Controversy over 'offensive' Fox News broadcasts at public recreation center in Ann Arbor

MLive ^ | January 14, 2015 at 2:00 PM | Ryan Stanton

[TopDeadCenter]

Ypsilanti Township residents Dave and Sue Weber argue a county-run facility is no place to be showing what they consider offensive, right-wing political propaganda.

They said they started going to the county's recreation center on Washtenaw Avenue last fall and were dismayed to see Fox News show up on four of the 12 television screens in the cardio area during election season.

"In September, when we toured the facility before joining, we didn't notice Fox on at all," Dave Weber said. "But now October comes around, pre-election time, that's when it multiplied onto four screens, four out of the 12 in the cardio room."

Though there's no volume on the TVs, they said, they got tired of seeing offensive closed-caption blocks with remarks such as "Young women aren't capable of voting" and "We have enough illegals here, we don't need more."

They also have been offended by attacks against President Barack Obama and Democrats, and they say there's no programming offering a counter viewpoint.

The couple complained to facility director Jon Keith, but they said asking him change the channel only resulted in a lecture on how the liberals at CNN are trying to take away his gun rights. They said Keith also has denied their requests to switch one of the TV screens to a more left-leaning news channel such as MSNBC.

"It felt to me like the Republican Party had an official of our public recreation facility working for them," Dave Weber said.

Keith declined to comment for this story.

[cyclotic]

I was at one recently where they had MSNBC on. I’m glad I wasn’t there because I was sick.

[onyx]

We’re HELPING.

[jimpick]

Some one should park a van with the fox news logo in front of their house. Just leave it there for days. I bet their heads would explode.

[HotHunt]

When I visit the VA hospital facility in Gainesville, Florida, almost all of the TVs in the waiting rooms are on Fox News Channel. I see an occasional CNN but never MSNBC. This is what you would expect for veterans, especially older ones, which is the predominant demographic. They are going to be more conservative and outspoken about not wanting liberal news channels blaring in the clinic lobbies.

I might remind this sour-grapes Ypsilanti couple, that the VA is also a public facility. If they wanted MSNBC turned on at the recreation center, they must be a quarter of the total audience base of that network.

[zerosix]

I don't know. It was a quote from the story on the MI couple that refused to tolerate 4 TVs out of 12 set to FNC.

As to Coulter's "outrageous statements" you're exactly right. Just like Rush one time saying his mom shouldn't worry about the GOP cutting funding for the poor and elderly, forcing them on dog food! He was quoted as stating that she "shouldn't worry, he'd buy her a new can opener so that she could open that can of dog food easier!" Some idiot in the Dim party actually used a tape of Rush saying that in an appearance somewhere, pretending that Rush was so evil that he didn't even care if his own mom ate dog food that the GOP's balancing the budget would produce!

[mountn man]

When I was a kid ages ago, we called it the “Y”. If anyone told us to go the YMCA we would have said ‘the what?’ Only after I was older did I know what the letters stood for.

Must have been a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG time ago.

People have only been dancing to it for the last 37 years.

[Cheerio]

They said they started going to the county's recreation center on Washtenaw Avenue last fall and were dismayed to see Fox News show up on four of the 12 television screens in the cardio area during election season.

AND I am damn tired of seeing the Clinton News Network on every public place I go to - all the airports, all public places that have a TV run that disgusting liberal propaganda channel.

[ExSoldier]

They said they started going to the county's recreation center on Washtenaw Avenue last fall and were dismayed to see Fox News show up on four of the 12 television screens in the cardio area during election season.

Wait a moment! I thought the purpose of doing a cardio workout is to raise the heart rate. Seems like they're just adhering to their professional mandate. :~)

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

I'm betting you voted for "Fighting EMUs" once the Huron name was tossed out?

Note, it was sad that the local Huron-tribe membership was not involved with the change. For my family connections, most felt that to keep it was to honor the tribe.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

You are obviously a Van Halen fan...

[NathanR]

Really, I thought it was For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.

[sport]

Likewise.

[SandRat]

I was a solid Huron. When they first talked about changing the name FROM Huron, I wrote to EMU and as a graduate and told them in Serviceman's French NO!

[UCANSEE2]

I think Dave and Sue ought to get a life. I cannot imagine ever complaining about something as ridiculous as this.

Look behind the curtain and you might find George Soros.

[AU72]

My wife is going through 3 airports today, I’ll ask for the latest on the Java Sea plane crash.

[fone]

That was legend passed on to me circa 1975, a decade and a half before Van Halen named his album, but hey, maybe word got around to him by then.

As I type this, I recall thinking along this same line when the album did come out!
I laughed about it then, as now.
Memories!

8^D