for the shorts and quarts of hot buttered Groat Clusters™.

... I'd sometimes turn on the television in motels, maybe to see if television had improved.

A few minutes of channel surfing would only reinforce my opinion that it was a stream of shit.

I don't even turn on the television in motels any more.

I'd rather go for a walk, maybe chat with a stranger, pick up a local newspaper, or read a book.

I have not seen a commercial or an advertisement for 3 years now.
(OK...local ads in our weekly paper, easily ignored)

downside is I do not see what is bombarding the tv watchers. It must be horrible.

I cut off my DirecTV and gave the TV to one of my tenants.

Watching commercials will help you understand a little better why Americans seem to be so utterly stupid now.

edited to add:

What were we talking about? The socio-politico-economic exploitation of the people? They don't even talk about that at kolledge.

But I just don't watch cable news. Ever.

down all the cable tv traffic, disrupt it completely for a few weeks.

But they won't be mad at the Rentiers and Oligarchs, or trying to end inequality.

They will be rioting and killing to get their cable back on.

Powerful stuff, worse than many, many drugs.

It used to be that commercials were trying to sell soap and toothpaste
Now they are selling corporations and ideology.

It reminds me of a Si Fi movie about a dystopian future...but it is happening now.

responding to an OP complaining about RT's agenda. LOL! I swear, "Surreal" is about the best single word to describe this I think. Some nightmare rendition of Twilight Zone.

...and I'm always appalled by it, and creeped out to think that most people probably consider that shit "normal."

I get that surreal feeling when I am in waiting rooms or traveling. I normally minimize exposure. I just finished up helping a family friend with a computer issue. Idiot husband was siting and channel surfing the entire time. Oh my god I was ready to claw my ears out. Windows 8 in front of me, American consumer hell to the right.

The saddest thing is hardly anyone even gets what I'm complaining about. They don't know what's wrong.

That stupid woman in the black suit walking over all the the place and telling us America is great because of gas. . . . almost wants me to try to buy gas from Greenland.

Why should they even have to advertise? Waste of time and money, and tasteless as well. I hate that damned thing.

Also sports and local channels.

But when I turn to MSNBC in particular and see those commercials that you've mentioned, it even pisses me off.

Most of the time my tv is kept off.

eom

He was cherrypicking stuff from all over the news and linking it to terrorism. This led to a memorable interview with some poor local sheriff after a simple bank robbery. Wolf was claiming one of the ways terrorists fund their operation was from robbing banks and then he was grilling the sheriff over any possible connections to a terrorist network. The sheriff said there was no evidence for that so Wolf asked him if his investigation turned up any connection to terrorism then what would be the procedure from there? This conned the sheriff into saying he would inform the FBI who he said was already on the case since bank robbery is a federal offense. Wolf then rattled off how the FBI would then inform the all new Homeland Security Department who would coordinate with the Justice Department and blah, blah, blah tossing into the word salad "terrorism" and "terror cells" and "national security" as the sheriff nodded along.

By the end of the the whole exchange someone who wasn't paying close attention would think it was a report of a terrorist cell that had robbed a bank.

The ultimate joke was that Wolf's tag line as he went to commercial was, "Stay tuned to CNN for all of your security needs" as he made you feel so insecure you were afraid to go outside.

I tried watching the "missing airplane" saga while working out at the gym. (The treadmills had a personal TV)

I gave up and tune into Turner Classic Movies or AMC. Even reality TV seems to have less commercials than CNN.

I can't watch TV without it.