipr app on my iPod to just change the channel myself. I NEVER EVER leave Fox "news" on a public tv. I was sick of putting up with that, and it is so much better to be able to change it. Most of the time, no one's paying real attention and if I change it while on a commercial, it goes unnoticed.

Get one, it really reduced my stress!

edit to add link: http://www.amazon.com/Potato-Technologies-Universal-Remote-Control/dp/B003FRTGEQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335463315&sr=8-1

[1StrongBlackMan]

5. On reflection, you (and the others) ...

are right ... I should have taken my business elsewhere when they wouldn't change the channel.

[Mr Dixon]

9. HELP

Where can I get that app? Please tell me

[Dustlawyer]

20. Obviously, I live in Tx. Here they passed med mal tort reform. The doctors offices all play it here

I ask politely for them to change the channel and I am universally refused b/c "the doctors said not to change it. I stay and talk VERY LOUDLY about how Fox is not news but a propaganda channel. Then I go on about how they are worse than the old Soviet Union propaganda machine. How anyone that watches chooses to be manipulated by corporations into doing what the corporations want.... If I don't get thrown out, I usually get stuck in a treatment room for a long time, but I wait. When the doctor comes in I give him a rash of s*#t then I leave. My current doctors have seen the light. I am getting the gadget mentioned below. If you wonder how one person can make a difference, just start standing up for yourself and you can change hearts and minds.

[Horse with no Name]

40. My Doc office in Dallas plays a closed circuit health

channel which is more appropriate for a healthcare setting...giving you diet and exercise tips and general health info.

If I had to sit and watch Fox before my visit, I'd need blood pressure medication before I got back there.

[Egalitarian Thug]

4. Not to pile on, but what they said. Really just want to K&R. n/t

[savalez]

6. Try going here

TurnOffFox.org

http://www.turnofffox.org/tools/report/

Some businesses play Fox without having thought about it at all, and may not know how divisive and dangerous Fox is. Turn Off Fox will help you work with others in your area (and across the country) to identify places that play Fox, ask them to change the channel, and explain why they should.

[Liberal Veteran]

7. I don't know why they can't choose a neutral channel like HGTV or something.

It makes me angry they inflict this shit on people.

[tabbycat31]

28. HGTV is nothing but an infomercial

They're to Home Depot what Fox News is to the RNC.

If you want a neutral channel, I suggest something like ESPN.

(Disclaimer-- I lost my childhood to home remodeling/decorating and the fact that people watch that shit as entertainment just blows me away. If I had a choice between Fox and HGTV I would choose Fox).

[rox63]

35. As someone with no interest in sports

and lots of interest in design, I'd prefer HGTV myself.

[savalez]

8. Here's your answer

Buy this gadget. It'll turn off any TV.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/755e/?srp=2

[Mr Dixon]

10. Thank u

Ordering one tonight ROFL

[SwissTony]

15. I love the fact that it doesn't immediately turn the tv off.

So, you can get up and get a cup of coffee or look at a magazine or whatever...and nobody will know!!

[whopis01]

25. It is a bit hard to be that discreet with it - you have to keep it pointed at the TV the whole time.

You have to keep it pointed at the TV the whole time. It is cycling through the codes sending them each out, one after another. It takes 69 seconds to cycle through all of them.

Not saying it is a bad idea - just that the delay is not really designed around sneakiness.

[GOTV]

26. I haven't found it to be too difficult.

The device is small enough to be completely concealed in the hand. So, say your sitting in a chair with the TV to your left. You grab the device in your right fist with the button under the tip of your middle finger and the LED pointing out between your index finger and thumb. Just be sure to leave your index finger open enough not to block the LED.

Then you cross your arms over your chest with your right fist under your left arm. You have quite a bit of freedom to move your right wrist so that the device is pointing to the TV. Then you just hold the button down and wait. When the TV goes off you need to look as surprised as anyone but you don't have to look too surprised because you weren't paying attention to it anyway.

Customers usually don't care enough to do anything about it and if the staff notice they often don't know where the remote is to turn it back on.

[whopis01]

41. Oh I understand how it works - have even coded up my own homemade version before.

Very entertaining to see people walking around a conference with it running on their badges as well.

It merely appeared to me that the poster whom I was replying to didn't understand what the delay meant and how it worked. They mentioned being able to hit the button and then go get a cup of coffee and have the tv turn off sometime while you were doing that. When I was referring to it being difficult to be that discrete - I was meaning you can't just hit it once and then get up and leave the room and have the TV turn off some random time later.

