A horrible thing happened yesterday. Dish network took the Turner classic movie channel off the air. This event is disastrous….it is like the end of the world in my house. According to Turner Network at savemyshows.com: DISH dropped your shows
Despite our best efforts, we were unable to reach an agreement with Dish Network, and they have unilaterally decided to pull CNN,Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, truTV, TCM, HLN, CNN en Espanol and Boomerang off the air upon the expiration of our current deal. Turner has worked diligently for months to come to a fair agreement including multiple extensions and compromises, and it’s unfortunate that Dish is once again operating in a disruptive manner that takes away networks and programming from their customers. We are hopeful our counterparts will return to the negotiating table, and we’ll get a deal completed.
TCM his my only reason for living. This channel is my lifeline…It gets me through the day, especially when the Zoloft is just not enough. Some people are addicted to booze, some people have to take pills or chase women, hell some need to shoot heroin with a meth back. Well I have to watch TCM, it is my drug of choice…and right now I am going through severe withdrawal. I’m not kidding. It is fucking bad. We are taking methadone clinic withdrawals…we’re talking Cartman on zero KFC Gravy:
Medicinal Fried Chicken – Full Episode – Season 14 – Ep 03 | South Park Studios
(Starts at the 5:14 mark)
The TCM/Turner site continues…
The media landscape continues to progress at a rapid pace and finding solutions to complex business issues that respond to evolving viewer consumption habits takes time. Turner has worked diligently for months to find solutions to address these issues. In an effort to find workable solutions, we have provided numerous extensions over the course of the past few months — with the latest deadline to reach a new deal expiring on October 21 at 2 am (EST). Despite this pause in our negotiations, we remain committed to reaching an agreement and are hopeful Dish will return to the negotiating table and, we’ll get a deal completed.
Dish customers do not have these specific networks on their channel lineup and are no longer able to watch these networks on TV or online. Our viewers have alternate ways to receive these popular networks though by calling their local cable operator, telco or another satellite provider to switch services or by calling 1-800-233-SAVE to ask for these channels back.
And you just know I called Dish and gave them the what for…I will change satellite providers if need be, but we have had Dish for..evah, so this is a very upsetting situation. And how long can this shit fuck go on?
Having these popular networks go dark is not something that we wanted to happen. As programmers, our most important relationships are with our viewers and distributors. We are disappointed that, despite our best efforts, we were unable to come to terms with Dish, and they have elected not to continue our long-standing relationship. We regret the interruption of service for Dish customers who rely on us for quality programming. Despite this pause in our negotiations, Turner remains committed to reaching an agreement, and we are hopeful Dish will return to the negotiating table to get a deal completed.
Dish customers have lost these leading networks due to unreasonable demands by Dish. Turner has worked diligently for months to find solutions to complex business issues that address the future of the multi-screen world, while creating additional viewing opportunities for Dish’s customers we both serve. It is disappointing, but not surprising considering its history, that Dish has decided to involve viewers in this particular way, and have elected, yet again, to try and advantage its business at the expense of its customers.
Dish will not credit our account for the amounts we are paying on these channels that we are not receiving at the moment…fuck Dish.
But I was so pissed off about what they have done….they gave me a pitiful $30 bucks off our next bill. I told them I could not give two shits about this measly $30 dollars…I want my TCM back! It is fucking outrageous.
Of course Dish has their own webpage set up…fuck them: www.dishstandsforyou.com
This is not the first kind of dispute for Dish Network: CNN, Cartoon Network Among Networks Dropped By Dish In Carriage Dispute | Deadline
Dish has been involved in several high-profile carriage disputes over the past decade that have led to the pulling of cable networks, including the 2012 standoff with AMC Networks, in which AMC and its sibling channels were off Dish’s platforms for months, and a similar blackout of Viacom nets, including MTV, in 2004.
Dish was recently in a dispute with Disney,..
Dish has been in the midst of several content negotiations recently, including a lenghthy legal dispute with Disney, which ended with a deal that would allow Dish to option several Disney properties, including ESPN, ABC, and Disney content for its forthcoming OTT (over the top) network, a stand alone Web TV network designed to appeal to cord cutters.
During that negotiation, Dish leveraged its AutoHop feature, which allows subscribers to auto-skip commercials for network programming during next-day viewing, as a bargaining chip. In exchange for unprecedented online access to Disney’s cache of content, Dish agreed to delay AutoHop programming for Disney-owned ABC for three days proceeding the original air date.
That deal puts things into perspective: How big media channels feel about online streaming services – Business Insider
The Information’s Martin Peers wrote an interesting column on Thursday arguing traditional media companies are simply denying how online streaming services, like Netflix and Amazon, are disrupting the $100 billion-plus TV network industry.
And more disruptive services are coming. Dish Network, for example, plans to launch an online service with a smaller package of channels but programs from big media companies like ESPN, A+E Networks, and Scripps Networks Interactive.
