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Now, I\u2019m not normally a pledge taker, but for the sake of my sanity I am willing to make this one exception because I\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/09\/im-taking-the-no-cable-pledge-i-will-not-watch-msnbc-fox-news-or-cnn-or-any-other-cable-news-network-until-after-the-election.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I'm Taking the No-Cable Pledge: I will not watch MSNBC, FOX News, or CNN or any other cable news network until after the election.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have decided to take a pledge. Now, I\u2019m not normally a pledge taker, but for the sake of my sanity I am willing to make this one exception because I\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/09\/im-taking-the-no-cable-pledge-i-will-not-watch-msnbc-fox-news-or-cnn-or-any-other-cable-news-network-until-after-the-election.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Paperback Theology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-09-17T19:39:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/files\/2012\/09\/no-cable-pledge-300x231.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tim Suttle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Tim_Suttle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tim Suttle\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/09\/im-taking-the-no-cable-pledge-i-will-not-watch-msnbc-fox-news-or-cnn-or-any-other-cable-news-network-until-after-the-election.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/09\/im-taking-the-no-cable-pledge-i-will-not-watch-msnbc-fox-news-or-cnn-or-any-other-cable-news-network-until-after-the-election.html\",\"name\":\"I'm Taking the No-Cable Pledge: I will not watch MSNBC, FOX News, or CNN or any other cable news network until after the election.\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-09-17T19:39:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-09-17T19:39:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6\"},\"description\":\"I have decided to take a pledge. 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{"id":821,"date":"2012-09-17T13:39:21","date_gmt":"2012-09-17T19:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?p=821"},"modified":"2012-09-17T13:39:21","modified_gmt":"2012-09-17T19:39:21","slug":"im-taking-the-no-cable-pledge-i-will-not-watch-msnbc-fox-news-or-cnn-or-any-other-cable-news-network-until-after-the-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/09\/im-taking-the-no-cable-pledge-i-will-not-watch-msnbc-fox-news-or-cnn-or-any-other-cable-news-network-until-after-the-election.html","title":{"rendered":"I’m Taking the No-Cable Pledge: I will not watch MSNBC, FOX News, or CNN or any other cable news network until after the election."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>I have decided to take a pledge. Now, I\u2019m not normally a pledge taker, but for the sake of my sanity I am willing to make this one exception because I think my own peacefulness might just hang in the balance. I\u2019m calling it the \u201cno-cable pledge.\u201d Here it is: \u201cI pledge that I will not watch MSNBC, FOX News, or CNN or any other cable news network until after the election.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0I want you to take the pledge, too. Here\u2019s why\u2026<\/p>\n

Cable news is completely toxic.<\/strong>
\nCable news personalities and pundits tell me only two things: who I should fear and who I should blame. If I watch FOX News I become angry at the Democrats. If I watch MSNBC I become angry at the right wing of the Republican Party. If I watch CNN I just become indiscriminately angry. This much anger and blaming is toxic to the human person. Who needs that?<\/p>\n

Cable News is not really news.<\/strong>
\nCable news is more opinion than news. 24 hour news channels are not trying to perform the essential function of informing our society. Cable news networks show us 24 hours of equal parts political blood-sport and political infomercials, and watching it is like purchasing a ticket to the Roman Colosseum. I miss Walter Cronkite.<\/p>\n

Cable news will poison your mind.<\/strong>
\nCable news trains us to hate people that we would not otherwise hate. They need us to hate each other because they are not unlike the ectoplasmic slime from Ghostbusters 2, they feed off hatred. (Too much with the Ghostbusters 2 reference?). It almost seems as though cable news channels don\u2019t care if hatred destroys our society as long as their ratings are up. Even in small doses, that sort of imbalanced, distorted thinking will poison our minds. My brain (you brain, too), doesn\u2019t need to deal with this.<\/p>\n

Cable News will never change until we refuse to watch!<\/strong>
\nWe all have differing political opinions, but at the end of the day we are all neighbors. Even those of us with strong political opinions genuinely care about even the people who see things differently. We are not enemies. Folks on the other side of the aisle are not the devils they are made out to be on the news channels.<\/p>\n

There is a simple fix: Simply turn them off.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m taking the \u201cno-cable pledge,\u201d and I invite you to do the same. I will still read print journalists and some of the online stuff \u2013 though I\u2019ll be careful there as well \u2013 but I will not watch cable news on television or online. If I need a newscast fix I might watch one of the major network newscasts, or PBS. I\u2019m done with MSNBC, FOX News, and CNN until all the votes are cast.<\/p>\n

Help me spread the word by sharing this on Facebook & wherever you are plugged in to social media. Copy the lousy icon I made & send it around. Talk it up, people! Let\u2019s take the pledge, and spread the civility and peacefulness!<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"