[PB2K]

I feel a lot more comfortable and secure since I quit reading and watching the news on a regular basis. I heard about the elections in my country and the endless formation of the new gouvernment, and I am happy I didn't watch a minute of it. When I travel I don't read the news either, I might read an occasinal local newspaper to see what's keeping people busy, but I can do without the warnings and hypes. Actually when I am on the plane back home I refuse the free newspaper because it's full of depressing news anyhow.

It occurred to me that the news is actually always the same. Shootings, gossip and political scandals, et cetera. The same things happen everywhere everytime, so I can do without the last update of it. The media are just too eager to check the facts properly so they just write a bs-story that needs to be updated the following days. It's knowledge I can do without.

How many times a day do you check the news?

[voodoo]

I agree, therefore I don't read the news or watch them. All the news that matter to me happen close around me. If I hear it or see it from the people I talk to, then it matters.

News are boring, repetitive and most of the time depressing. Asides from being ill-researched and whatnot.

Wars, terrorism, scandals, political innuendos, etc etc. No thanks.

V

[Doofy]

I check a few select RSS feeds just to keep on top of whatever fascism the government is attempting to direct my way, but that's about it.

The time saved from not watching the TV news or reading newspapers is better put towards polishing my pitchfork in preparation for the revolution. Or annoying you people.

[- - e r i k - -]

[- - e r i k - -]

[Nivag]

How on earth do you not read/see/hear anything to do with current news?? Are you a hermit?

I don't actively watch the news on TV, if it's on I'll watch though. We get a daily newspaper and a evening one during the week and I'll read the online news if I need to waste some time in the office. I don't worry about what I read, it's not worth it. but I do want to know what's going on in the world.

[screamingFit]

I gave up news a long time ago. Now, no more laying awake nights worried about how f'ed up this marble has become. Uninformed? Sure. Fine. I'll take the feelings of false contentment over mind-numbing fear and trepidation any day.

If something important happens, I'll hear about it from word of mouth. Off the top of my head, that would of been the 9/11 event and possibly the east coast power outage from a couple of years back. The rest if just static.

[Railroader]

Ignorance is indeed bliss.

[Dakar²]

Originally Posted by Railroader 

Ignorance is indeed bliss.

Sad but true.

Anyway, I find these forums tend to break the important news fairly quickly (quicker than TV, to me).
Of course, the last two things I remember learning are Anna Nicole is dead and Boston thinks lightbrites flipping you the bird are bombs, so I could be mistaken.

[Doofy]

Is it not a form of oppression, being forced to pay attention to what's going on in the World?

"There's been a coach crash in India* and a bunch of Indians you didn't know existed have gone to meet their maker, you *must* all say 'ahhhhh' and feel upset." Etc., etc..

(* Indian coach crash used as example because this has actually happened on the BBC TV news, not because I think the inhabitants of India are any less news-worthy than say, the inhabitants of Bolivia).

[Dakar²]

I find that a bit of a stretch.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Dakar² 

I find that a bit of a stretch.

Which bit?

[Dakar²]

That it's oppressive to be told of international news.

[Doofy]

I'm just thinking of what's currently happening here.

As an example, care homes (i.e. for the mentally incapable) have certain regulations which say how wide a window should be left open (so the inmates don't fall out). Now, I know for a fact that this current UK government tend to change these regulations every month or two. One month it's 1", next month it's 1.5", next moth it's back to 1", then 2".

Mental, no? They do it to keep you on your toes and make sure you're paying attention to them. Because if you're not paying attention to them it lessens their power - and power-hungry asshats aren't into any lessening of their power.

Same with the news. Keep changing the rules, keeps you chained. Keep feeding you miserable stories, keeps you miserable, keeps you chained.

I'm pretty sure they weren't showing episodes of Friends or South Park on those telescreens in the novel "1984".

[Dakar²]

Unless, you can't change the channel, I don't think it's oppressive. Personally, I find advertising 'oppressive'.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Dakar² 

Unless, you can't change the channel, I don't think it's oppressive.

What about news slap bang in the middle of the film you're watching? And you have to catch the end of the news so you know when the second part of your film starts? Happens all the time here.

[Dakar²]

Originally Posted by Doofy 

What about news slap bang in the middle of the film you're watching? And you have to catch the end of the news so you know when the second part of your film starts? Happens all the time here.

What do you mean, like when you're watching a movie on tv with commercials?

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Dakar² 

What do you mean, like when you're watching a movie on tv with commercials?

Well, they'll have the first half of the movie between 9pm and 10:30pm. In the last break (10:10 ish) they'll tell you about what's coming up on the news. Then they'll have the news at 10:30pm. Then once they've done the news you get to watch the rest of the movie.

