Hi..

what's your philosophy? I think there can be pressure socially (at least in this country) to "know the news." But television drives me nuts and I don't watch it at all. I can't stand how the news is presented there. Occasionally (when I remember), I listen to NPR. I am wondering how others feel about this. I remember reading a book by Dr. Andrew Weil suggesting that a "news fast" is a very good idea.

thoughts?

-- Cathy in Mn (logholm@rangenet.com), September 04, 2001

Answers

Cathy,

I keep up with the news because I have the time to do so. I agree that there is a social pressure to keep up with what is going on in the world. I think it gives people a sense of importance when they can tell someone about everything that is going on in the world. It makes good water cooler chat or over the fence chat, depending on where you are in life. I personally find the news frustrating because you see things going on all over the world, that you would like to be able to change, but obviously can't.

I do agree with you about the presentation of the news. It is presented to us as if we were small children and can't draw your own conclusions from the facts. The newsperson presents the news the way they see it, not always the way the facts are. I find this approach rather demeaning. It is like when the president gives a speech. Right after the speech the news people are telling you what he said. I may not be the sharpest person in the world, but I know what he said.

A news fast may be a good idea, but I am an addict to the news and don't have the strength to quit at this time. Maybe I need a program to help me kick the habit. Who knows?

Good luck to you Cathy, thanks for the post.

-- Bob in WI (bjwick@hotmail.com), September 04, 2001.

I find our local news to be incredibly trite and poorly done. I seldom watch it. When I do I can hardly get through an entire local newscast without wanting to call and correct or complain about something on their show. As to national news I find I can get a lot of it right online via links to the NY Times, Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, etc. The News Hour on PBS (formerly McNeil-Lehrer) is excellent for what it does. Rather than trying to give thirty to ninety seconds to a few topics, they pick one to three, usually, and give a much more in-depth coverage of them. Sports scores and coverage is unparalleled on ESPN SportsCenter. I have that on while I'm getting up and around in the AM. Weather is available on two different cable weather channels here and online or even with a phone call here. Somehow I still occasionally walk out the door to a surprisingly different temperature than I expected. ;o) Admittedly, not a conventional way of doing things, but it works for me

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), September 04, 2001.

We don't have TV so I don't have to watch the news. We can still check on the news on the internet. I think that TV and the news media is a propaganda tool to influence our opinions and feelings about issues. Ever notice how there are always a lot of school shooting and gun stories in the news about the time they are trying to pass new gun control measures? They seem to be very selective about what is and is not put in the news. How often do we ever hear about children being molested or boys being raped or stuff like that? It happens all the time. Yet, if a perpetrator of that kind of stuff is beaten or shot to death, it's all over the news. The news is biased and I get really sick of it.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), September 04, 2001.

Cathy

Our TV has been Kput for 5 weeks now. Since my 7 year old doesn't care I guess we don't either. When I rejoin the Rat race I'll hear enough to keep the tension high.

-- Kenneth in N.C. (wizardsplace13@hotmail.com), September 04, 2001.

TV (to me) feels like a mind drug. I don't like the way that I zone out hypnotically (sp?) in front of it. I don't like the feeling I get when I watch it, so I don't watch. Plus...it is a tremendous time eater. I have too many other things to do. I am a writer and recently read "On Writing," Stephen King's memoir (a WONDERFUL book about writing). In the book, he advises writers to "wean themselves from the glass teat," in order to get anything done. Makes sense to me.

-- Cathy in MN (logholm@rangenet.com), September 04, 2001.

Since I got access to the net on the puter it's like being let loose in a candy store. Not too much time for TV between the net, the garden and life. Try to catch the weather. When I can get a newspaper, I prefer to read.

-- Sandra Nelson in Mn (Magin@starband.net), September 04, 2001.

