John Kerry tackles big issues…like getting the NFL Network into every home
posted at 9:25 am on December 7, 2007 by Bryan
Is John Kerry really the best person to be taking this issue on?
Thank God for U.S. Senators taking on the tough problems facing the nation. High oil prices? No. Hunger? No. The skyrocketing price of healthcare? No, again. We’re talking a MAJOR issue: The NFL Network not being available to two-thirds of cable subscribers.
Thankfully, Senator John F. Kerry (D – Mass) is not letting this travesty continue. He’s sent a letter to National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell and President and CEO of National Cable & Telecommunications Association Kyle McSlarrow begging them to put aside their differences and get the NFL Network on every TV in the land.
By all means, let’s keep the war unfunded while we take this football TV issue head on. Tough, strong, and just plain patriotic. I mean, Patriotic.
As the senator’s letter makes clear, this is mostly a local issue for him and that’s why he wrote the letter. The Patriots’ last game of the regular season is on NFL Network, so the senator gets involved to make it look like he’s doing something useful, yada yada yada.
Now, you may recall, I complained last week that the Cowboys-Packers game was only on NFL Network, but my complaint wasn’t a call for any politician to step in and fix it. When politicians do that, they almost always screw things up. Look at what they’re doing to open wi-fi in the name of “protecting the children.” When I complained, I was a customer complaining about a couple of commercial entities, in this case the NFL and my cable provider. And then I found out that I could watch the game on NFL.com, so I watched the second half online and stopped complaining. Patriots fans can do the same.
If cable providers and the NFL can’t work this out, they’ll hear about it from customers. If they don’t fix it, there will be a backlash. This is one of the few ways the NFL can annoy its fan base on a national scale, so they have an incentive to fix the problem. I’m not entirely confident that they will, but I do think they will.
Blowback
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I don’t mind the idiots in the Senate concentrating on this. It keeps their horrid paws off of the important thing.
Mr. Bingley on December 7, 2007 at 9:30 AM
“things”, even.
PIMF
PIMF
Mr. Bingley on December 7, 2007 at 9:30 AM
I’d like it if they passed a budget or a war funding bill, personally.
Oh wait, that would require them not to be soulless, defeatist partisan hacks.
BKennedy on December 7, 2007 at 9:32 AM
As usual not an area Congress has any business in, and it is business that will sort things out in the end.
We all don’t have a right to watch a football network on cable TV. Worry about funding the military, you know, something actually in the Constitution.
Sheesh.
Neo on December 7, 2007 at 9:32 AM
Magnificent post, Byran. Anyone who denies it is not to be trusted as a football fan.
Slublog on December 7, 2007 at 9:32 AM
I think the NFL Commissioner just swiftbooted Lurch.
fogw on December 7, 2007 at 9:32 AM
Oh, and you too, Bryan.
Slublog on December 7, 2007 at 9:32 AM
I “broke down” and added the NFL Network to my Comcast package before the Packers/Cowboys game last week. $1.99 a month for the first six months, after which it costs $5 a month.
That’s peanuts. What’s the big deal?
World B. Free on December 7, 2007 at 9:34 AM
Kerry’s just mad because he won’t be able to watch Patriot’s QB Manny Ortiz throw a home run at the basket.
fogw on December 7, 2007 at 9:36 AM
And anyone who doubts you is not to be trusted as a commenter.
Bryan on December 7, 2007 at 9:37 AM
I didn’t dig through all those links, Bryan, but did you mention Kerry’s problems with football fans from his 2004 campaign? Remember “Lambert” Field:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21672-2004Sep14.html
By the way, you’re probably right about this being a pander to his state… at first I was thinking it was just his personal BS, like his hotel room demands which you all might recall were exposed on The Smoking Gun back then too
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0327061kerry1.html
RightWinged on December 7, 2007 at 9:43 AM
This is a Great post! And if anyone doesn’t think so, well, their opinion never mattered anyway.
jaime on December 7, 2007 at 9:43 AM
Some of us, like myself, have cable operators who don’t offer the NFLN. We cannot buy it if its not there, peanuts or not.