This is a regular thing here. And it's one of the reasons that I don't bother watching regular TV and just BT everything instead.

[wolfen]

The media is doing more to create positions than it is doing to inform them. Some of this is intentional (like focusing more on pretty white blond girls vs. other kidnap victims) and some of this is simply a consequence of transmitting rhetoric.

Also, bombarding humans with a wide array of information that is irrelevant for personal survival is a fairly recent social experiment. It is becoming an experiment out of control, with billions of people unwittingly altered by it.

I think people have difficulty knowing how much ignorance is good for them.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by wolfen 

Also, bombarding humans with a wide array of information that is irrelevant for personal survival is a fairly recent social experiment. It is becoming an experiment out of control, with billions of people unwittingly altered by it.

Ditto for democracy, and the former is necessary for the latter. If you'd prefer neither, there are many governments in the world that feel that way too.

[Dakar²]

Originally Posted by Doofy 

Well, they'll have the first half of the movie between 9pm and 10:30pm. In the last break (10:10 ish) they'll tell you about what's coming up on the news. Then they'll have the news at 10:30pm. Then once they've done the news you get to watch the rest of the movie.

This is a regular thing here. And it's one of the reasons that I don't bother watching regular TV and just BT everything instead.

That's, uh, fairly different than here.

I dunno, I don't want to be a prick since I pretty much hate how TV works anymore (I watch over 2 shows simultaneously now because commercial breaks here are ridiculous), but that said the normal argument I would expect from a certain side of the forum is if you don't like it don't watch or go rent the movie, etc. I can't say I endorse that option, but I do think there's some truth to it. The amount of tv I watch has plummeted with all the 5 minute commercial breaks (though more amusing is the convenience/paradox of everything I want to see being on at the same time).

Even back when I had a laptop I couldn't bear to listen to the commercials even though my attention was on the laptop.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

I don't watch the news ever as it is boring and depressing but I do check up on WORLD news online a few times daily. Local news is just the usual boring stuff about fires, crimes, kittens in trees and weather.

[Dakar²]

Local news here consists about schools constantly: strikes, consolidation, or the big dominator, sports.

[wolfen]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

Ditto for democracy, and the former is necessary for the latter. If you'd prefer neither, there are many governments in the world that feel that way too.

Well, like many, I think it'd be great to retire to my own private island in the Pacific -- far away from CNN and democracy. And as for information overload assisting democracy, I haven't seen a cause and effect relationship that represented anything like an improvement of democracy.

[Zeeb]

I agree, watching the news too much lowers your attention span and gets you all bent out of shape over tragic stuff that happens to people you don't know. 3 shootings reported today--one in Utah, one in Philly and another in L.A. However, the only shooting I should be concerned about is the one that happened this weekend on my block in Brooklyn.

I do think you need a general awareness of what is happening in the world however. If the media has been predicting a downturn in home prices it would suck for you if you went out and bought a mansion in Fresno because you weren't aware of it.

[PB2K]

In the Netherlands the news is constantly trying to make you think there is a tendency for something : growth of radical islam, growth of radical extreme right, worsening environment.. after the Tsunami there were all these reports of tsunami warnings here and there, it happened the same with the pakistan earthquake, because suddenly every quake is on the news. have you noticed the endless articles about "new research has showed". It got so far as 'scientists' disadvise consuming milk and cheese because it's contains so much fat. It's useless information.

It's like I am on a holiday, and my mother is worried sick because there was a coincidential bombing in the country. Then she is upset at me because she was so worried all the time i spent hidden in the jungle. Just don't watch the news mom

[voodoo]

Originally Posted by Doofy 

Is it not a form of oppression, being forced to pay attention to what's going on in the World?

I think it is a form of insult to say the least. The news in major media are so generalized and indeed selected that it only goes for the lowest common denominator, newswise.

Everything is so broad and vague that it doesn't matter. I don't recall seeing or reading anything in the international news that directly affected my life or the life of the people around me for a long long time.

To not read news or see news is very easy. It does involve not watching TV though. If you ditch your TV, then you're more than half way there.

V

[Jawbone54]

Back in high school, when I thought I was going to be a journalist, I paid attention to news (local, national, and international) so closely that I began to drive myself crazy. I saw so much going so wrong that I would get depressed frequently because I felt unable to change anything.

I got to college, changed my major after a semester, got more involved with some other hobbies, and cut my news intake to about thirty minutes a day. I'm happier, healthier, and life is a lot more fun.

