No more fake news. That’s what national health club chain Life Time Fitness is saying after the decision to remove cable news from its 128 locations.
Life Time’s explanation? The “consistently negative or politically charged content” doesn’t align with the company’s “healthy way of life philosophy.” That means no CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC and CNBC while Life Time members sweat it out. However, USA, A&E, Discovery, HGTV, the local over-the-air stations, and ESPN will remain available to interested gym members.
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“The decision to remove the national cable network news stations resulted from significant member feedback received over time and our commitment to provide family oriented environments free of consistently negative or politically charged content,” Life Time said in a statement posted to Twitter.
“It always is our goal to meet the majority of members’ expressed requests and we believe this change is consistent with the desires of overall membership as well as our healthy way of life philosophy.”
Our perspective on the recent tv programming change in our clubs. pic.twitter.com/r81EQFjZdE
— Life Time (@LifeTime_Life) January 4, 2018
According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, customer reactions seems to be mixed. Some are in favor of the ban, believing the gym gives them a valuable space to detox from the oversaturated and fraught media climate. Others, however, are frustrated as they scheduled their workouts around certain news programs to motivate them through their sessions. (I guess Wolf Blitzer really gets the people going?)
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Life Time Fitness spokeswoman Natalie Bushaw told the Tribune, “clubs do have flexibility to air programs of interest in their club, such as local sporting events from college to pro teams.”
