“Family Guy?” Nope. “American Idol?” Football? Sorry, not here. “The Simpsons?” Maybe we’ll see it when the movie hits theatres this summer. The list goes on of great shows from Fox that have been ripped from the Des Moines area a few weeks ago. Talk about awful timing. Most of us saw the ads throughout the fall about Sinclair and Mediacom and dismissed them immediately. How often do those 30-second commercials about legal disputes really affect us? Apparently more so than we initially thought, and now we, the innocent Mediacom customers are paying the price. Sinclair and Mediacom both have their sides of the story when it comes to the negotiations, but really, does anyone care? We just want it resolved so we can turn on a football game or check out why Hugh Laurie won the best actor Golden Globe Award for “House.”We are not the only Mediacom viewers suffering. Any Mediacom station Sinclair owns has been pulled, affecting approximately 700,000 subscribers across the nation, according to the Des Moines Register. Customers in the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City area are currently without CBS.There are proposed resolutions such as buying bunny ear antennas or switching cable providers, like DirecTV, but for those of us living on campus, the second option isn’t exactly plausible. Mediacom ran out of its free antennas almost instantly and shelling out a few dollars that could be spent on a cocktail or a couple tacos on a Tuesday from One Stop On the Square just doesn’t seem worth it for a single station.Perhaps the best solution for all of us is to just turn off that magical box that lights up our living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms and almost every single room in our apartment or house. With all the other problems we face everyday, doesn’t it seem a little excessive to be getting so upset over the loss of one television network? After all, we still have some 70 other channels to choose from. However, it’s hard to deny that television is an integral part of our society, and many conversations around the water cooler center on last night’s episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” or whom you voted for this week on “American Idol.” People always say our generation is apathetic when it comes to issues that matter, but once our television viewing is disrupted, we’re up in arms and ready to fight. Imagine the chaos if we were stripped of cable TV completely. Whether you think the whole issue is ridiculous or you’re still writing complaint letters to Mediacom and Sinclair, take a step back to observe the situation and its effect on you and society.