Fox News Is OFF the Dish Network

Ken O’Brien

The folks over at Fox News had hoped to bully Dish Network into giving their toxic channel the cheap air time it demands, but being banished from the television lineup is only proving that Dish has more clout.

Because Fox News has played the victim instead of offering a fair price to for its weak programming, Dish dropped the conservative propaganda channel, including Fox Business, much to the delight of Americans who value their brains. 

Of course, this made Fox News go ballistic and conservative heads everywhere begin to explode. Fox even urged their viewers to declare war on Dish Network, telling them to drop their subscriptions in an effort to force Dish’s hand. According to Dish Network CEO Charlie Ergen, Fox is the first channel to throw such a temper tantrum.

“Ironically, Fox News would be the first network to decry this kind of deal-making,” Ergen said. “There’s nothing about this extortion attempt that was fair or balanced.”

Earlier in the year, Dish Network had dropped Cartoon Network and a host of other channels during negotiations with Turner Broadcasting. But both sides worked for an agreement and the channels were restored. Fox, however, chose to wage ideological warfare rather than negotiate in good faith.

The only problem is that Fox is beginning to feel the pain and Dish is only too happy to sit there and watch the right-wing network implode.

As it turns out, Fox’s ratings have plummeted since the blackout of the channel began earlier this month. How’s that for leverage, Rupert Murdoch?

On December 21-28, Fox News found themselves without a huge part of their normal audience. Approximately 939,000 nut jobs were able to tune in for their daily dose of brain drain that week compared to the 1.65 million viewers who watched during the same week in 2013. That’s quite a drop in viewership. 

On the other hand, Dish Network serves 13 million customers so those who watch Fox are a mere drop in the bucket by comparison. In other words, Fox can whine all it wants; Dish Network is perfectly content to allow Fox to keep hitting itself in the face. And the fact is, a majority of America would be ecstatic if Fox continued to be blacked out permanently. So be sure to contact Dish and tell them you support their decision to take Fox off the air. Also, be sure to tell them that you would prefer Fox News never be allowed to return. After all, it’s more important now than ever before to protect America’s IQ and prevent lies, sexism, racism, and hate from taking over the media. If the FCC won’t do something about Fox, perhaps it’s time to ask private television service providers to do so.