Help Turn Off Fox
Have you ever looked up at the television at a local business -- your gym, an auto shop, a bar or restaurant -- only to find Glenn Beck or Bill O'Reilly shouting down at you? Often without thinking about it, many businesses and other public establishments are providing a vehicle for Fox News' attempts to divide America. Now you can do something about it.
Today, ColorOfChange.org is launching Turn Off Fox -- a massive campaign to get Fox News turned off in stores, restaurants, and other public places.
There are several ways you can get involved:
- Join the campaign by signing our petition calling on businesses in your community and across America to turn off Fox News Channel (you'll also get a free TurnOffFox sticker!)
- Know of businesses or other public places that play Fox News? You can help us identify them, and if you're willing to talk with them, we provide materials that make it easy to explain why they should change the channel.
- If there are businesses you know that want to tell the world they would never play Fox, you can help them declare themselves a "Fox-free zone."
- Spread the word and get your friends and family involved in the campaign.
Please check out TurnOffFox.org, join us, and get involved!
Get your free Turn Off Fox sticker
When you join the campaign, you'll also have the opportunity to get a free Turn Off Fox bumper sticker -- and even the shipping is free! You can get 5 stickers for a donation of $3, 20 stickers for $10, or 50 stickers for $20. Getting stickers (and sharing them with your friends) isn't just about making a personal statement of your values. It helps to build awareness of our brand and our message, and makes it easier to educate folks about why Fox News is unparalleled in its propagation of division and bigotry.
Here's a summary of why we are asking businesses and other public establishments to refuse to play Fox News Channel:
- Fox News divides our country. Fox News hosts and guests regularly attempt to pit groups of people against one another - white against black, US-born against immigrant, gay against straight and men against women.
Some of the network's most divisive rhetoric is spouted when the topic of race. In July 2009, Fox host Glenn Beck called President Obama a "racist" who has "a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture" -- a statement with which Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch has since said he agrees. Frequent Fox guest Jesse Lee Peterson has said that most black people lack moral character, and cited "what they did to the dome" after Hurricane Katrina as evidence. Recently, Fox News contributor John Stossel called for the repeal of a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prevents business owners from discriminating based on race. And Fox News hosts Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity were the first to air maliciously edited video of Shirley Sherrod's speech to the Georgia NAACP -- video that cost Sherrod her job with the USDA. The recent episode involving Sherrod has helped confirm what we have long known -- that Fox is a propaganda machine with no regard for the truth.
Glenn Beck calling President Obama a "racist" was the most blatant example of Fox News leading the effort paint the President as someone who harbors and acts upon deeply held prejudice against white people. But the network consistently tries to create the impression that black political and civic leaders want to "get even" with whites by taking their wealth and giving it to blacks.
We've seen the hateful atmosphere that has arisen at Tea Parties because of this false narrative. As the House of Representatives deliberated over health care legislation this past spring, some Tea Party members gathered outside the Capitol shouted "Ni**er!" at black congressmen. One of the protesters spat on Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver, while another called openly gay Representative Barney Frank a "faggot" as the laughing crowd imitated his lisp. The Tea Party has been uncritically promoted and embraced by Fox News since its inception.
- Fox News is dangerous. The connection between the network's inflammatory, violent rhetoric and its real world effects is clear. Two examples demonstrate this, though more exist.
Last year, abortion doctor George Tiller was gunned down in his church after being demonized for years by Fox's Bill O'Reilly as "Tiller the Baby Killer." O'Reilly had compared Tiller to the Nazis and to Al-Qaeda. He said that Tiller had "blood on his hands" and that he wouldn't want to be Tiller "if there is a Judgement Day."
In another example, a man armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a handgun opened fire on California Highway Patrol officers on an Oakland freeway in July of this year. After he was apprehended, police determined the shooter was on his way to the American Civil Liberties Union and Tides Foundation offices in San Francisco to kill people. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the shooter's mother said that her son watched a lot of television news and was angry at left-wing politicians and organizations. While many Americans are aware of the ACLU's work, the Tides Foundation is a little-known non-profit organization that most people had never heard of -- until Fox's Glenn Beck started demonizing and spreading false information about the organization. Since Beck's show premiered in January of 2009, he has pushed conspiracy theories involving Tides on nearly 30 episodes. During the same time period, Tides was never mentioned on other cable or network news channels, according to a report by the watchdog group Media Matters.
- Fox News Channel isn't really news. Real news stations don't engage in smear campaigns founded on lies and half-truths.
Fox News insists that they're a legitimate news network. They engage in divisive rhetoric, race-baiting and attempts at character assassinations, but they do it all under the guise of reporting the news. Often the mainstream media eventually takes the bait and runs with Fox News' distortions and smear campaigns. When businesses and public places play Fox News, they become a conduit for its stream of misinformation, and it contributes to the misconception that the network is a credible source for news and information.
