Dish Network's Canceling of Creatives

Dish Network is promoting a new application on its system. According to their commercial, you can automatically fast forward ("skip") through the credits of whatever program you are watching. That really is nothing new. When I used to watch taped shows, I would skip the commercials, but I don't remember anyone ever promoting as a sales benefit being able to skip the credits.

The difference is simple: Commercials are advertisements paid to the broadcasters to enable them to broadcast their content. If you are on a paid service - cable, satellite - in essence, you are paying to see the product so why do you have to see the ads? On the other hand, credits are the acknowledgement of the contributions of the creatives/creators. That is why it is telling that an entertainment company is promoting the cancelation of creatives.

We all know about "cancel culture." To be kind and generous, the ignorant, when faced with someone with whom they disagree, want to silence them. It's stupid, foolish and far from unique. The only thing new about it is the impact of social media and the subsequent effectiveness of the hate campaign.

Until now, "cancellation" has been against an individual. Joe or Jane say something which is interpreted as being against homosexuals, women, men (OK, that never happens!), black African Americans (yes, there are white African Americans and it is the very definition of racist to deny the fact - Who's going to cancel me?), Christians, Jews, Muslims or any other protected class, and the next thing they know, there is a plethora of protagonists of perversion percolating (had to have the alliteration!) their bile against them and demanding that they be removed from whichever site on which they had voiced their (subjectively objectionable) opinion.

Personally, when it happened to me years ago, I tripled down and won. That is what I will do every time. It works for me; it does not mean it will work for you.

But what Dish Network is promoting is denying creatives the recognition they deserve. That is wrong; it almost reminds me of the dark days of the McCarthy-era Black Lists. It's not the same thing, but it kind of is. Black listed creatives had to work, if they could find work, using pseudonyms. In other words, they were forced to hide and those hiring them, had no choice but to hide them! On some, no doubt remote (pun originally unintended but I'm keeping it!) level, isn't that what Dish Network is telling its customers that they can do, hide the creatives of the works they are paying to see, not because of their politics (as was the case with the Black Lists) but because they are not worth their time?

If you enjoy what you are watching, you should acknowledge the creatives. If they gave you a couple hours of pleasure, don't they deserve a couple minutes of your time? How do you feel when after a work-related success, no one acknowledges your contribution? Well, that's exactly what you do to creatives when you fast forward/skip through the credits. What's the lesson you teach your children when they see you do it. Wouldn't it be better to use those precious minutes to teach them the importance of acknowledging the work of others? Let them see the team behind the scenes who did the actual work? Think about that for a minute!

Dish Network should honor creatives, not be an enabler for their customers to hide them. By the same token, bosses/supervisors should always make a point of honoring their creatives.

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