How DARE you tune to the news!

[South Texan]

This afternoon I was shopping at a new, “super” grocery store in my area that sells groceries and bed linens and electronics, etc.

While I was going by the electronics section, I heard a woman chewing out the guy behind the counter because every television in the section was tuned to NBC – and at that time, NBC (and every major news network in the USA) was covering the Presidential Inauguration. I have watered down the political rhetoric, but she was stating that this showed an obvious bias of the store toward the new president and that she therefore never was going to shop there again.

The guy explained that the televisions had been tuned to NBC and whatever NBC was showing for the past month, so today had been no different. The woman said that the store should have changed the channel in consideration for those who did not want to hear about today’s major event and repeated that this showed the political feelings of the store and its management.

I had to laugh at the absurdity of her thin, hyper-political skin.

(And, no. This is NOT an invitation to start a political debate.)

[PhotoChick]

Wow. Idiot. Almost every news channel is showing it today so its gonna be on a lot of tvs. Don't like it? Stay home.

[Imogene]

Er... she doesn't want to know about something that's going to be "Life changing"? I know at my college, back in 'Aught One, when the Twin Towers fell, there were hundreds of TVs tuned to the news, and people were just standing there staring up at them. Hell, that wasn't just at school, either... I saw it everywhere.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

The Grocery Store of Awesome that I shop at has TVs throughout the store and they've usually showed ESPN or sports on Fox (football games) when I was there. But that's probably due to me shopping there at night.

I think I can recall CNN being shown as well.

All of this is shown on half the screen; the other half is CCTV from the in-store daycare.

I suggest this woman go live in a cave for at least the next week, because Obama's inauguration is going to receive heavy coverage in the media during this time. Even stuff like sports talk radio, which is normally politics-free, is discussing it.

[bainsidhe]

Wha? And if they showed local news, it would have a very local slant, if they showed Disney movies it would skew people towards big corporate companies and if they showed video clips of upcoming CDs, it would play music that offends. You can't please everyone. Too bad someone didn't tell her to stuff it. You know, since she won't be shopping there again anyway

[Mike Taylor]

This lady would be the nice version of my late grandmother, sadly.

[edible_hat]

I know at my college, back in 'Aught One, when the Twin Towers fell, there were hundreds of TVs tuned to the news

That clearly shows a pro-terrorist bias!


Furthermore, I was in a store yesterday where there was a TV tuned to the Telletubbies, this clearly shows a pro-toddler bias!

[protege]

I know at my college, back in 'Aught One, when the Twin Towers fell, there were hundreds of TVs tuned to the news, and people were just standing there staring up at them. Hell, that wasn't just at school, either... I saw it everywhere.

I hear ya on that one. When the Towers fell, I was at work. All of our operations ground to a halt, and even the radio quit playing songs. Because we suddenly had nothing to do, one of the guys was on a football message board. Rather than discussing teams...they were posting messages about WTC and terrorism. Didn't stop there--on the way to the Mazda dealer, that's all that was on the radio. Well, that and detour around the 300 or so now-closed bridges and tunnels in the city limits Once at the dealer (for a freaking oil change), they had the TV on in the waiting area. Not too surprising, but the customers packed in there actually outnumbered the employees! Usually, it's pretty dead there during the day That wasn't it though--that event dominated the news for well over a week. Since I knew people who were killed, if someone would have said something like that to me...I probably would have strangled them

[smileyeagle1021]

Yes, shame on the grocery store for showing bias towards historical events... whether or not you like the guys politics one must keep in mind that inaugurations only happen once every 4 years and he's only the 44th person to be inaugurated... obviously no big deal

[iradney]

You could've been showing the coffee maker cam on the screen, and methinks she would've found something to complain about (Caffeine is bad! You're trying to brainwash people into drinking coffee!!)
*sigh*

[Danno]

I would've changed the channel.

Now we're on ABC's coverage. What, still no good? Okay, I'll change it again.

FOX. Gosh, lookit that, more inauguration. Change it again?

CBS. Yep, more inauguration. Again?

Hmm, looks like the PBS channel's covering it too, funny that. Again?

Hey look! This local channel isn't covering it! You wanna watch the syndicated court show with the gay judge? It's either that or the shopping channel hocking commemorative Obama merchandise. Hey, come back here...

[Pagan]

Dolt. Covering the inauguration of the President of the United States of America is always historical....whether you like the person being installed or not.

Hell, she still couldn't have gotten away from it if she had demanded that they change to the Mexican stations!

[ArcticChicken]

he's only the 44th person to be inaugurated...

Actually, while President Obama is 44th president, he's only the 43rd person to be inaugurated. Grover Cleveland was the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms in office, so President Cleveland was both the 22nd and 24th President. (Presidents? Do I pluralize it if it's two numbers but only one person? Help?)

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

You could've been showing the coffee maker cam on the screen, and methinks she would've found something to complain about (Caffeine is bad! You're trying to brainwash people into drinking coffee!!)
*sigh*

He took the last cup of coffee and didn't make a fresh pot! I demand you do something about it.

[draggar]

My only beef about it is that EVERYONE at work was streaming it (video) on their own computers. No, we couldn't share, we all had to watch it in our own cubes (each with a slightly different timeline so it was like massive echos, but not from one direction and in order).

Our bandwidth was choked yesterday.

But - I always say with something like this:
"I don't care what your stance is / was - it's time to support (the president etc..)."