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Comment by Anechoic | Hacker News Reader

I think this might be an overreach - the GoDaddy boycott worked because there are plenty of alternatives. For much of the country (and my hometown) Comcast may be the only game in town for cable TV and they are almost certainly the only game in town for high-speed internet. A failure to get a significant number of folks to sign on can be spun as tacit support for SOPA when it's really a lack of suitable replacement services.

If you are lucky enough to have access to Verizon FIOS, RCN, or UVerse, (or have the right terrain features to be able to have satellite TV), I envy you. I'm stuck with Comcast because I need a cable modem for my business so while I sympathize with the cause, I won't be be adding my name to the list.

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The TV studios are all behind SOPA as well, so canceling cable in general isn't a bad idea. As a side benefit you no longer have to watch TV. :)

Maybe that's a "young person thing" though. My parents watch a decent amount of TV, the only channel that appeals to me out of the hundreds that they get[1] is Comedy Central... for one hour a day. After going to college and being without TV, I really have no stomach for commercial breaks anymore.

[1] not actually sure about this, Comedy Central is 600-something, I guess they might not all be used though. Still probably hundreds.

I didn't even think of TV. I don't have a TV. Comcast provides my Internet and there isn't an alternative in my area (besides dialup). My parents have FiOS. I wish it were available to me. How do you get your Internet?

Comedy Central is owned by Viacom.

You shouldn't support The Daily Show or Colbert, either. What those programs usually do is omit or distort key facts that make their victims seem hypocritical or otherwise unreasonable and then mock them for it. Much less funny and I got tired of having to worry about whether my opinion about some situation was based only on some misunderstanding I'd received from those shows. Given how sanctimonious Stewart is when it comes to lampooning the media, I have a hard time not concluding that he's an asshole.

Edit: Sorry guys, you're right. Stewart/Colbert 2012! Morons...

Well, I'm glad you see the method of comedy news shows; though I'm sorry you don't see the point of comedy news shows.

Or, maybe I misunderstand you, in which case, happy trolling. Try harder :)

I don't understand the comedy shows presenting themselves as news. Watch Colbert and then watch, say, PBS News Hour. (Actually it's been a year or more since I've seen either.)

Part of me suspects that Colbert turns off some of the same higher functions of the brain that O'Reilly does.

Then you're just not getting the joke. They are comedy shows that mock cable news shows. Stewart and Colbert are very clear that they aren't news. Try watching Fox News for an hour and compare that to the PBS News Hour... then you'll get the joke.

From what hear, the S&C are the primary source of "news" for a lot of the younger crowd.

As if PBS News Hour is somehow the standard of impartial journalism....

I didn't say it was impartial, but that it's categorically different in some interesting way.

They are sometimes clear. As long as its still funny with that clear.

The Daily Show is much worse than other comedy news shows. The tradition Carson/Leno/Letterman format is to present the News story and then say something funny about it. The daily show formula is to misrepresent the facts in a manner that makes them amenable to mocking the intended victim. To the point that most bits aren't very funny if you know the real backstory.

yeah basically the thing is "what if uve got no other choice?" you can't cancel your internet, so you stay with comcast :( heck many would leave it for other reasons than sopa, but can't.

Yea the giant monopolies like Comcast are the true blood sucking squids on the face of America, GoDaddy is just a pesky tick on your taint. But will a SOPA crippled internet be usable to you? For some of us SOPA could spell the end of our businesses.

Great point. This isn't feasible. This is a lot like "boycott gasoline to save the environment". Its very idealistic. It sounds great but it's just not feasible as people need to drive. Same with Comcast. They're the only game in my town for high speed Internet and I cannot switch to AT&T because their lack of speed will kill the web server I run from my home plus I need the speed for my work. Sorry, it's a nice sentiment but I can't get behind it as its not realistic.

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