Thanks SuddenLink.
gradyman on December 7, 2007 at 9:45 AM
Yup, this one is going to be added to the repertoire, along with “SOLID B+”
Slublog on December 7, 2007 at 9:46 AM
Anything to avoid providing evidence to T. Boone Pickens and collecting the millions dollars.
Man up, Lurch. Show us the documents.
JammieWearingFool on December 7, 2007 at 9:46 AM
Want a sammich?
Bryan on December 7, 2007 at 9:48 AM
John Heinz Kerry
He is spending another mans money he should at least have the decency to take the mans name.
TheSitRep on December 7, 2007 at 9:50 AM
The NFL Network. Wow. 8 games a year and endless training camp videos. Wow. That’s totally worth the Senates attention; not to mention our money. but what do I know? I only watch the Seahawks games, and most of them are on Fox. College ball is better, anyway (Hook ‘Em Horns!).
Frozen Tex on December 7, 2007 at 9:52 AM
Wonder if Lurch is going after the Big Ten Network, as well?
Regardless,
That is peanuts, truth be told; but, I’ve got an issue with the NFL double dipping – if you want me to pay to watch the games, fine; but I’ll be very petty and say that I don’t want to pay to watch the commercials.
Either raise the price and go commercial free, or keep the commercials and make the NFL Network free.
I don’t want them to have it both ways.
And I certainly don’t want to cough up money to listen to Greg Gumble and Chris “Ichabod” Collinsworth hack their way through a game. Good heavens. It was painful enough watching the Bears. Putting those two morons in front of the mic … well, that was just mean.
yo on December 7, 2007 at 9:53 AM
How ’bout a salmon sammich?
(Sorry, something my dear, departed Grandmother used to say; it just struck me as funny…).
Frozen Tex on December 7, 2007 at 9:53 AM
I forgot about the priceless Kerry quote about “Manny Ortiz”. Anybody who mixes up Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz and lives in Boston is not a Red Sox fan. I think John Kerry is the only person who ever went to the snack bar behind home plate at Fenway and asked for “brie and chablis and some pinot for Teresa”. Kerry’s transparent attempt to be a regular guy is just hilarious. It reminds me of his hunting trip in Ohio. Kerry came out of the woods wearing his Banana Republic outfit and said “we all bagged a duck”. But then when you see the photo, there are more “hunters” then there are ducks.
Larraby on December 7, 2007 at 9:54 AM
Except that the Pats-Giants game will be carried locally on WCVB (channel 5). So not only is it a naked pander to his constintuency, but it once again exposes his blatent ignorance of the “regular folk.” This is right up there with “Manny Ortez,” and “Can I get me a huntin’ license here.”
But if there was a Windsurfing channel… he’d be right there!!
crazy_legs on December 7, 2007 at 9:55 AM
NFL…..No Free Lunch. Their business is their business.
If they want to do something for fans try this…
1. Fire anyone doped up.
2. Fire anyone with a conviction.
3. Tear the roof off all the domes.
4. Take out OT….playing to win is what the two point conversion is for.
5. Drop the price of a Hot Dog.
Then I might….might mind you….pay for NFLN….until then I’ll keep my money home.
Limerick on December 7, 2007 at 9:57 AM
Don’t forget that he also misproinounced “Ortiz” as “Ortez.”
crazy_legs on December 7, 2007 at 9:58 AM
Jenjis Ortez?
James on December 7, 2007 at 10:00 AM
Soblog and Bryan Sittin in a tree…
B – L – O – G – G – I – N – G.
First comes Posts!
Then Comes Linking!
Then comes AllahP with a Baby Carriage!
Mazztek on December 7, 2007 at 10:18 AM
I am truly impressed. Senators jump at your beck-and-call without even being asked. You just can’t buy that kind of influence, my friend!
Seriously, Congress has no business meddling in an issue like this. No laws are being broken. No one is being harmed (annoyed yes, harmed no). Market forces will work out the negotiations.