[SnowCritter]

11. Well Done!

A while back a new Hardee's opened up in the vicinity. My wife and I were out running errands and, since it was around dinner time, we decided to give them a try. They had big screen TVs installed and all of them were tuned to Fox. I didn't say anything about it but when I got home I visited the Hardee's Web site and provided some feedback indicating my displeasure. A couple of weeks later we visited the same Hardee's and, surprise!, all the TVs were tuned to the Weather Channel.

Now, I can't say that the TVs in this particular Hardee's are never tuned to Fox, but every time I've been there since Fox has not been on.

[Smilo]

19. Good for you

[spooky3]

12. Please do take your business elsewhere.

In addition to everything else wrong with this incident that you and others have pointed out, it may be a clue that you will be ripped off in the future. I don't want to detail my incident here, but that is exactly what happened to me with a health care provider who also liked to impose Fox on his customers. I switched immediately (both insurance company and provider) when my reasonable attempts to object to the ripoff and get money fraudulently taken to be returned led to a very inadequate settlement.

A businessperson who not only worships Fox and subjects his/her customers to it, but refuses to respond to a reasonable customer request to switch to a more innocuous channel, is in my opinion, someone who also does not have moral prohibitions against ripping off customers. Be proactive and reward better businesses with your hard-earned $.

[chervilant]

13. Good on you...

I bet you're not going to let that shop do your car repairs in future...

[goclark]

14. Bravo for you

Interesting because I was in a well known Bank in my hometown.
The TV's were turned to FOX News.
When I asked the Banker why everyone had to listen to that station ~ he didn't have an answer.

Of course I told him I wasn't coming in there anymore

[tonybgood]

16. Please don't lump all 50 something's into the "Fox News" category.

I, for one, wouldn't watch Faux News if were the only thing on!!!

[Swede Atlanta]

17. I changed gyms for this reason.......

While even seeing the Faux News talking heads' lips move makes my blood pressure go up 20 points and makes my stomach turn, I can tolerate it if I don't have to listen to them.

I belonged to a gym that had probably 8-10 TVs mounted in the cardio area. When I would get there in the evening to workout usually at least 8 of them were tuned to Faux News. One day I got there a bit late and the cardio area was probably only about 60% full. I took a treadmill at one end where there were only 2 other people on machines. One of them was reading on a Kindle and the other one was only sporadically looking at the TVs. Mind you the TV next to the end and the end one were two of the 8 tuned into Faux News.

I found the remote and I changed the channel of the end TV. The person who had been off and on looking up at the TV had been glancing at the second TV in and not the one on the end.

She and two other members came out of their sweat-induced slumbers to yell at me to change the channel back to Faux News. I said they had 7 other TVs on that channel they could watch. I had not tuned it into MSNBC but could have. I had tuned it into something like the local news or a sitcom or something like that. One of the other members went up and got another one of the remotes and changed it back to Faux News. I changed it back again. When he changed it again I went to the front desk and asked them for assistance.

They called the on-duty manager and she told me basically to just shut up because the majority of their members prefer to have the TV's tuned to Faux News. I told her I didn't see any requirement in my membership contract that I had to like Faux News and that I felt it was unfair to not be able to watch something other than that channel.

I wrote a letter to the branch manager and got essentially the same response. I wrote a letter canceling my membership. They tried to stiff me for another month's dues which I refused. When they called me to collect I told them I would not pay the dues because I was forced out of the gym by them. They said they would take me to collections. I dared them to do that.

Needless to say they never pursued it further. I check my credit file regularly and have not seen anything on it about this for the past 18 months. The gym I joined has the individual TVs at each cardio station.

At the gym I belong to now I see some TVs set on Faux News but a good number with MSNBC and others.

[Initech]

18. Brainless Fox bots are the worst people to argue with.

It's funny - one time a few months I was eating lunch at a Chinese place and these guys sitting next to me literally had two topics of discussion - church business and whatever was on Fox News last night. One of them commented that my fried rice didn't have any broccoli in it and it was like Bush Sr. Well I just started laughing and was like "I'm nothing like Bush" and they looked at me like

[onethatcares]

21. you did good by talking that much, but

you should have pointed to each of the 50 somethings and told them, "Good luck with your future, cause you ain't gonna have one".

It's those kind of idiots that think they're going to be gazillionaires and actually hobnob with the goobersmoochers next year.

as an aside, you can bet mittens has never sat in a service station waiting for his car to be serviced, bet on it.

