As I mentioned briefly yesterday, Viacom (owners of old-timey cable fare such as MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon) is in a carriage-fee dispute with DirecTV, which is kind of complicated, but can be easily boiled down as Viacom wants them to pay more for their shit, DirecTV wants to pay less for their shit. And while these disputes are becoming increasingly common, they are usually worked out at the 11th hour, and viewers emerge unscathed (Dish Network dumping AMC notwithstanding).

NOT SO THIS TIME.

As of the midnight deadline on Tuesday, DirecTV and Viacom still hadn't reached an agreement, and Viacom was kicked off the satellite service (or Viacom pulled their networks, depending on how you look at it). That means for DirecTV customers like me, we were left 17 channels (and a few HD channels) shy of what we usually pay for—even though, other than The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and Dora the Explorer, there wasn't really all that much to miss. And besides, we can watch The Daily Show for free on the Comedy Central website, right?

WRONG.

Viacom has yanked most of their popular free programming from their sites, in a bizarre attempt to punish EVERYONE (yes, including you, non-DirecTV customer) for being unable to reach an agreement with their satellite landlord. Rest assured, neither side is right in this dispute, and both are being greedy, asshole babies—though I'd say Viacom is the eviller of the two. But rest assured about this, too—the day is coming when satellite service is as outmoded as my Uncle Woody's 8-track player, and Viacom's largely idiotic offerings (hello, Jersey Shore) can easily be forgotten and lived without. Frankly, I welcome those days... I'm sincerely tired of all their shit.