Thread #3 in the space of about 10 mintes.
I watch the coverage of the Russian school siege and feel pretty deep sadness for those poor people (specially the children. Somehow the murder of children is far more tragic than the murder of adults) and hatred for the other people who do such shit in the belief that they and their victims are going to a better place in the name of a (probably valid) cause. I believe that no cause, no matter how valid, justifies the murder of people not responsible for it.
But at other times when I’m not watching the news and it’s not on my mind I can laugh and enjoy things and get on as normal, care-free.
I know there are people who treat news like that as a personal tragedy. Something that saddens them and is on their mind every waking moment.
Is there any use in taking-to-heart the sad things we see on the news?
I don’t pay much attention to TV news unless there’s a major natural disaster (like Hurricane Frances) going on. Then it’s time to break out the sodas and popcorn!
I feel bad for people like the ones in Russia, but I sure don’t let it spoil my day. I’ve heard that control freaks worry about not being able to control the events of the world, but I’m not one of those people.
I don’t think this is so much a control freak thing, as a ‘generally high level of anxiety’ thing, but the news sometimes does affect me after the TV is off. Usually the types of things that stick with me are things that I might worry about anyhow—children getting abducted or attacked by dogs or dying because they were left in a hot car. (I have a 2-year-old and am 4 weeks away from having another child).
The Russia story, while incredibly sad while I am watching it, is not something which affects me so much in my daily life.
I packed my TV away in my closet eight months ago and haven’t pulled it out since. TV “news” programs, at least in my part of the world, provide entertainment rather than news, because network executives value ratings and profits rather than lofty ideals like public service. Thus TV news does not affect me at all.
I almost never watch local tv news. The endless hype and push the panic button weather forecasts drive me nuts.
I do watch a decent amount of CNN and C-span. However, it is selective viewing. I’ll grab the remote when they turn to Michael Jackson/Kobe Bryant/Laci Peterson coverage. Remote events such as Russia or the crisis in the Sudan don’t tend to have much of an effect on me. I like to be aware, but I am rational enough to know there is NOTHING I can do about those situations.
I watch the local news in the morning. The amazing thing is that here in Boston, we have ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX, and their formats are almost exactly alike. You cannot tell one from the other-even the weather reports are given at the same times.
The really weird thing is how the TV stations ADVERTISE their sleuth-like reporting! Like I care about Suzie Schmuck’s “keen grasp of the facts”! The most pathetic is FOX-they will have somebody standing in front of a courthouse at 6 AM (court begins at 10 Am, if the judge isn’t late), talking about the upcoming murder trial: “Jowe Blow reporting live at Plymouth County Courthouse”-who gives a bleep?
I just saw on the news that the scum who hijacked the school had filmed the children and the bombs above their heads. I don’t know how common knowledge that video is on the boards but It’s the first I knew of it.
Seeing that left me feeling some deep remorse and despair. I was looking at the faces of now dead children, humiliated by sick bastards filming them, knowing they would probably die.
It’s getting so that I can’t watch or hear mention of the school siege. Suicide terrorism is a low that growing up I never even knew the human race was capable of.
Murderers I understood. Individuals with fucked up ideas. But whole groups of people, HUGE groups of people, willing to kill bigger groups of people who did fuck all to hurt or offend them. Aiming at these people! Treating them as targets. I can’t ever understand this.