This campaign is about organizing people to use their feet and their dollars to encourage establishments not to spread Fox 's poison in their communities.
To learn more, and to join the campaign, please visit our website at TurnOffFox.org.
on our Time-Warner cable system at home. Even the sports and business tenticles.
I would block Fox entertainment if they didn't carry Family Guy and the local affiliate owner was such a pillar in the Raleigh/Durham area.
but don't worry, we here at crooks and liars will exemplify our greatest american value of hypocrisy by bringing you the good bits from fox
The wingnuts contend that it's a freedom of speech matter----- It's not, it's blasphemy, slander and unamerican, just like their bastards demonizing religion.
They'll talk about the sanctity of the constitution if it gets them what they want. If they want something else, they'll demonize the constitution.
bribery....Rupert pays big bucks to businesses to feature his brand of mendacity.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
Is it the demonization of religion when people worship the devil?
ALL HAIL LUCIFER-BOB!!!
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
.
Fox has an absolute right to do what they are doing. But should they? I would never say they didn't have free speech. The KKK and the Westborough Baptist Church have free speech too. That doesn't mean it's OK for them to do it without facing public scrutiny and consequences.
Well, freedom of speech includes criticism and freedom of the press includes being able to investigate what Fox is involved in. Anyway, I thank God every day for the wisdom to not have cable...ever. :-D
O'Reilly got away with it once when he advoccated Dr. Tiller's killing.
It's time these people are held responsible like any other citizen and be
charged with accessory to murder.
I told them I would not eat there if they didn't change the channel. Now they have ESPN on :-)
So walk out and take your money with you. Money is the only true American god. They'll pay attention when you walk out. Make sure you tell them why you are walking out, loudly if possible.
far left loon >.<
if they won't let me change it from Fox.
The sad reality is a lot of cable systems offer Fox as part of their basic tier while other "outlets" like MSNBC or CNN are part of a higher-paid service package.
You've got to have the foxaganda available to the masses for it to work effectively.
Turn off Fox.
This is not my father's America
Often times, it's not the "business" per se who turns on the television, it's a customer who asks to watch it, and an employee, who's tip might be dependent on the customer, obliges.
There was a post on dailykos last week about Fox buying flat screens, and cable service, for restaurant chains in the midwest on rigging the sets to only show Fox News.
Differing opinions should not be censored, nor should shop owners be told in this regard what they can and can't have on their televisions. This is is wholly different than the denying of basic rights to frequent an establishment due to race. If you don't like what's on the telly, don't watch, ask the owner to change the channel or find another locale. Yes, I know in small towns options are limited.
I would much rather see more teeth put into FCC regulations around cable television to penalize the spread of disinformation and outright lies.
I think that's the way to go.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
agree completely with me. Or vice versa.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
you fully support this campaign? Since it is doing just what you suggest.
No. There is a difference between pressuring a business to not put on a particular channel at all, and ASKING them to change the channel when I'm there.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
I always ask them to turn off Fox.
They have always complied.
Your business is more important to them than a t.v. station.
To make things easy, lately I have been asking if "the game is on?" They are always more than willing to turn to sports, and the rednecks don't mind losing their propaganda to a ball game.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
The customer is king. Exercise your rights or walk. Of course they can leave Fux on their TV, and you can go elsewhere. Take your money away from them.
far left loon >.<
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOrFlGWaMPU
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
that the only time I ever asked a bartender to change the channel from what I considered objectionable programming (it wasn't Fox, we don't get that here) he picked up the remote and turned the volume up. People are like that.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
That's when I pay my tab and leave without tipping. Let his ego eat his wallet.
EXACTLY. Use your spine, if you've got one.
far left loon >.<
That's when I accidentally spill my drink and leave without tipping.
Even better. Tee hee.
far left loon >.<
A better solution: turn off TV altogether. If and when the broadcasters ever begin running content worth viewing, we can all tune back in. In the meantime, talk a walk....talk to your neighbors....play with your kids....write a poem...
Are you supporting taking their 1st amendment rights away? Blasphemy!! Blasphemy!!
You got some 'splaining to do Mr.!!
You know, since corporations are "persons" now and all.
Which begs the questions:
Can corporations be institutionalized? Found mentally or medically unfit?
I've been doing this for the past seven or eight months.
I go to a restaurant and if FOX News is playing nearby, I would simply ask to change the channel to either ESPN or the Weather Channel.
However... I'm a fan of "House", "Lie to Me", "Human Target" and "Fringe" ("Hell's Kitchen" is a guilty pleasure of mine) so, it'll be hard for me to give those up.
"When are we going to stop trying to tell elected officials what to do. Our job is to spend the taxpayers' money the best way we can." -- Tommy Watkins, Justice of the Peace, Crawford County, Arkansas
Just as if it is pornography. If you want to see it, you have to know the password.
