What Now, Time Warner?

I'm not sure what Time Warner Cable is playing at, but my basic cable package got an unexpected addition this week on channel 7. Unfortunately for my political tastes, it's MSNBC. It may be an error, as the picture quality is a little grainy, but I have no way of knowing. Time Warner's channel lineup webpage, as might be expected given my previous posts, is no help; it still thinks that the basic package includes channels 19 and 20.

Again, since it's MSNBC, this doesn't really add a lot of value for the Snowed family. As an example of the fine quality programming now added to our system, I got to watch Lloyd Doggett and Rachel Maddow complaining about the reception he got a couple of days ago at Randalls, followed within about five minutes by the biggest display of cheerleading for a political party as I've ever seen on a "news channel", by Ms. Maddow, of course. (But, of course, only Fox is biased. Whatever. If you want to see real mob rule, check out the examples cited by Michelle Malkin.) But I digress.

A few of my readers (who now number well into the single digits, I think) might recall that I was about ready to dump Time Warner last year and may be wondering why I haven't done so. There's an easy answer: this is the cheapest package we could find anywhere. Plus, WGN America has vastly improved its program library. To each his own, I suppose.

(Shameless plug: if you would like to help me made the switch to another provider, please feel free to visit the tip jar, conveniently located to your right.)

Update (8/22/09): I'm not sure if Time Warner is reading this blog, or if they discovered this story on their own, but last night, MSNBC has disappeared from channel 7, replaced by, of course, nothing. Such is life with a cable provider such as this.