I think everyone owes it to themselves to stay informed, but there's too much going on both positive and negative. As ridiculous as it sounds, people can get so involve with keeping up and involving themselves in current events that they forget about their real lives.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by voodoo 

Everything is so broad and vague that it doesn't matter. I don't recall seeing or reading anything in the international news that directly affected my life or the life of the people around me for a long long time.

If it did, it would be local news, wouldn't it?

[voodoo]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

If it did, it would be local news, wouldn't it?

My point exactly.

V

[Mastrap]

I read the Globe and Mail newspaper daily, and I wake up to the CBC news. I'd much rather be informed than ignorant.

[SirCastor]

I get my news on NPR. I would much rather know what's going on, and how I can attempt to help or change it, than live ignorant of the world around me. I used to not pay attention to the news (not intentionally, I just didn't care). One of the things that was most frustrating to me was my inability to participate in class discussions because I hadn't heard about it, or to be unable to make reasonable decisions when I voted because I didn't know anything.

I don't need the news, but I do prefer to be informed. The concern that I had with the news is if it's really reporting to me what's important, honest, or true...

[smacintush]

I don't actively seek out the news, but I don't deliberately avoid it either.

[smacintush]

I love te news.

[screamingFit]

Mastrap,

You are inferring that people who do not participate in reading a newspaper or watching TV news are ignorant.

I would have thought that someone as intelligent as yourself, based upon your news consumption level, would have not made such an ignorant statement.

[jebjeb]

I strongly dislike newspapers and tv news. Web news I am relatively cool with as I can take it the way I want it.

My biggest gripe about news hasn't been touched on specifically here yet, except maybe by Voodoo, and that is how dumbed down it is. Best example is the most sold newspaper here in the UK, The Sun, which is classed as one of the tabloid newspapers. The reading age i.e. the age at which the writing is written to understand, is 9. This is how a large proportion of people in the UK get their news. Something that is written so a nine year old could understand it.

I only very occasionally watch the TV news and I find it hilarious. Just the way the newscasters and reporters talk, repeat themselves, speak crap to fill in time etc drives me crazy. I especially find it incrediable how they report during a major incident. They know one or two small details but yet they manage to fill in constant news reports about the little they know plus a whole lot of speculation and un-educated guessing.

Put simply, the media pisses me off.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by jebjeb 

My biggest gripe about news hasn't been touched on specifically here yet, except maybe by Voodoo, and that is how dumbed down it is. Best example is the most sold newspaper here in the UK, The Sun, which is classed as one of the tabloid newspapers. The reading age i.e. the age at which the writing is written to understand, is 9. This is how a large proportion of people in the UK get their news. Something that is written so a nine year old could understand it.

There's only two reasons to read the Sun. Both of them are on page 3.

Originally Posted by jebjeb 

I only very occasionally watch the TV news and I find it hilarious. Just the way the newscasters and reporters talk, repeat themselves, speak crap to fill in time etc drives me crazy. I especially find it incrediable how they report during a major incident. They know one or two small details but yet they manage to fill in constant news reports about the little they know plus a whole lot of speculation and un-educated guessing.

Put simply, the media pisses me off.

Problem is, if they actually told the news accurately and with all the details, there'd be a revolution. Like, immediately.

Being heavily involved in the old politics, I generally see trends developing before the media has had the chance to water them down. For example, only this week did the papers disclose that our masters want to extend this proposed road tracking/pricing over the entire continent (and I think most people still missed it, it was so subtly slipped in). I've known that this scheme is us being a guinea pig for an EU directive for about a year and a half.

It's not at all in their best interest to tell everyone the full truth. There'd be riots.

[Dakar²]

Originally Posted by smacintush 

What's sad about it?

Seriously.

Because knowledge is a good thing to have.

[jebjeb]

Originally Posted by Doofy 

There's only two reasons to read the Sun. Both of them are on page 3.

Too true. Although I again prefer to get that material from the net

Originally Posted by Doofy 

Being heavily involved in the old politics, I generally see trends developing before the media has had the chance to water them down. For example, only this week did the papers disclose that our masters want to extend this proposed road tracking/pricing over the entire continent (and I think most people still missed it, it was so subtly slipped in). I've known that this scheme is us being a guinea pig for an EU directive for about a year and a half.

It's not at all in their best interest to tell everyone the full truth. There'd be riots.

Again, so very true. I consult to a government area (soon to be an agency). They are no where near perfect but they are getting better but of course none of good stuff is reported as that doesn't sell papers.

[andi*pandi]

The Fake News (aka jon stewart) is all I need. Ok, so that's not true. I read the Boston Sunday Globe and not just the funnies and the magazine. During the week I occasionally check CNN or whdh.com, but while the internet wins for immediate access and hey free, I find that internet news articles are usually not detailed enough. I rarely watch TV news. I hate waiting for the one item I'm interested in to show up, and putting up with the teasers.

