Where can I get one of these?

Digital media, Gadgets 1 Minute

Prof. Froomkin steers me to a story about a guy who invented a “Fox Blocker”:

Sam Kimery …makes a little device the size of a thumb that you screw into your cable supply and which then blocks the Fox channel.

I would pay for that.

Sadly, he’s getting death threats.

Unknown's avatar

Published by Ed Bott

Tech journalist. Author of 25+ books. ZDNET Contributing Editor since 2006. Contact info: https://edbott.com/contact-me/

Published

12 thoughts on “Where can I get one of these?”

  2. I’ll take four, please. And throw in the blocker for CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC, all of whom never met a conservative they didn’t love. I happened to stop on Dennis Miller’s CNBC show and he was so busy asking his question and then interrupting his guest so often that all I heard were repeated, “But… but… but…” without the poor guy ever finishing his first sentence. It’s like sitcoms — when you can accurately predict what their next line is going to be, why bother?

    Hey look, they’re back to discuss real issues: shiavo; michael jackson’s penis; scott peterson; and how guys like me are trying to ban xmas and easter!

  3. The Fox Blocker is really just an attenuator for a specific channel (you have to select the channel at checkout time on the website) that you can probably get for $2 at Radio Shack. It might be worth it to contribute the extra $7 to the cause, though.

    Also, you could just remove Fox News from your TV’s channel lineup, just like I did to Lifetime and QVC…

  5. Like Fox or not, I’m really surprised the interest this thing has generated among liberals. The message it sends is very illiberal and reactionary:

    “Let’s silence people we disagree with”

    Isn’t tolerating dissent a core tenet of democracy?

  6. You don’t seem to get it. The “core tenets of democracy” keep Fox News on the air. No one, including me, is saying they should be forced to shut down. I just don’t want them in my living room.

  7. Sheesh, Ed, does FN really upset you that much? I mean, really, I don’t like Sean Hannity much either, but I don’t think seeing him is going to turn me into a pillar of salt. Here’s a tip: You can avoid him at no cost whatsoever by making use of the channel changer button on your remote.

    Let’s just admit that this is really a red herring so some folks can yet again publicly express their nearly irrational hatred for Fox and Bush. It’s time to let up — everybody got that particular message loud and clear.

    I think our cause would be much better served to coming up with useful solutions than by pointing fingers at the other side’s messengers.

    I know many don’t want to hear it, but the real lesson of last November is that we will not win by simply supplying more hate.

  8. Who said anything about Bush? Who mentioned Sean Hannity? Uh, that would be you. If you want to comment on the relationship between Bush and Fox News, go find a blog where someone make that connection and add all the comments you want. But don’t put words into my mouth here.

  10. Ed, if you don’t like Fox, don’t watch it. How hard is it to avoid that station anyway? I don’t particularly like CNN, but you don’t see me crying about it being on my TV.

    If it’s so inutterably offensive to you that its mere presence in your cable package is enough to upset you, why not do the sensible thing and tell your cable provider you would rather not have it, and see if they can block it at their end?

  11. Ed, I’m still puzzling over your response…

    If you do like Hannity and Bush, why would you endorse a product like FoxBlocker?

    Also, why does your headline ask “where can I get one of these things?” when it’s clear that they are available from http://www.foxblocker.com?

    Was this just a rhetorical device make a gratuitous mention of your dislike of Fox?

    Very strange.

  12. There are many reasons why I have contempt for Fox News. They are the worst example by far of the degeneration of the news media in general and TV news in particular. But I’m not interested in turning the comments thread of this item into a referendum on Fox. If I were interested in discussing Sean Hannity (I have never seen even a minute of Sean Hannity on Fox) or George W. Bush, I would have written about them in this item. I didn’t. So go debate that topic on someone else’s blog. How much more clear can I be?

Comments are closed.