Not Following the News

[harley]

I occasionally see a preview of the weather report on the commercials of the show I'm watching. Does that count? But I always turn the channel before the actual news program comes on. I used to watch news that is supposedly more credible, like 60 Minutes. But I haven't watched even that in a decade or more. I did watch an internet stream of a recent 60 Minutes show on legal pot at the recommendation of a (anti legalization) friend. But it was such a collection of anecdotes and opinions, with almost no actual facts presented, that I'm turning it off for another decade or two. I can get uninformed arguments just by listening to my friend every week or so.

I'm sure I'll find out if the meteor hits or the revolution is televised. Other than that I'm happy as a clam without exposing myself to that drek.

 

[sengsational]

I'm a news avoider. If I don't have a podcast to play in the car (which I usually do), I might listen to BBC World Service, or NPR top of the hour stuff, but very occasionally, and only in the car. Most of the news is so depressing...some class of people in some country are having a hard time of it. Really, I'm not going to act on it, so I'd rather not hear the specifics. My head isn't in the sand...there have always been people in the world that are having a hard time of it. My being outraged again and again doesn't do any good.

Headlines sneak in as I'm doing other web stuff, and even on this board there are 'RIP so-and-so' threads and other news-like threads. And this board is good for financial and regulations news. And although an earlier comment mentioned not to get news from FaceBook, of course that can not be helped! I ignore most of it, and believe none of it unless I'm interested enough to dig into it 'for real'. That rarely happens. I'm just the opposite of this guy.

 

[GravitySucks]

Local news from Time Warner News All Day and news.google and NPR.
I have been able to watch live feeds of speeches and am very depressed finding how much is taken out of context to satisfy the medias bias. Sources I once found impeccable ( NPR, Economist, NY Times) have let me down recently, and not just over the election.

 

[dixonge]

And now you can't even trust that what you see isn't a completely fake 'news' item...

Facebook fake-news writer: ‘I think Donald Trump is in the White House because of me’

 

[audreyh1]

If you don't follow the news, how do you hope to be misinformed?

Good one!

 

[MRG]

Data and news are different imo. Newscasters select the data someone thinks we need to know and then "explain" and "interpret" it (I know data is plural but it sounds better to me ) from a point of view. I'm trying to follow just data now and not even that very much.

I like the approach.

BTW Datum called and is lonely.

 

[audreyh1]

You should not be equating 'no news' with 'heads in the sand' because they are not correlated. No News can mean enlightenment, because the major media outlets are in the business of Manufacturing Consent via propaganda (see Chomsky). Avoiding them allows the fog of indoctrination to lift and the eyes to truly see. Besides, there are *many* sources of information (long-form reading for example) that do not involve 'news' per se. I would argue that one can be *more* informed by avoiding the news, not counting those who wander off into a monastery somewhere...

Agreed!!!

 

[ERD50]

I get (but don't believe) most of my news from my google news feed, some from this forum, some tech news from tech forums, some from radio & TV, and some from conservative radio (just to hear stuff that I generally don't hear from 'mainstream' media - I don't trust them either).

But I don't believe a word of it, from any outlet, until I've drilled down and found the sources. I'm finding that most news reports are taken out of context, cut & chopped to the point of no meaning, and/or sensationalized.

It's actually scary to me to dig up the sources, see and hear the difference between what was said, and what was reported, and realizing that most people are just accepting the news feed and making decisions based on it.

If I don't have the time to check the source, I just discount it as probably mostly wrong. But it seems people are catching on, based on some recent Rasmussen Polls on distrust of the media (check for yourself, too hard to separate from political comments to post links here).

-ERD50

 

[kcowan]

When we travel to Europe each year, we will watch France24, RT and BBC. Unless there is a crisis going on, earthquake, Brexit, US election, mass shooting the coverage is pretty good. 30 minutes will keep us updated. When we are at home for 5 months, we watch the CBC but we also like NBC Nightly News and CBS this morning Saturday and Sunday. We even record the last 2 so as not to miss them.

 

[easysurfer]

I decided to ignore the news recently. Can't avoid totally, but about 90% and definitely flipping away from what top news of the day/week. Peaceful. I'll probably start watching again not long from now, but sure is peaceful and the small way of protesting too much fake news .

 

[audreyh1]

If news were the same quality as it was in the 80s, I would probably still be watching it. I've stopped watching it because the informational content has become so shallow and unreliable.

 

[Skyward1]

I'm a certified addict. So much negativity and repetition but I can't help myself. Deep down I know I would be better off without it in some sense but I must be informed...

 

[meierlde]

What I wish is someone would come up with a 15 min newscast as the nightly news used to be way back when. (Or 20 as Headline news used to be before they needed to attract eyes to their ads)

 

[kcowan]

Back in the day when we used to vacation in Mexico, no TV no phones no devices. Pure bliss! We figured that if WWIII broke, someone would mention it.

Now it is easy to turn off the TV and not answer the phone but we cannot stay away from our devices.

 

[Chuckanut]

My problem is that there is so little quality reporting these days. Facts are overlooked, reporters spin the news depending on their point of view, and, of course, they always exaggerate the worst things that happen. It's really a sad business these days.