Anyone else NOT watch the news?

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Aerides said:
When it comes to ballot initiatives my approach is to find out who is funding the project. That usually tells me what I need to know. Quite often the initiative name is quite different from what it actually proposes to do, so you do have to do some homework on those...
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I have a way to cheat. There's a guy in our neighborhood who is very staunchly partisan. He tends to support very extreme positions.

However his lawn signs say to vote, I just vote the opposite, which is always closer to the middle than whatever/whoever he's supporting.

[OK, that's not really true. But it does give me a good hint about people and positions I need to look at more closely before I vote.]

And, yes, you do have to do your research to find out what a ballot article would actually impact, and the true positions of those running for office. When you read their marketing materials, they always sound like reasonable, middle-of-the-road positions. That may be very different from what happens after the voting.
 
Moderator note: Please, let's avoid politics.
 
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euro said:
So, for those who do not follow news of any sort at all: how do you make an informed decision on who to vote for (local, county, state, federal) or how to vote on ballot initiatives, etc.?
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Regular news is not always a source of information on these issues. For example, where I live we vote for judges. Unless a judge is involved in a rare high profile case that judge will never be in the news.
 
Lewis Clark said:
Regular news is not always a source of information on these issues. For example, where I live we vote for judges. Unless a judge is involved in a rare high profile case that judge will never be in the news.
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As an aside, I have always thought popular voting for judges is a poor way to select them. As you point out, most of the people voting will know nothing about the nominees. In Connecticut, if you are a lawyer and want to be a judge, you submit an application to the Judicial Selection Commission, which screens the applications and puts your name on a list. The Governor picks names from the list and nominates them, then the General Assembly appoints them (or not) and they serve for an 8 year term. They can be renominated and reappointed at the end of their term. In my view, our method is a better way to ensure judicial independence and also to ensure that we have competent judges, not merely popular ones.
 
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No TV/radio news-
I get all my news from the WSJ and Google News feed.
Allows me to focus on what I consider important and avoid the rest, including commercials.
 
mystang52 said:
I promise to not get political, and will be intentionally non-specific. I used to be somewhat of a news hound, being knowledgeable of most current affairs. Maybe it's my age, but for quite a while I would get internally worked up if I watch or read the news, in depth. So, for all intents and purposes I stopped doing so.
I do get a daily email feed with basically just headlines, and if I really want to get more info I can then do more research; I rarely do so, however. And as a lifelong insomniac, I never check the news in the evening. I sure don't need another thing that might keep me awake. Maybe it's a variation of blissful ignorance, but I am happier. Am I alone?
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For a large portion of my life, I watched the evening news - both national and local. In fact, our TIVO still records both every night, and deletes each after 5 days. It's been years, though, since we've actually watched.

I tend to want to know what I want to know instantly and prefer to read instead of watching a talking head or a video that takes forever to get to the point. I also get a couple of daily feeds by email and I use a news aggregator app that I look at once or twice a day, but that's it.

Cheers.
 
audreyh1 said:
We go study the situation. I think you assume people who do not follow news are blind. We’re simply not following. It doesn’t mean we don’t go looking for information when we need/want it.

Active versus passive. I am an active consumer of information. I simply don’t tolerate being spoonfed information by any kind of “feed”.
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This is also how I approach news. There is so very little information that has actual value and needs to be known immediately, like a tornado or earthquake. Most everything else may be news but it is not urgent and I can take my time to decide what I am going to pursue and how I will approach it.

I do read some newspapers, but only very selectively, and I stay away from opinion sections. I have not seen cable or internet news for years. Their customer base is advertisers, not readers, so they’re not catering to my needs, they are using me to make money. I have no objection to that business model, but I also understand that any benefit accruing to me is entirely accidental.
 
I am gradually abandoning any interest in deadlocked federal policy as a meaningful change mechanism, so the angertainment we call “news” has little appeal.

Technological transformation is the dominant change force of our age, so my attention, fascination and hope for a better future is pointing in that direction. Governments are being left in the dust by engineering, laughably, really.
 
euro said:
So, for those who do not follow news of any sort at all: how do you make an informed decision on who to vote for (local, county, state, federal) or how to vote on ballot initiatives, etc.? Is it all strictly based on party affiliation or do you consume the information provided by each candidate with flyers, newsletter, websites, etc? Or do you have other sources (which?)? Or do you simply no loner participate?
It's a hugely important topic and I'm truly curious about everyone's approaches.
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It's all a matter of how extensive, and figurative use of language. As the OP, and as I alluded to in my opening, I don't literally avoid the news, and definitely know what's going on. With the full intent of adhering to this site's guidelines, I won't get specific. I have definite political leanings one way, and can -and do- research news whenever I choose to.
 
euro said:
So, for those who do not follow news of any sort at all: how do you make an informed decision on who to vote for (local, county, state, federal) or how to vote on ballot initiatives, etc.? Is it all strictly based on party affiliation or do you consume the information provided by each candidate with flyers, newsletter, websites, etc? Or do you have other sources (which?)? Or do you simply no loner participate?
It's a hugely important topic and I'm truly curious about everyone's approaches.
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My state is essentially a one party state top to bottom. My vote, one way or the other doesn't really count. [Mods please remove if too controversial]

And too many times the initiatives I've voted for turned out to be the opposite of what they claimed to be for.

