RoR: Forum

Curses on Comcast. Effers. No way I'm driving in this blizzard to watch at a bar or hotel somewhere. Screw that.

Happily, a YouTuber, therightscoop, has been uploading the shows. I hope he uploads this one, for sure.

Post 1

Thursday, January 7, 2010 - 7:25pm

Thursday, January 7, 2010 - 8:11pm

The weekly "Stossel" shows are followed by a trifecta of repeats on the Fox Business Channel (NOT the Fox News Channel):

~ Thursday at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT
~ Friday at 10 pm ET / 7 pm PT
~ Saturday at 7 pm ET / 4 pm PT
~ Sunday at 11 pm ET / 8 pm PT

This show, taped last month, was effective and utterly compelling. Stossel is clearly getting dramatic and rhetorical mileage out of the studio-audience format. Yet, to be accurate, this was only two-thirds of a show directly about Atlas Shrugged � the first 35 minutes and Stossel's closing "Perspective."

John Allison of BB&T Bank, and a professor from Clemson, were articulate and quick-witted in putting Rand's points within practical examples. Yaron Brook of the ARI did nothing embarrassing � quite a step up for them � and even pointed out heroic elements of Rand's life without being fawning.

Stossel felt it necessary in the middle of the show's sandwich to bring up a vivid example of Nanny Statism, "nibbling at freedom," in the absurdity of attempts to ban fish pedicures. The discussion proceeded while Stossel and Nick Gillespie of reason.tv had their feet in water, with the fish giving them a treatment that may soon be banned in New York state, as a clueless legislator averred.

It brought home how demented and pointless such efforts have always been, and Stossel noted that more such nanny-State idiocies would be examined in the future.

That vivid example didn't happen to have much to do with Rand or her book, though, so those expecting a tighter focus may be a bit disappointed. Nonetheless, nobody should miss this!

Post 3

Friday, January 8, 2010 - 4:25am

This show is the most exciting thing to hit television in years. The fact that it's only and hour long, and broadcast merely one day a week, yet so packed with in-your-face liberty highlights amazing. I just love it. Stossel's clearly been thinking about this show, and how to format it for a very long time. It's totally working.

Post 4

Friday, January 8, 2010 - 9:33am

Teresa,

Thank you much for the link. I'd heard the show was going to be on tonight, but now I didn't have to wait. Great show.

jt

Post 5

Friday, January 8, 2010 - 11:58pm

Thank you, Teresa (and thank you, John Stossel).

Ed

p.s. Excellent summary, Steve.

Post 6

Saturday, January 9, 2010 - 1:11am

Erhm ... Stossel's show is not "broadcast," and that's not at all an obvious point. I've run into many who confuse the Fox properties, and Murdoch's people don't do much to help with their names.

Please forgive the detail, but this may help. These are all different and entirely separate:
~ The Fox network of local over-the-air broadcast stations.
~ FX, a basic-cable channel of original programming and movies.
~ Fox News Channel, a basic-cable channel of news and political commentary.
~ Fox Reality Channel, a tier-above-basic-cable channel of "reality shows."
~ Fox Movie Channel, a tier-above-basic-cable channel for films from 20th Century Fox studios.
~ Fox Business Channel, a tier-above-basic-cable channel for business news.

John Stossel's hour-long show is ONLY on Fox Business, with new entries on Thursday nights. (The first two shows were repeated over the holidays.)

The Thursday show is repeated three times through the weekend � see my post above.

Stossel the reporter-commentator now also pops up, though, on Fox News. He's usually part of very-libertarian Judge Andrew Napolitano's weekly show on Wednesdays, he has a report each Tuesday in hardly-libertarian Bill O'Reilly's "Factor," and he makes other appearances.

(Edited by Steve Reed on 1/09, 1:56am)

Post 7

Saturday, January 9, 2010 - 1:53am

I wouldn't count, by the way, on personal uploads of Stossel's shows (usually in six parts each) staying very long on YouTube. News Corp. hasn't been nearly as aggressive in removing such uploads as has Viacom (Comedy Central, MTV, many other channels), but it's happened. YouTube watchers should be sure to search for it each weekend if they want to rely on that source.

On the other hand, as Stossel noted this evening on his blog at Fox Business, in a post entitled "Atlas Shrugged II" (links and boldface added) �

[...] As I understand it, Free Tube doesn't broadcast Fox Business live. (I'm watching Fox Business now and it doesn't match what is playing on Free Tube.) I'll look into it. Hulu.com will include full episodes two weeks after they air. [Not yet, though, and no date is given. ~ SR]

In the meantime, if your cable provider doesn't carry Fox Business on its regular line-up, please apply the power of market competition: Tell them you'll switch to a satellite competitor that does carry us!

Stossel is clearly used to saying "broadcast" and "air" from his 28 years at ABC ... old habits die hard, methinks {g}

(Edited by Steve Reed on 1/09, 2:20am)

Post 8

Saturday, January 9, 2010 - 9:31am

Whatever.

I'm not willing to pay 20.00 a month extra to watch a single hour on a single day of the week. That is my only option with Comcast in this part of the state. It may be possible for me to watch the show from my phone if I subscribe to phone tv. A 2" screen isn't very appealing, though.

Hulu crashes my computer every time.

Rightscoop is also a conservative blogger. He may be able to cut a deal and add advertising to satisfy producer demands to use the show on YouTube.

We'll see, but I'm sure this will get picked up by other sites as popularity grows. Why FBN doesn't simu-cast something like this is beyond me.

Post 9

Sunday, January 10, 2010 - 3:25am

"I'm not willing to pay 20.00 a month extra to watch a single hour on a single day of the week. That is my only option with Comcast in this part of the state."

Teresa, I just don't get it. I've tried to get across more than once that this show is, in fact, being shown across the country four times a week. Stossel himself keeps reminding us of it at his blog.

Why are you insisting otherwise? Are you saying that the Fox Business Channel is, somehow, only offered on your cable system � even potentially � for one day out of Thursday to Sunday? Cable channels just don't work that way.

(Not any more. Some systems doubled up on carrying less popular channels, by time of day, until the mid-'90s, due to a lack of capacity. That practice has gone out, with cable providers now using fiber optics for internal transmission, regardless of still having copper cable running into individual homes.)

And I'm sorry that Hulu doesn't work for you, but all the other routes do violate copyright, and you should accept the fact that this is happening if you use them. I see many holes in the reasoning behind "intellectual property," but I haven't observed your saying that you do.

Do you get this exasperated � which is what "Whatever" is � when others try to help keep this community fully informed, or is it just with me?

Post 10

Sunday, January 10, 2010 - 7:29am

Yes, it's frustrating. Circumstances are such that Comcast is my only option.

Repeats are repeats.

Stossel himself can inquire about licensing the use of the show through other venues. I'm not privy to his contract agreements, but I know it's been done by many personalities and networks.

I'm not advocating theft, but a reasonable reconciliation.

Post 11

Sunday, January 10, 2010 - 10:20am