Boycotting Fox News Advertisers - App

[Bob Maxey]

Wow . . . it is a shame Air America is gone; it would be the perfect place to advertise your application.

 

[Bob Maxey]

Greetings Android community!

Purpose for app + political rant:

I have an idea for an Android app that I would very much like to see happen. I'm a politically moderate and independent minded American who is fed up with Fox News and their role in shaping elections and peddling right wing propaganda. I believe Fox News is a primary catalyst in the political polarization of this country and a grave threat to our democracy with their continued campaign support for Tea Party (and other far right-wing) candidates. There are millions of people in this country alone who are fed up and disgusted with Fox News' biased and reprehensible "journalism," masquerading as fair and balanced news, but, these people do nothing but complain. Meanwhile, Fox News garners an ever larger demographic, and generates ever more millions in ad revenue. If nothing is done at the consumer level to directly combat this, such political propaganda within popular "news" media will only get worse (while becoming more profitable as it transitions to mainstream). That doesn't bode well for the future of our democracy.

So you really believe that democracy is something that should be used situationally? Do you even understand how a democracy like ours must function? It means like it or not, everybody can express an opinion, not just the opinion you happen to agree with.

I think you should avoid tying your app to any ideas of democracy. When you or someone else decides that freedom of speech only extends to a particular kind of speech approved by Tammany Hall, you are chipping away at the very thing you think you want to protect and before you know it, you can

 

[noah way]

So you really believe that democracy is something that should be used situationally? Do you even understand how a democracy like ours must function? It means like it or not, everybody can express an opinion, not just the opinion you happen to agree with.

This has nothing whatsoever to do with democracy and everything to do with the ability to personally filter sources you don't trust from personal content delivery systems.

FYI There are scripts available for the Greasemonkey extension to Firefox to block links to FOX (and in this case WSJ) from Google News.

The script lets you relabel the titles for articles containing specific links. Here are some I'm using:

foxnews.com = Wingnut Propaganda
Fox Business = Tinfoil Hat Stuff
Fox News = ********** Boys Club
FOXNews = Nazi Propaganda
Wall Street Journal = Goldman Sachs Whitewash
wsj.com = More Lies From Greed Inc.

Works like a charm.

 

[OutofDate1980]

This has nothing whatsoever to do with democracy and everything to do with the ability to personally filter sources you don't trust from personal content delivery systems.

FYI There are scripts available for the Greasemonkey extension to Firefox to block links to FOX (and in this case WSJ) from Google News.

The script lets you relabel the titles for articles containing specific links. Here are some I'm using:

foxnews.com = Wingnut Propaganda
Fox Business = Tinfoil Hat Stuff
Fox News = ********** Boys Club
FOXNews = Nazi Propaganda
Wall Street Journal = Goldman Sachs Whitewash
wsj.com = More Lies From Greed Inc.

Works like a charm.

Thanks for the links, makes a great spam filter.

 

[Steven58]

Dems are great, aren't they? Same old story, if they don't agree with you, they just want to shut you up and make you go away and do anything in their power to stop anything you have to say. I actually made a few posts pointing this out in other threads and they were removed.

Tom,

I felt this accusation should be addressed. We mods have had a difficult moderating this particular section because of the heated rhetoric. I started a thread in moderator central about it and we discussed it back and forth. Some of my fellow mods are liberal and I'm conservative, like you.

Consequently, if I may be transparent, therefore, another challenge for us mods is to be even handed in this section, despite our own personal views. Personally, I handle this by staying out of the arguments. (Believe me, I also feel strongly about these issues and I shake my head a lot reading these threads.) So, I stay out of the arguments in order to maintain a professional neutrality. It works for me.

I looked up your deleted posts, and you kind of have a point. Understand that those posts were deleted beFORE our discussion in Mod-Central. Going forward, we have a more even handed approach.

Finally, if we mods feel that a post is too personal or too inflammatory, we will and/or close the thread. You post was definitely on the border, fwiw.
Which brings us to this thread. Several posts are on the border of being inflammatory or baiting, imo, and this thread is on the chopping block, so if you guys want to keep it open? Be nice.

 

[Tommy78]

I appreciate your post, Steven58. My intention is not to blatantly insult or harm anyone, but things are said and must be said at times that do not exactly fall in line with the so called "rules" here. The problem (to me) is that there are so many moderators with so many different ideas that it's too tough to please them all and anyone can come along at any time and pull the plug on you even after 5 others felt like things were fine and above board. I agree that there should be some degree of niceness among members, but in a section like this there has to be some room to wiggle a bit.

 

[batgeek]

wiggle room away from niceness? AWESOME SUGGESTION!

 

[Steven58]

Tom,

There is wiggle room and we Mods are working on it. We're trying our best. Some of us (me) are newer than others and are learning as we go. We do still require people be nice to each other, but agreed, there is more wiggle room here.

Cheers (and back on topic)
Steven

 

[BringItSon]

I'm baffled how so many reference the 1st amendment but yet try to silence other views.

boycotting something is also form of a "expression" or speech that is covered by first amendment...

Fox news is free to talk about their views and others are free to show their discontent by forms of boycotting products and etc... Trying to deny boycott, or "expression" is violation of 1st amendment and same as trying to silence other views..

 

[Lumiere]

We mods have had a difficult moderating this particular section because of the heated rhetoric. I started a thread in moderator central about it and we discussed it back and forth. Some of my fellow mods are liberal and I'm conservative, like you.

Hmmm...I figured the "touch of frustration" displayed earlier was at least partially attributable to a political bent. I'm actually here NOT TO ARGUE POLITICS...I am in fact looking for a developer (or anyone that can direct me to a more responsive group. Sitting here squabbling over con v. dem is a pointless endeavor (IMHO); I have no interest in furthering this political discussion. If there are no developers (or anyone to assist) on this board with the creation of this app, then I'll query others until a developer is found.

Also, the very nature of the app is politically divisive (unfortunately). Even without my political rant, the original thread would have inevitably descended into pandemonium with the very mention of "Fox News" and "boycott" in the same sentence. I figured a developer who ideologically agreed with my rant would be more likely to respond (as a more conservative leaning programmer would almost certainly want nothing to do with the idea out of principle). No matter, rules are rules and I shall abide by them.

I'll check other boards and throw out more leads. Bye for now.

Lumiere.

 

[Steven58]

Ok.. good luck with that.

/thread