Between the seemingly endless misery generated by Katrina, gas prices, and the two Supreme Court openings, I’m taking actual, serious steps to not watch the news or read political blogs/threads/forums for a while. I really don’t need the raising of blood pressure, anger, and flashes of despair that’ll come from absorbing the overreaction (ironic, I know) that’ll come from all angles.
I know not everyone’s as oversensitive as I am, so many will just zoom in more on current events, but I really gotta take a break. Anyone else gonna do the same?
I stopped following the news after 9/11. It turns out to be a viable lifestyle – you hear most of the headlines, one way or another, and I don’t stew about stuff I can’t do a damned thing about.
I picked up the 25th anniversary edition of The Blues Brothers and a six of Granville Island Pale Ale.
What I *should *do is just yank every inch of coax cable out of my house until Thanksgiving. Beats watching the news and being inspired to play a Dead Kennedys loop all day
I haven’t watched the news in over a year. However, I now read practically every inch of the newspaper (and I never really bothered to read newspapers before that). I feel I am better informed and don’t find myself nearly as angry as before.
I find out about things a little later than everyone else, but whatever.
I’ve never been able to watch the news – the talking heads on TV just make my skin crawl. I stay on top of things by reading BBC Online, New York Times, and the like. By reading rather than watching the news, and doing so usually just once or twice a day, I find I can keep a more balanced perspective and not get overly stressed about it all. Rather than being less informed than my news-junkie friends, I actually often find I am more informed since most of the input they’re getting from the TV is noise or filler.
I did a similar thing when I quit my job July 2003. I worked at a brokerage firm and we had news on monitors (CNBC/CNN/etc) through out the building. You couldn’t go anywhere w/o hearing the news. When I quit, I just quit watching the news. I do listen to Morning Edition on NPR, though. But not every morning. Only if I’m driving somewhere.
I can’t/havn’t watched more then 5 minutes of news regarding the hurricane. It’s so upsetting to me. I’ve been through 2 hurricanes myself and it’s so traumatic. If I saw every person they show on tv, my heart would bust.
Hurricane Andrew made me crazy back then, but missed me by about 60 miles. Weeks and months of seeing national guardsmen on the turnpike. Non stop news of horrible stories. I felt so bad for each person. Another hurricane came through North Carolina and I just cried for 2 weeks straight.
This time I am coping by playing ostrich and puttin my head in the sand.
I stopped watching the news after the elections last year. Not only did it take up too much of my time, I found myself angry and upset at too many things. I’ve since recanted slightly, only watching network news (or the BBC World news) every so often (absolutely no analysis/interview programs). I’m surprised at how much more professional they are than cable news. Oh, yeah – and The Daily Show. While not exactly news, per se, I needs me my Jon Stewart fix.
I now get most of my news from reading this board. For the most part, I’m much happier – not only do I stay relatively informed, but I generally get a better overall picture of the actual issues. Thanks, Straight Dope denizens!
I work at an all-news radio station, and I have to tune it out, not only because I have other things to do during the day. It’s information overload. One of my responsibilities is to listen for the absence of radio, because then we have a problem. As long as it’s droning away in the background, I know we’re OK.
I get a good idea of what’s happening locally, nationally and internationally every day, all day. When I go home, I don’t watch TV news, and I don’t listen to the radio. People discuss the important events here, without the bias of any particular news-reporting entity.
We have been a TV free household for about 10 years. Like others, I find it easy to keep up by choosing my news outlets with care and not becoming saturated. After 9/11, I changed my homepage from Yahoo so I could avoid even the headlines and didn’t listen to NPR ATC for about 6 months. We were given a year of The Nation a while back, but it was so unbalanced that even if I agreed with the viewpoints I couldn’t stand reading it. Effing smugness.
Interestingly, I’ve become resistant to mainstream movies, too - I don’t like having my emotions directly manipulated, and it’s so obvious now.
