Christian J. Robinson: Preempting TV Programming

Frustratingly TV networks are preempting or interrupting scheduled programming on almost any little whim these days.

However, even worse is when an anchorman breaks in to a program to announce something supposedly significant. Sometimes it's justified, usually it's not. After the 9/11 disaster I actually saw a network cut in to a running program to literally say, "Nothing is wrong, and we have nothing to report." Although they said it in a much more complicated and "important" way.

When every single channel airs the same trivial pap that is supposed to be significant to my life, I look for a channel that isn't, and turn the TV off if I can't find one. Fortunately Fox (at least the local affiliate here) seems to keep this stuff to more of minimum than most other networks. Unfortunately Fox tends to air more junk programming than the other networks.

Most of this stuff can and should wait until one of the many regular news broadcasts every channel has (at least four for most networks).

Having networks try to spoon-feed me what they feel I should be thinking is rather offensive, in its own way.

I strongly dislike watching sports, especially the popular ones on US television, and while I realize that I'm in the minority, I also know that my minority isn't that small.

But irritatingly, sports have always preempted the shows I've wanted to watch, especially when they go overtime. Frequently the network will postpone airing the show I missed that would normally air in the same time, but if the sports program goes overtime, usually they don't air the episode it overran the next week, and I miss that episode. This happened frequently when Fox picked up "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in syndication, and since I don't have cable it was the first chance I had to see the series, which always has a seasonal story-arc.