[...]
…the TV networks getting involved with Dish’s fledgling service are clearly wary of what it might mean in terms of cannibalizing their other deals with cable networks. Peers offers this particularly startling bit of information:
To be sure, programmers are taking steps to limit erosion in their deals with Dish. One industry executive says the Disney agreement with Dish has a provision that if the streaming service signs up more than a certain number of subscribers, the deal is off. Dish declined to comment.
In other words, Disney will play along with Dish Network’s new service, but if it succeeds to a certain extent, they will be forced to pull out — likely to honor their partnerships with longstanding cable providers like Time Warner and Comcast.
Peers offers two potential reasons for why big media companies like Time Warner are downplaying streaming and other disruptive services:
The simple answer is that most media company CEOs are nearing the end of their careers and are more focused on short-term quarterly performance than trends that might or might not happen for a decade. Another answer is that they’re in denial about the implications of what they’re doing.
I am more inclined to think that those CEOs are looking to take the money and get the fuck outta there!
Few more thoughts on the black out here:
TCM Goes Dark on DISH Network | cinematically insane
“I live on a 52-acre farm, and, when I moved out here, cable was not an option,” Ashley Phipps of Julian, North Carolina told me via Facebook message. “TCM is one of the few channels I watch – almost all day, every day. Without it, and with DISH’s high prices, I’m thinking of ending my service.”
Unfortunately for Phipps and other DISH subscribers, TCM’s streaming app will not provide an alternative while the linear TV channel is blacked out.
“Watch TCM will not be available to DISH customers while the network is off the air,” a TCM spokesperson told me in an email message.
Dish Network dumps CNN, other Turner channels
It’s a good thing cable TV companies aren’t in the car business. If they were, they’d probably come and confiscate your car every time they got into a pricing dispute with a parts supplier.
The latest to use this negotiation-by-consumer-abuse tactic is Dish Network, which has dumped CNN and other Turner Broadcasting channels from its line-up. Or if you prefer, Turner has pulled its programming from Dish. Either way, consumers lose the programming they thought Dish was obligated to provide under its contract with them.
It’s a common tactic and one that leaves consumers fuming.
“I am sick of being affected because two rich corps won’t kiss and make up,” said Lori of New York, N.Y., in a ConsumerAffairs review. “DISH… I pay each month for certain programming. I want it. Fix this.”
Judy of Carlsbad, N.M., echoed Lori’s comments: “I will have to get rid of Dish if these chanels are not back. I have been with Dish several years and love it, in fact have referred several people, but this will end it.”
Hey, I am seriously having a Rain Man breakdown here! And wouldn’t you know The Innocents was being shown later this week…ugh.
For your news round-up:
Did you see who died yesterday? Ben Bradlee: Ben on Ben: In memoir, Bradlee shared thoughts about himself – The Washington Post
On Watergate: “When it finally happened, when the president said, ‘Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow,’ I remember folding my hands together between my knees and laying my forehead down on my desk for a very private ‘Holy Moly.’…Nixon — not the Post — ’got’ Nixon, but the Post’s reporting forced the story onto the national agenda, and kept it there until the world understood how grievously the Constitution was being undermined.”
More Obits here:
Ben Bradlee Was the Last of the Newspaper Giants – The Daily Beast
Journalists Remember Bradlee as ‘Genius Leader’ — NYMag
Ben Bradlee, Editor Who Directed Watergate Coverage, Dies at 93 – NYTimes.com
Ben Bradlee obituary | US news | The Guardian
That one from the Guardian is a thorough one…
Meanwhile, Ebola Could Be Contained Within Six Months: Red Cross Official – NBC News.com
In Maryland: Teen convicted of rape in high school hallway
The verdict for the first count was read: Guilty.
A gasp came from the courtroom gallery.
Then the same verdict was read four more times.
And loud sobs could be heard.
Jocori Scarborough, 18, of Delmar was found guilty Tuesday on all five counts he faced in connection with a May 5 rape of a fellow student at Parkside High School.
In addition to second-degree rape, a Wicomico County jury found him guilty of false imprisonment, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and disturbing or threatening a student.
You may remember this case…the victim was blamed for the rape…victimized twice.
Wicomico County Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Karen Dean said in her closing argument that Scarborough forcibly had sex with the victim, who testified Monday. The Daily Times and USA TODAY do not name victims of sex crimes.
“She said no,” Dean said. “She said no several times.”
[...]
“(The victim’s) account is all you have to believe to convict the defendant,” Dean said.
There was also DNA evidence that they had sex, Dean said, noting that Scarborough’s DNA was found on the victim’s underwear. Defense attorney Eddie Gonzalez said his client hadn’t denied Scarborough and the victim had sex.