More and more, I tend to limit my concerns and information based upon my aforementioned uncle's approach: "Whats it go to do with me?" At this point, all I want to know is if it's going to rain tomorrow and what the Dow did.
 
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Here's my CNN story:
We were living in Paris in 2005. There were riots going on miles away. Friends were calling from the US asking if we were ok. We looked out our window and people were sitting in sidewalk cafes, quietly drinking wine.

We switched on CNN and saw that there was a montage of video: rioters throwing rocks, cars burning, police barricades on the Champs Elysee, more police and barricades on the Champs, repeat, repeat.

Turns out, the police and barricades on the Champs were for a Veterans Day Parade and had nothing to do with the riots 20 miles away. But if you weren't there, you'd assume the riots were in downtown Paris. Lost all respect after that.
 
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I still consume news and try to make an effort to check different viewpoints. I mostly listen to podcasts and read various websites, as well as an evening local newscast. By the time the national network news comes on we’ve already read about the stories.

I finally canceled my electronic subscription to our local paper after it was bought by a large company who fired most of the staff. The majority of their local “news” coverage now is high school and regional college sports, or news from other cities in the state that is of no interest. But I recently discovered that some of their “refugees” got together and started a free and (as far as I can tell) neutral news website which I have high hopes for.

The death of local news is sad, really. The local TV stations have websites but the stories are often amateurish and superficial. And don’t get me started on why in the heck they think they have to let people comment on stories - what a cesspool of ignorance for the most part.
 
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Pretty much limited to news about significant local weather events.
 
<mod note>
A reminder to please leave politics out of the discussion.
 
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For better or worse, the internet seriously disrupted journalism. It caused so much talent to shift away from newspapers and TV news. The now-much-slimmer local newspaper is bereft with poorly-researched topics written in only a mostly-grammatical fashion, and then edited sloppily.
 
I've said for years that watching the morning news was a terrible way to start the day. It sets an entirely wrong tone for the rest of the day.
 
Markola said:
...Technological transformation is the dominant change force of our age, so my attention, fascination and hope for a better future is pointing in that direction. Governments are being left in the dust by engineering, laughably, really.
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That's an interesting thought. It's true that technology is moving faster than governments can react. In some ways, this is a very new phenomenon. Of course, change has been the bane of governments, probably for as long as they've existed.

And governments do decide how technology is regulated, and how it's used (especially, weapons technology.) They can heavily influence what technological fields are pursued (think space or alternative energy). Some governments flat-out prohibit some technologies or studies, or chase out scientists as a threat to the regime.

I guess I'll have to think about this some more.
 
Palmtree said:
I've said for years that watching the morning news was a terrible way to start the day. It sets an entirely wrong tone for the rest of the day.
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That depends on your mentality, personality, something like that.
Do you let it bother you or do you just take the factual material for what it's worth and look at the *spin* material for amusement?

Similarly for monitoring financial markets and news on a daily basis. Does that input inspire you to make poorly thought changes to your portfolio or not?

The answer varies from one person to another...
 
I dumped my cable TV back in 2016. I glance at the headlines just to have an awareness of what is going on. Reading the news is a lot less dramatic. I only dig further into things I am interested in (and search and read other sources, etc., etc.) However, I only pursue "watching" the news if there is a storm.
 
Beyond the weather forecasts, I’m honestly hard-pressed to think of ANY news story that has directly impacted my little life in the last year. How about you? Every newspaper and broadcast are full of titillating headlines and breathless reporters urging me to care about this that and the other thing that are going to impact my life IN A BIG WAY! Do they? No! Almost never. For me, not since the pandemic, that I can recall. I already know which party I vote for 100%, so that’s all I can do about government.

On the other hand, AIs are popping up left and right, some of them useful, so I direct more attention there, as well as other technologies I like to read about. And I like to read history. Pretty soon, gee, the day is over and I haven’t read any angertainment.
 
Markola,

I could not agree more with you.

Our eyes were opened by our seventh-grade science teacher who implored us to not even have a television in our houses (he did not). I have one that is off unless I put in a blu ray. I still think of that day in class...

I am sure I would have come to the idea myself. But, it was good to have that pointed out at a young age by a teacher I was fond of.

I don't need the drama of the news.
 
But I do like to watch the traffic report in the morning to see where the gridlocks are. And be thankful that I don't have to leave the house unless I want to.
 
Markola said:
Beyond the weather forecasts, I’m honestly hard-pressed to think of ANY news story that has directly impacted my little life in the last year. How about you? Every newspaper and broadcast are full of titillating headlines and breathless reporters urging me to care about this that and the other thing that are going to impact my life IN A BIG WAY! Do they? No! Almost never. For me, not since the pandemic, that I can recall. I already know which party I vote for 100%, so that’s all I can do about government...
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I'm not sure apathy is the best course of action in every case.
You might want to ponder the "poem" First They Came written almost 80 years ago...
 
I can see not watching every little thing in the news, but ignoring it completely and sticking your head in the sand is NOT a good thing.

Now is the time in our nation's history to be INFORMED about the truth.
 
DallasGuy said:
I can see not watching every little thing in the news, but ignoring it completely and sticking your head in the sand is NOT a good thing.

Now is the time in our nation's history to be INFORMED about the truth.
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This!
 
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