Government + the Federal Reserve = organized crime
I ended up changing barber shops because not only did they always blare Fox News, but their barbers started raving about the Tea Party and how the president is a Muslim. It's not fun, especially when you're a captive audience.
About 6 months ago, I was in a car shop having my oil changed. They had faux news on, and I made a comment to one of the guys working there. He didn't say anything.
Earlier this week, I was in that same shop having some more work done to my car. This time, they had ESPN on. Don't know if what I said contributed to them turning off Fox, but I guess it didn't hurt.
Well, I'll try this again. Seem to be having trouble inserting URL links, using the link button above.
Here is an article from Forbes Magazine concerning the lies that repukes and faux news spread about the expiring bush tax cuts:
http://blogs.forbes.com/beltway/2010/08/25/re...
Forbes is a pro-business magazine, isn't it? And they still feel fit to point out the lies being spread by the repug party and faux news!
but do not want to give them email or other personal info...don't need the inevitable spam. However one place that's big on FOX Fruadcasting is CarMax. Their waiting rooms in the service areas run it incessantly. CarMax gives great service, but the FOX propaganda is pervasive, enough so that I don't like going there. They ask for feedback from every customer, that's a complaint item to remember to mention.
You don't have a junk email account set up for these things yet? Open one.
far left loon >.<
Along with targetting businesseses on a personal level you should starts a public campaign to boycott businesses that play Fox on their Public TV 's. If you can generate a lot of publicity on that issue businesses will voluntarily start avoiding the channel as a preemptive move. In this economy, NO business wants to loose a single customer over what's on their TV. If they are, then they are obtuse bastards and they don't deserve the business anyway.
Bartender won't change the channel? Check please . . no tip. After they loose a couple tips over it they will rethink. . . unless they are obtuse bastards who deserve to loose tips and business.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teMlv3ripSM
I work at a local public college. We had flat screens put in our dining commons last year, and they had Fox blasting away the first morning.
So I basically pinned the ears back on facilities manager. Now we've got ESPN and CNN. Not perfect but better. EXCELSIOR!
Whatever happened to the talk show hosts who knew the issues and could outthink and outmanouvre their guests, and never resorted to bellicose tactics?
The odds are their knuckle-dragging troglodyte followers feel that shows they pawned their guests...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
in my job, and I can't believe how many hotels have TVs that bring up Fox News first when the TV is turned on, and have Fox News on in the lobby. Especially in the morning for breakfast. At one breakfast buffet a sign read "Food Items May not be Taken Back to Rooms." I told one of the attendants either "Fox and Friends" has to go or I'm taking my food somewhere else. She disappeared for a moment, came back, and said "the manger said you can take your food back to your room."
I don't book my hotel so I have no control over it, and my employer just cares about who will give them the best rate.
I've seen some stuff, man. And some thangs...
I oppose banning FOX- free speech covers all speech, even right wing drivel. I think people SHOULD watch FOX, because they do a far better job at discrediting themselves than we ever could.
Don't like FOX? Then turn the channel. Don't like MSNBC? then turn the channel.
If you are in a buisness that is playing FOX,and if you get upset by this, then shop elsewhere. It's really not your place to tell the bar owner what they can and can't have on the telly. I go to bars to drink, not to watch tv- so I tune out whatever is on the tube.
Take away the right of free speech based on differing politics, then how long before right wingers strive to silence Keith Olbermann and Rachael Maddow?
No one is talking about banning Fox. No one. This is not about a ban, it's about making our choices known to others.
It is our place to tell businesses that we don't like what they have on their TV's. From there it is up to them - if they don't accomodate us (and that's their choice) then we have the choice to go elsewhere, but at least the owner will know why. That's the best way for capitalism for work - let the businesses know what it takes to get/keep your business, and the choice is up to them.
This is all about increasing communication between people, not taking away anyone's right to free speech.
It's not a right to tell a business owner or employee what you don't like about their business and why you're taking your money to a different business??? You're out of your mind with that one. Try stopping to think before you type!
Isn't the freedom to dislike a business owner and take your patronage elsewhere a critical ingredient of the "free market" practices which the neoconservatives and Tea Party libertarians claim to cherish? If these principles are oh-so-very-important, they should be important for everyone up to and including the ordinary consumers...not just the secret bigots who are trying (even if only subconsciously) to find a way of disguising, justifying, excusing,and catering to their biases in order to make them seem rational and inoffensive.
Never trust anyone who insists that patriotism requires you to blindfold yourself with the flag.
racial discrimination should have never ended. Let businesses do what they want and let the consumer decide.
No one is silencing anyone. And nothing wrong with a consumer voicing opposition to certain business practices, even if those practices are entirely legal. And it works - ask Glenn Beck. You can choose to say something or just sit in the back of the bus (or on your bar stool).
