Here are today dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.

Jon Stewart take on Viacom’s spitting match with DirecTV (via The Wrap): “Viacom and DirecTV, what are you doing here? You got ad campaigns blaming each other for taking the shows away, telling people to “rise up and demand it” like some kind of basic cable Arab Spring. I’ve got news for you: It’s not…None of this matters. None of this is indispensable.”

Comment: Truer words were never spoken.  Alright maybe some truer words were spoken at some point in human history. But, still, they’re pretty true words. While I do personally enjoy The Daily Show and, to a lesser extent, Colbert,  I would submit that not only could people get along with most of the crap carried on Viacom channels like the seven (!) versions of MTV, three versions of VH1, six versions of Nickelodeon, the increasingly vacuous TV Land, Logo, Spike and, yes, Comedy Central.

If these giants can withhold product when it suits their own, in this case competing, corporate interests, why can’t they offer a la carte options that allow consumers to choose which specific channels they want to allow in their homes? Such an option would allow viewer to save money and direct their programming fees to the channels they actually want to see and which, perhaps, support (or, at least, don’t constantly mock) their values.

When it comes to the TV channels allowed into one’s home, fewer channels would actually equal higher quality.

Encourage one another and build each other up – 1 Thessalonians 5:11

 

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