By doing this Kerry proves, once again, that he’s only in the Senate because he’s too dumb to get a “real job.”
highhopes on December 7, 2007 at 10:29 AM
That was painful last night. Not as bad as the way the Bears played but close.
OTOH the game was on a local OTA station in HD so I didn’t have to worry that my cable provider doesn’t even offer NFL network.
alilianstrom on December 7, 2007 at 10:32 AM
Tough, strong, andjust plainpatrioticpathetic. I mean,PatrioticPathetic. There, fixed it for you.drunyan8315 on December 7, 2007 at 10:32 AM
So, let me get this straight. After thirty-plus years of sliming the military, lying about his record therein, etc., and four years of claiming that he was “robbed” of his rightful position (POTUS), mainly due to “irregularities” here in OH (most Buckeyes voted for somebody else- who knew?), Senator John H-For-Unlimited-Hubris Kerry has now decided that his next Crusade is…….
Getting the NFL Network into every home in America!
Why? I mean, other than hardcore football fan(atics), who cares?
I’m sure that there are more important things for the Congress to do. Passing a flat tax comes to mind, but I’d settle for them passing the present military funding bill- without trying to make us “throw the game” to the enemy as a condition of doing so. Which apparently is one of the “plays” Kerry is helping to call.
Once more we see that egotism, megalomania, and infantilism go hand in hand. Especially with “progressives”.
cheers
eon
eon on December 7, 2007 at 10:41 AM
I love that picture.
LtE126 on December 7, 2007 at 10:46 AM
I am writing to express my concern…I do not wish to interfere…I urge you…
Same ol’ equivicating SOB, he’s always been.
I guess, he didn’t want to interfere, before he DID want to.
franksalterego on December 7, 2007 at 10:47 AM
I work for one of the cable companies that doesn’t have the NFL network. It’s such a simple dispute that’s being blown out of proportion because people just don’t understand how content provider companies work. The NFL net has the right to charge what they want to carry the programming, then cable has the right to say no. Kerry must have forgotten that?
It will get worked out in the long run by the marketplace, as it should.
pb5000 on December 7, 2007 at 10:49 AM
The one of him reaching back between his legs to snap the ball is great, too.
James on December 7, 2007 at 10:50 AM
I don’t have cable…can they buy me that first?
tlynch001 on December 7, 2007 at 11:18 AM
I love the picture accompanying the article. He catches like a girl with his eyes closed because he’s afraid of the ball. What a wiener.
oilbertan on December 7, 2007 at 11:22 AM
I would rather see Kerry in his office at work wiring up badly crafted “jokes”.
BL@KBIRD on December 7, 2007 at 12:43 PM
The NFL wants their channel on basic cable. The greedy cable operators want it on a higher priced tier. I think the NFL has a right to sell their product to whoever they want. It’s their product.
Customers who want NFL can get it by subscribing to Dish or Direct TV. There are a lot of options, and this is basic capitalism. Congress should stay out of it.
dogsoldier on December 7, 2007 at 12:46 PM
You know, I have the NFL network, but we have a similar situation here in the Mountain West: The local football conference (The MWC) got screwed in their television contract. It was going great until CBS bought it…. and now, hardly anyone can see the channel most games are on. Comcast has rights, and is refusing to sell those rights to Dish and DirectTV (and also not putting the MTN on it’s own network in most places).
What can a fan do, really?
Vanceone on December 7, 2007 at 12:49 PM
Look man, even a John Kerry is right twice a year.
km on December 7, 2007 at 1:27 PM
For the man that needs everything, from the man that has everything (thanks to his wife).
Hening on December 7, 2007 at 2:45 PM
Keryy finally takes on a worthwhile important issue!
countywolf on December 7, 2007 at 4:52 PM
I live in Boston and I’m decidedly not a Sox fan. Even I would not make this mistake. I don’t know what positions they play, but I know the names.
Mooseman on December 7, 2007 at 8:38 PM