I've seen some stuff, man. And some thangs...
The slippery slope theme is the thinking of someone who does not understand reality. There has always been sensorship and will always be. A choice of where you spend your money is a right of the individual and if you choose to explain why you will not spend your money to an owner or employee is a right.
Are you saying, you do not exercise censorship to information offensive to you and absorb any and all garbage stimulating your sensory system?
and has Faux Fake News running in the lobby. When he is not in the office, the staff changes it.
He also has one room that is rabid anti Obama with the crap all over the walls. At least the only time I have to be in that room is when they refill my morphine pump.
"Let's talk dirty to the animals"
The TV-B-Gone gizmo isn't expensive. Carry one with you and any time you see that sludge, turn the TV off.
I have had reasonably good luck with asking the urgent-care clinic to change the channel, but it's always back on Fox the next time I go in. Good thing I don't have to go there very often.
The TV-B-Gone gizmo isn't expensive. Carry one with you and any time you see that sludge, turn the TV off.
I have had reasonably good luck with asking the urgent-care clinic to change the channel, but it's always back on Fox the next time I go in. Good thing I don't have to go there very often.
I have bumper stickers that say THINK OUTSIDE THE FOX available in my CafePress shop.
Of course, it will be plugged back in.
I like your idea of a clicker.
"Clap On, Clap Off. The Clapper"
"Let's talk dirty to the animals"
Got the clap?
You know, I've heard things about you and Captain Kangaroo...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Quick shot of penicilin..no more clapper.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
...especially since (like it or not) they have a right to watch FOX if they really want to, why not simply complle a list of them so that anyone who has objections to FOX can avoid patronizing those businesses? I say, hit these businesses where it really counts...right in the pocketbook! Let's just see how valuable FOX really is to people, shall we? Let's find out how much of their income they're willing to lose (on top of the cable subscription price) for the privilege of watching FOX at their place of business -- and let's see how many people are genuinely willing to continue patronizing these businesses as opposed to how many are simply doing it because they're too polite (or too apathetic) to say anything...
After all, wouldn't this be a perfect illustration of the "free market" principles that the neoconservatives and Tea Party/neo-libertarians claim to cherish?????? I think this is what they call "hoist with your own petard"!
Never trust anyone who insists that patriotism requires you to blindfold yourself with the flag.
Its worth remembering that Fox went to the Supreme Court to assert their right to not be accurate or honest and still call themselves a news outlet.
Here in Northcentral West Virginia we have the 2500 employee FBI Fingerprint facility, soon to be expanded by about 1500 employees.
I toured the facility once a couple of years ago and then ago a few months ago. Both Times, Fox was the channel on the many, many big screens throughout the building.
Made me sick.
I signed the petition.
One problem with these petitions is they are designed for citizens of the USA only. As I find FUX a menace to the entire planet, I put a fake address and explained why.
Perhaps you can pass the word along to the progressive community, there are plenty of us that will throw love your way, if only these things could be designed for international participation. Fux is cable and played all around the world. We are in a global struggle. Millions of people living abroad will lend support.
far left loon >.<
Fox is a propoganda tool supported by the power structure of which Dems and Repugs are employees, Politicians do not work for the American people, they work for the paymasters that pays the most. All politicians have been recorded visually and with sound with extensive research into their backgrounds.
I believe their are minimum if any at all that can stand up to their fears of blackmail and usefulness. The power group knows if they can't buy them, they can expose them.
Your opposition is playing deadly ball, if you are going to compete, you have to play within the same rules they do or be content with the same results. Remember the universal law of, "Doing the same thing, the same way, with same resources, equal same results" That is irrefutable.
Turning Fox News off on people is not going to work at all! It will backfire, I assure you! We progressives don't want to look like Carrie Nation with her ax!!! Fox News will love this when they get wind of the story. They'll run with how the liberals are trying to censor them. Everybody hates censorship!
I really hate censorship! I wouldn't want anyone to come along and tell me what to watch on TV.
Would you?
Instead, we need to educate people. For example, Glen Beck is out selling his own version of American History. Why can't progressives teach a more accurate, full version of American History? Why doesn't someone start a show like Glen Beck, but one that corrects his right-wing slant?
A lot of us slept through our so-called left-wing history classes in high school and college -- Beck's history version may be the only one many people are learning.
We need to be smart and show people why Fox News is bad -- not try to censor them!!!
ThinkGeek sells a TVOFF remote. Fits on your keychain and will turn off just about any tv known to man. Fun to take to BestBuy, but I use mine to turn off tvs in restaurants and bars. Especially when they have Fox on. Batteries cost about as much as the remote and don't last forever, but worth the quiet.
I love it. I hate TVs blaring in public places.
far left loon >.<
Comments are closed on this entry