[osiris]

I gave up reading in general. I have everything made into pictographs, or my servents mime current events for me.

[centerchannel68]

Originally Posted by Nivag 

How on earth do you not read/see/hear anything to do with current news?? Are you a hermit?

Nope. I just don't watch tv, nor do I get the a paper. The news sucks. if they honestly reported news, and not just sensationalized everything for better ratings, I might reconsider. Unfortunately, that isn't going to happen. The news will blow things outta proportion just to get ratings. Need I remind you of this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4G-D0F4Q9yk

[wallinbl]

I quit reading or watching the news a long time ago. I'm happier for it. You can't get straight, factual news anywhere. It's all loaded with someone's agenda, and I'm rather sick of it. I'm long since done with politics - nothing good ever happens and they're all lying scum, so who cares which one I vote for? I'd actually be tempted to start an anti-vote campaign, encouraging no one to vote at all as a statement that we don't like any of the politicians and think they don't deserve to be in office. Don't you think the governments and political parties would notice if election day came and went and no one voted? When you choose Dick B over Dick A, they just think there was something appealing about Dick B, when there really wasn't - it's just that Dick A molest pages, and that's more offensive than trampling our rights.

So, yeah, the news sucks. Is the world as bad as the news makes it out to be? I don't think so. I run into nice people everywhere, but the news only seems to talk about the dicks.

[OldManMac]

I get my news from NPR and the web. I quit watching tv "news" more than a year ago; as a matter of fact, I quit watching tv about 11 months ago, period. The inane dribble that is called "news" on tv is ridiculous. On NBC Nightly News, their "in depth" segment is less than 60 seconds! That explains precisely why Americans have elected the buffoons we've had in office over the past several decades, as they're fed exactly what they want to hear, and they don't follow up on any of the "promises" they're fed, yet they continue to elect the same clowns over and over.

[wallinbl]

Originally Posted by Doofy 

Problem is, if they actually told the news accurately and with all the details, there'd be a revolution. Like, immediately.

There'd be riots.

We need a revolution. Governments have become clinically insane.

[wallinbl]

Originally Posted by KarlG 

That explains precisely why Americans have elected the buffoons we've had in office over the past several decades, as they're fed exactly what they want to hear, and they don't follow up on any of the "promises" they're fed, yet they continue to elect the same clowns over and over.

The only people that run for office are clowns. We're forced to elect clowns by virtue of there not being any candidates that aren't clowns.

[centerchannel68]

Originally Posted by wallinbl 

I'm long since done with politics - nothing good ever happens and they're all lying scum, so who cares which one I vote for? I'd actually be tempted to start an anti-vote campaign, encouraging no one to vote at all as a statement that we don't like any of the politicians and think they don't deserve to be in office. Don't you think the governments and political parties would notice if election day came and went and no one voted? When you choose Dick B over Dick A, they just think there was something appealing about Dick B, when there really wasn't - it's just that Dick A molest pages, and that's more offensive than trampling our rights.

That's why I vote 3rd Party. ALWAYS. I never vote for either of the two parties, because they have ruined America. Almost all this country's founding forefathers were against the two party system, and now we're stick in a rut. Not voting is only strengthening the 2 party system. If you truly hate all that BS, vote 3rd party, again and again and again and again. Voting isn't about voting for the winning guy, it's about changing things for the better, and neither 2 party representative is ever going to fix anything.*

*: Except Russ Feingold. I'd vote for him in a heartbeat. He was the only, the ONLY ****ing person to stand up and say that the patriot act was wrong. He has balls as big as weatherballons.

[wallinbl]

Originally Posted by centerchannel68 

Not voting is only strengthening the 2 party system.

I'm not suggesting that you abstain by yourself - I'm suggesting that we get the entire freaking country to do it all at once.

Unless, of course, you can find a candidate that doesn't suck. Haven't seen one of those yet.

[centerchannel68]

Russ Feingold doesn't suck.

And sorry, nobody voting all at once would never happen. Ever. That's about as unrealistic as our current system.

[PB2K]

Not following the daily news shows ignorance??

I don't fit in that picture : I try to change this world to become a better place in my own way, and i am very interested in foreign cultures. I just think that the media have become too much of an industry. Therefore i don't want to waste precious time (like listening to fabricated stories about just another 'scientists say' item, or the creation of a gouvernment that is only costly and time-consuming and hairraising). Journalism is a very abused profession. Most journalists don't know what they are talking about.