In his closing argument, Gonzalez went over all the levels at which Scarborough would not be able to be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Even if the jury felt Scarborough was probably guilty, that isn’t enough under the standard, he said.
He said the victim didn’t cry at the time of the incident, he couldn’t see tears on close-up photos of her face later and there was no screaming.
The victim also wasn’t injured, Gonzalez said, and while a nurse had testified it could have been because of her young age, he noted she did say that sometimes victims have injuries.
The rape of this 15-year-old happened in the hall of the middle school.
He also questioned why the state didn’t call as witnesses another student who had been in the hallway or another of the victim’s friends who saw her after the incident.
The victim said she was forced to have sex, yet Scarborough had asked for a kiss earlier that morning; and she said she didn’t want to go in the bathroom with him to have sex, but she later went up to him in the hallway, Gonzalez said.
And the girl didn’t report the incident to four school employees at Parkside she came across, he said.
“All you have to do is find one reasonable doubt,” he said. “Beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Dean said the victim wouldn’t have had anything to gain from lying. She didn’t get caught doing anything, she went through a lengthy exam and police interviews, and then gave her testimony in front of a large group of people in the courtroom gallery.
She said there’s a stigma about being a rape victim, with almost everyone assuming the victim is lying.
I am glad that there was justice in this case. Violence against women…it is never-ending: Accused Indiana serial killer’s violent past raises questions for authorities | Fox News
With hindsight, there were signs years ago of increasing violence against women by Darren Vann, who police say has confessed to killing seven women in northwestern Indiana and is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday.
Indiana court records from 2004 describe him grabbing a woman in a chokehold, dousing her with gasoline and threatening to set her on fire. He was sentenced to a year in prison.
In 2009, he was convicted in Texas of raping a woman. She told police that when she went to his apartment in Austin he knocked her down and began to strangle her, hit her several times in the face and said he could kill her, court records show. He was released from prison last year, when he moved back to Indiana.
In both cases, the charges against Vann were reduced in plea bargains, and Texas officials deemed him a low risk for violence. He registered as a sex offender in Indiana and police made a routine check in September that he lived at the address he provided.
“He was not on our radar at all,” Gary Police Chief Larry McKinley said at a news conference Tuesday, adding that Vann was never suspected of taking part in homicides in the days or months before his arrest at the weekend.
The total so far is seven…seven women murdered, strangled.
Now Vann, 43, is charged with the strangulation death of one woman in Hammond, Indiana, and police say more charges are expected after he directed them to the bodies of six more in nearby Gary. Texas and Indiana authorities have been poring over cold case files and missing person reports to determine if there are more victims.
Family and friends of victims said police should have known Vann was a threat and taken reports of women disappearing more seriously.
And then in South Africa, this news after Pistorius is sentenced to 5 years: Reeva Steenkamp’s Parents: We Have ‘Forgiven’ Oscar Pistorius – NBC News
The parents of Reeva Steenkamp said Wednesday they have forgiven Oscar Pistorius for fatally shooting their daughter – but believe he has not told the full story of the night he killed her. Barry and June Steenkamp made the comments an exclusive interview with ITV News’ Good Morning Britain breakfast show one day after Pistorius was sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison for culpable homicide. “I’ve already forgiven a long time ago,” June Steenkamp said.
“The hatred a lot of people feel towards him as a person, you can’t carry that along with you…it will just make you ill.” She said they were “satisfied by the sentence” but “there’s more to the whole story than anybody knows. Only Oscar knows.” She added: “We don’t want revenge, we want a fair punishment under the circumstances of his disability. We wouldn’t have wanted him to go to jail and be abused, but he will realize that he can’t go around doing that, he can’t kill somebody like that.”
About that 5 Years: Shakesville: Pistorius Gets Five Years; Expected to Serve Ten Months
In sporting news: First openly gay NFL player Michael Sam released by Dallas Cowboys | Sport | theguardian.com It is a shame…
The latest NRA campaign: NRA: Guns Aren’t Scary Because They Are Just Like Vacuum Cleaners | Crooks and Liars
The NRA is hoping they can “Demystify Guns” in their new video from Bill Johnson because of the many “dust ups” as he calls them, over the new open carry laws that wingnut states have been passing recently. The problem isn’t the guns that people use to kill thousands of people a year, but the idea that we’re blaming the guns for the violence around them when they are nothing more than a few bits of plastic and metal, no scarier than your vacuum cleaner or lawnmower.
[...]I didn’t know that vacuum cleaners can hurl projectiles at a sufficient speed to blow somebody’s head clean off, did you? Or, if I’m armed with a lawnmower, I could protect my house under siege by a gang of marauding black youths. Just think what would have happened if George Zimmerman was armed with a cordless Dustbuster instead of a gun.
And finally:
Why Is This Country Full Of So Many Idiots? | Crooks and Liars
You will just have to go to the link to find out…
What going on in your world today?