[pacalo]

22. "...the TV was to remain on at all times, and to be tuned into fox only."

My husband & I were the only two people in the waiting room at his doctor's office where the tv was on Fixed News. There was a handwritten note on the side of the tv stating that the tv isn't to be touched, but I changed the channel anyway.

A nurse who had been standing behind the glass partition at the receptionist's desk then came through the door & her overall demeanor was huffy. She began going from one end table to the next, noisily stacking magazines. She clearly wanted it known that she was not happy, & it probably took every ounce of her self-control to bite her tongue.

I told my husband in front of her, "I'm not about to watch that crap. It's nothing but propaganda."



Here's what I suspect: Businesses who have tv's in their waiting areas are getting some kind of special deal from Fixed News with the stipulation that their tv's are strictly programmed on their channel. Perhaps the deal is simply paying their monthly cable bills or something more. Refusing to change the channel for patrons is simply not reasonable.

[freshwest]

23. The tragedy in this Goebbels opera you interrupted, is that the 70 or 30 YO's may not get to vote,

Because of ID or having to move to a new district to get employment there, or may be homeless and looking to keep the vehicle running.

And it is why they find it suspect that you would dare to be an Obama supporter, is anti-American and disrespectful to you as a human being with free will and a working mind.

I find it horrifying to be these guys, it feels like being in a room full of crazed, hateful zombies.

Thank you for speaking up. You gave the zombies a chance to wake up and some encouragement to the other pair of people with open minds.

I'd try to not do business with a shop whose owner demands that his customers be kept in the Fox Zone of Hate while on his premises, but sometimes they are the only business available.

[LynneSin]

27. I would have left that repair shop immediately and let them know why

There are dozens of auto repair places within 10 miles of where I live so I don't have to be stuck with a bunch of teabagger crazies working on my car. Luckily for me I live a few blocks from a good mechanic whose political alliances I do not know since they only play rock music in the shop area.

I think Michael Vick showed more remorse for how he treated his dogs than Mitt Romney ever has.

[tabbycat31]

29. Please post the name of this shop

I think the owner needs to get some DU love

[Bluerthanblue]

30. love it!

you addressed the issue in a way that a thinking person couldn't avoid having to re-think thier prejudice. And those who weren't willing to listen weren't willing to consider any view other than the one they cling to no matter what.

bravo!

[malaise]

31. Nest time take your car somewhere else n/t

[NatBurner]

32. "I bet he's a 'Obummer nut' ... they all are."

who the fuck is "they"?

i would have happily and loudly sat there and deconstructed every one of their silly non-points after that

fuck them and fuck their comfort

[newspeak]

33. sometimes I must drive my aunt or MIL to the doctors

and the doctors' offices have had the faux network on. I go out into the hall and inform my relatives I'm not sitting and listening to this BS. Twice, I've loudly told my MIL and aunt that "you would think that a doctors office wouldn't be playing this shite when people have high blood pressure, heart conditions. And, noticed that the two offices where I've made the comment have changed their channels to the travel channel. It's funny, both changed their channels to the travel channel. At least, the travel channel keeps people from getting their blood pressure up over lying shite that faux spews.

[Bigmack]

34. This country is so goddam polarized...

I find myself boycotting this company or that TV show or movie because of politics.

I've lived a long time, but I'm not sure even the Vietnam War polarized us this much.

There are two countries.

I'm not one of those "Can't we just all get along?" people, in fact I'm a "Fuck 'em!" person, but I don't see a way that this country can survive like this.

If our two countries were people.. we'd get a divorce!

[newspeak]

39. well, the media has helped polarize this country

with some of the most ignorant arseholes. Now, the CEOs didn't have to give these gigs to these shite stirrers; it seems they wanted these lying, shite stirrers for a reason. You know, I'd even listen or watch insanity, limpballs if they had an equal strong opposition actually debating them. But, they don't-they screen calls, they cut off mikes; because it isn't about logical dialogue; it's about catapulting a very damaging corporate agenda at the expense of the ignorant yahoos who listen to them.

We have been polarized for a reason and it isn't for most of our best interest.

[Liberal_in_LA]

36. .

[MadrasT]

37. I object to this new trend of TV everywhere all the time

A veterinarian I go to on occasion just installed big screen TVs in the lobby where they play HGTV 24x7.

It used to be so quiet and peaceful in that waiting area. Now it's chaos and I hate it.

At least they're not playing Fox.