Amen to all of the responses - and here's one more - Is there no "Good" news in this world anywhere? War, murder, mayhem, death, world disasters (flooding, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc), flood the boob tube, and the papers, and the radio - yet there must be some happy things happening somewhere. When I win the lottery (hah) I'm going to start the "Good News Network" - probably will go broke in a week.

-- Kari (wildcatt@telusplanet.net), September 04, 2001.

Bad news makes us feel worried and insecure- reminding us how thankful we are to have Big Brother around to make sure everything will be OK!

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), September 04, 2001.

Cathy, I don't watch TV either, but I listen to NPR. Most of the programs on there keep me up to date on what goes on in the world, although after last fall's "election" I don't listen to the news as much as I did. I don't know if keeping up with the news is good or not, but it does make me think about outside stuff instead of burying myself totally in my own business.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), September 04, 2001.

No news is good news.  :D  I have been sans a TV for three years now.  Finally broke down and bought a small 13"er so my son could hook up the DVD/Sony playstation II his dad bought him for christmas.  I find there is nothing on there I want to watch, ESPECIALLY not the "news".  Do I REALLY need to see live footage of the latest hostage crisis?  Nope.  Frankly, if the terrorists weren't so sure of all that bloody air time, I bet we wouldn't HAVE so many hostage "crises".

I can't stand going over to my brother's house.  He has his TV on ALL the time.  It could have the most godawful inane crappy badly animated moronic cartoon on, and he'll stare at the tube like a cow stares at passing trains.  He doesn't hear half of what you say to him.  Even I find myself getting sucked into it if something slightly less stupid happens to be on.  I really don't miss the thing.

Somebody asked for good news?  Try this:

 The Positive Press: Good News Every Day

Every once in awhile I catch some news on NPR, but that's about it.  And even that is rare.
 

-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), September 05, 2001.

Interesting that when someone says the news that TV and radio is the assumed source.

What about reading the newspaper. Delivered to your home. Able to read at your convience.

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), September 05, 2001.

Newspapers are only slightly less bad (comparing factuality of reporting to what goes on on TV or the radio). Nope, I don't get a newspaper out here 18 miles from anywhere, either. Nor do I want to. The local papers don't report any news I care about one way or the other (I could not care less who went to the latest octagenarian birthday), and neither do the larger papers, since what they "report" still can't be trusted one way or the other.

There used to be two independent papers where I grew up. One was "liberal" and one was "conservative". I used to be able to get a slightly less unbalanced view by reading BOTH papers. Then both papers were bought out by the same publisher, still published seperately for years, but they were soon reporting exactly the same set of half facts. After about ten years, they finally up and formally admitted that they were now evening and morning editions of the same paper.

Haven't much cared for "print" media since.

-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), September 06, 2001.

I have no TV, and never listen to the radio in the summer (prefer birds & crickets), but actually never did listen to the "news". Decided long, long ago that if I couldn't do something PERSONALLY about an event, that I wasn't going to let it into my "world". Saves me a lot of tension. I agree wholeheartedly that "news" is extremely biased, and that fear and anger are very much promoted through the media. Of course, sick (chemicals in our food and in the air), fearful (media promotion) people are MUCH easier to control than healthy, confident people.......My mother used to say, "Don't believe ANYTHING that you hear, and only HALF of what you see!"

-- Bonnie (chilton@stateline-isp.com), September 06, 2001.

Sojourner I went over to The Positive Press. Read the story on Firefighters Using Satelites to help locate firfighters lost in smoke. Is it just me Or should that concern us? If a satilite can track and find a firefighter in heat and smoke How hard could it be to find us out in the field?

-- Kenneth in N.C. (wizardsplace13@hotmail.com), September 09, 2001.

It isn't hard at all. However, given that it IS very very expensive, I rather doubt they're much interested in tracking one of us taking a piss in the field on his/her homestead in the boonies. >:D

-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), September 09, 2001.

http://www.drudgereport.com/

-- x (x@x.com), September 20, 2001.