Up North Progressive

And nothing of value was lost that day.

Granted, when Dish cut their viewers off from TCM and The Cartoon Network earlier this autumn it caused serious jonesing in the Up North Progressive household. Don’t judge, I like my classic movies and cartoons. When word got out however that Fox News was about to disappear from Dish, I smiled. Sure, this morning they’re airing The Blaze on the Fox News channels, and that’s even worse than Fox News. Cold turkey would be better, but Dish decided worse would be better to pacify the average Fox News viewer.

Since the Fairness Doctrine, once mandated for all news in this country went extinct during the Reagan administration. The media can print or broadcast any slant to the news they want. The national news network insists it’s false that they benefited from their Tampa Bay affiliate winning an appeals court case to lie about Bovine Growth Hormone in a broadcast, and they haven’t bothered telling the truth about anything since.

This is the news network that gave us the tea party, the war on Christmas, Santa Claus is a white guy, the Bundy standoff, Obamacare death panels, the New Black Panther Party, 24/7 Benghazi conspiracy theories, and everything is President Obama’s fault. Their first major victory in national media coverage was claiming Al Gore didn’t win Florida in the 2000 election after every other major news network reported he did (and after a final recount Al Gore did actually win), and it’s been full steam ahead misinforming, lying, cutting from whole cloth, and vilifying the president for any reason ever since.

During this holiday season if that uncle – you know, the one who rants about the evil Muslim Commie Nazi where’s the birth certificate usurper in the White House during holiday meals – seems dazed, confused, twitchy and you know it has nothing to do with how much egg nog he’s been drinking, take some pity on him, He’s not getting his Fixed News fix and without his comfortable 24/7 bubble of lies to shield him from reality, the world possibly may look too clear and focused for him to function. Ease him into the truth slowly, and consider this a holiday blessing that you might just get your family member back into the world of sanity.