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TomCADem

(17,378 posts)
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 11:55 AM Jul 2020

Gyms Blaring Fox News - Should We Boycott Them Now?

I have kept up my gym membership even in the midst of the pandemic because I want to support the business, though I have also contemplated quitting the gym in the past due to it blaring Fox News on big screens while I work out. I admit that sometimes I can leverage the anger of seeing Tucker Carlson into a few more reps, but I go to the gym to deescalate from work, rather than to get all riled up.

It seems that during the Trump era, Fox News has managed to become even more toxic and overtly racist. It is a tough economy and do I really want to pay money to a gym that endorses racism by showing Fox News on big screens throughout the gym. If an when I return to the gym, perhaps I will instead seek a gym that does not have cable news blaring throughout the gym or bans cable news entirely as discussed in this article.

To be honest, I have no problem with news. Rather, it is the 24/7 endorsement of racism that comes with piping in Fox as though it is actually showing news, rather than ongoing, racist commentary.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/01/09/fitness-chain-has-banned-cable-news-networks-as-part-of-healthy-way-of-life/

Fitness chain bans cable news networks as part of ‘healthy way of life’

With the start of the new year, scores of Americans are rushing to their local gyms, resolving to get a head start on a healthier routine. For some, particularly amid today’s high-velocity news cycle, this daily routine may involve hitting a treadmill or elliptical machine while catching up on cable TV networks.

But one nationwide fitness chain has decided that the combination of cardio and cable news does not align with a “healthy way of life.”

Life Time Fitness, a Minnesota-based gym chain, has decided to eliminate all national cable network news stations from the TV screens at its 128 fitness centers in the U.S. and Canada. The removed channels include CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and CNBC, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

The decision, which was made at the start of the new year, came after a wave of feedback from gym members over time, Life Time said in a statement on Twitter last week. It also stemmed from the chain’s “commitment to provide family oriented environments free of consistently negative or politically charged content,” the statement read.
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brokephibroke

(1,883 posts)
2. I faced that same issue at our YMCA
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 11:59 AM
Jul 2020

Was able to work with the management team to remove Fox News. I told them Fox News didn’t meet community standards and offered to petition members asking to remove them. It worked, but the Y was in Boulder County, CO so it may be tougher elsewhere.

LakeArenal

(28,729 posts)
3. Ahh our beautiful gym is owned by Catholic nuns.
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 12:02 PM
Jul 2020

So shirts with writing. Lock on the TV that ran hospital info. You can hook up your phone to something but not out load. No music piped in-either.

FoxNewsSucks

(10,378 posts)
4. If they won't change the channel, I change it myself.
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 12:04 PM
Jul 2020

It's not like it's someone's private home or office. If I'm a customer, and they want me to continue being a paying customer, I refuse to be subjected to that garbage.

I have an infrared dongle that plugs into the USB port on my phone, and a universal remote app. Works great, but in case it doesn't, I have a TV-B-Gone that will at least shut it off.

Much better peace of mind.

Even if it's not on news, I really don't see why we have to be inundated with big TVs everywhere we go. Even gas stations now have ads and crap playing on the payment screen while you fill your car.

Pobeka

(4,999 posts)
7. At least tell them no political channels.
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 12:11 PM
Jul 2020

I complained to a hotel chain that the TV default channel on power up was Fox News, and it wasn't appropriate. I suggested a local news channel was better, and the mgmt agreed and changed it.

Baltimike

(4,126 posts)
12. I leave businesses with Fox News on, and tell my gym to turn it off when I see it
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 01:09 PM
Jul 2020

What the gym does is play MSNBC, Fox and CNN on three different sets. It used to be all Fox. There was no way I am forking over 30 bucks a month for that crap, so I guess enough people complained, and I can live with the compromise.

 

smirkymonkey

(63,221 posts)
13. At work (which has been shut down since March) we only have CNN, in addition to other
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 01:09 PM
Jul 2020

non-news channels, however I have noticed that certain people will either change the channel or switch the TV off altogether if CNN is playing. I haven't caught anyone red-handed yet, but I have an idea as to who the suspects are.

Mariana

(14,849 posts)
14. What a load of crap. Fox News has been overtly racist for years.
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 01:14 PM
Jul 2020

The whole time Obama was president racism was a constant theme on that channel, day in, day out, all the time. This isn't some new thing that only came about "in the Trump era".

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