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Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

Showtime and Orbit have now merged and beginning in August will combine all their channels for $65 a month (less if you opt for fewer channels; a bit more if you opt for digital recorder with hard drive).

You'll get:
11 premium movie channels (no commercials or censorship)
2 commercial movie chs.
6 pay per view
7 sports
9 for TV series
5 entertainment fluff (Hollywood Ch., Fashion, etc.)
10 kiddie
7 documentary/education (the usual suspects: History, Natl Geo, etc.)
10 news (including my favorite, Orbit News, which consolidates the best US news shows onto one channel: Face the Nation, Meet the Press, many more.)
9 music

Total should be about 75 English channels. The $65 is just $5 more than I pay for Showtime alone.

Go to www.orbit.net for details.

boundforsaudi · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 243

What have they got in the way of fair and balanced journalism? You report, I'll decide.

johnslat · Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 3:47 pm Post subject:

Dear boundforsaudi,

"What have they got in the way of fair and balanced journalism?"

Well, that takes Fox (Faux) News out of the running.

Regards,
John

P.S. Actually, I suppose it really takes everybody out of the running, but Fox more than most.

boundforsaudi · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 243

Just the facts, please. But since there are probably more fans here of Al-Jazeera than Fox, if any Fox fans do exit here, please PM me and let me know whether you are getting the Fox news channel in Saudi, whether it's the real deal, same as they get in the USA, and how you are getting it. No point it discussing it here in the open where we will be sniped at.

johnslat · Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 4:25 pm Post subject:

Dear boundforsaudi,

" . . . if any Fox fans do exit here, . . ."

Not a Fox fan, but I am exiting.

Regards,
John

boundforsaudi · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 243

exist

johnslat · Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:48 pm Post subject:

Dear boundforsaudi,

Since I'm bound to obey the imperative, I will.

Regards,
John

zanoubia · Joined: 26 Apr 2009 Posts: 32

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

That sounds like GMA. Meet the Press and Face the Nation are two that I mentioned. They have a 60-year history of asking tough questions. Edward R. Murrow exposed Mcarthyism for what it was on Meet the Press in the early 1950s. Let's see you criticize your own dictators in the Middle East with your mainstream media...oh yes, Jazeera, the Screaming Babies Channel, does that sometimes..except for the Qatari leaders, since it's based in Qatar.

zanoubia · Joined: 26 Apr 2009 Posts: 32

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

OK... let's all agree that the news everywhere pretty much sucks and if one wants to be informed one must do lots and lots of googling.

BUT... zenoubia... you are not listening or you don't understand. SnB is not talking about news coverage. He is talking about the Sunday talk shows which bring in a bunch of politicians and various movers/shakers to supposedly discuss the news in depth. Political/governmental US news, not the tabloid crap that they are now all obsessed with...

I don't share SnB's high value on these shows since I think they have gone down the toilet along with the rest of the media and now basically ask softball questions with no follow-up... while two or three people talk at the same time saying the opposite things. It just gives me a headache... Cool

VS

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

I think CNN is very good at being Johnny on the Spot. They get there faster than BBC, generally speaking, though not necessarily in the Middle East. But then, the ME is not the center of the universe.

But I do get annoyed with CNN because it's always sports in the morning before I go to work and Larry King when I get back from work.

Generalizing the US TV news is not helpful. The morning shows are geared toward traditional homemakers so as far as I'm concrned it's all about recipes and Latoya Jackson's rants and women with 24 babies.

On the other hand I found PLENTY of hard intelligent analysis and coverage from the likes of Stephanopolous and others. It's definitely there, because I watched hours of it daily in the US.

So if you just want to feel superior to the US and you don't know what you're talking about, go ahead, don't listen to me. I know Europeans who didn't bother investigating where to live in Houston before they went, so they wound up in a ghetto, and then came up with the absurd conclusion (which they told everyone) that Americans don't keep up their houses. Here's an example of laziness and pure ignorance. All they had to do is drive around a bit. Houston has some of the nicest houses anywhere, all told.

I'm getting that feeling from Zanoubia. Like Veiled said, you're not listening.

tillymd · Joined: 07 Apr 2009 Posts: 114

Come on folks,

You know as well as I do the only "news programs' worth watching are the Colbert Report and Daily Show.

Tillymd Very Happy

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

I rely on Homer Simson to keep me up to date oin what is happening.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA