All the News that Gives Us Fits 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Polly Campbell suggests that excessive news consumption is–er–less than desirable.

A snippet (emphasis added):

I rarely watch television news because once I turn it on, it’s harder to turn off the television. And the nature of television news is that the stories are shorter. Sometimes this leaves me with a lot of emotion and few of the facts I need to understand it. So, I read a national and local newspaper. It’s easier to put down when I’m done.

I think she is onto something.

I gave up on broadcast news years ago. I find it superficial, sensational, and simplistic. Heck, I can read more in 10 minutes than a news announcer can read to me in 30.

And, when broadcasters have the choice, they will opt for sensational over sensible and superficial over solid, because these days it’s all about keeping eyeballs glued to the screen.

So I read.

Newspapers, newspaper websites, magazines, some blogs I have found reliable, sometimes even books–material for persons who read.

Also, in the “twenty-four hour news cycle,” there is not twenty-four hours worth of news, so broadcast news fills the gap with drivel talking heads spouting opinions. Opinions may or may not be valid, but they are not news.

(Of course, I fill this blog with my opinions, but I don’t pretend that they are anything more than opinions. Always right and never wrong, of course, but, still, just my opinions.)