Until then I will read only your blogs, and information sites that focus on the solutions to issues, rather than hyperbole.
Sound like a plan? Care to direct me to a favorite site?
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Boycotting News
Until then I will read only your blogs, and information sites that focus on the solutions to issues, rather than hyperbole.
Sound like a plan? Care to direct me to a favorite site?
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32 comments:
LOL - when you find it, please share with the rest of us! I'd love some positive energy.
i hear you...some of the news these days just gets on my nerves or makes me angry...we need solutions...
I show two comments but nothing has showed up - weird!
It's amazing how the simplest solutions are the most brilliant. Those who refuse to read or listen to the news because it's often so bad have their heads in the sand, I think, and to be unaware of what goes on does not make the world - or oneself - any better. But your idea is simple, and could be very effective. I have no suggestions for you for information-gathering, although the site http://www.euronews.net/nocomment/
which offers videos of what's happening around the world, without commentary, is sometimes a very interesting one to watch.
Sounds like a great idea to me! www.trilingualdiva.blogspot.com
I went pundit free shortly after the presidential election. I still look at the newspaper but I avoid ALL TV news. (Also read the NYT and BBC online.)
It has helped me calm down so much, I can hardly believe it. Even though I love Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow, their shows just get me all worked up. There is NOTHING I can do to change what they report on ... better to do good deeds at the local level. Whew!!
Smart. Interestingly enough, Seth (Jane Roberts) said the same thing.
I don't watch the news at all anymore. Life is so much more stress free. I don't see that my life is any worse for not knowing all the crap that goes on that I have no control over and no power to fix and I don't miss it at all.
I'm having the same thing happening with my latest post, too, Nancy: nothing showing up in the comments but showing up in my email. Weird! And as you know I was also unsuccessful in keeping myself away from the news. I just watched the PBS Newshour and then turned the TV off. Now I'm going to read "Arctic Dreams" by Barry Lopez and listen to the wind blow.
This is a fairly regular situation for me too. I'm a current events junkie who needs to go off it now and then because it REALLY gets to me sometimes. It's a good thing I guess - it causes me to focus on and take comfort in my own corner of the world, which really deserves my attention.
Sounds like a wise plan.
A number of blogs are having comment oddities. I imagine it will correct itself before too long.
Good plan. Hope it works!
Savor a dinner by candlelight in the evenings. I'm totally media free and much more able to preserve my energy to activate positive changes in my community. I do not need to "inform" myself about the calamities we face. I already get it.
It all begins within...
When 9/11 occurred, I was busy at work and ignoring the news. Others had to inform me what was happening in the rest of the world. I'm always afraid I'll miss something so I like to keep an eye on news updates. I agree that some things masquerading as news are just annoying and not worthy of airtime. The media doesn't seem to know the difference anymore or either have too much airtime to fill.
Go here: http://www.thingstobehappyabout.com/
So...it is the repetition that bothers you most? I suppose it is like a continual smashing of the thumb with a hammer while trying to hang a favorite picture. It has to be done, but gee, one smash will suffice!
Great idea!
I do check the news periodically throughout the day...and yes, it does wear on you.
Whale
Good plan. I tuned out from TV news a while back and thought I'd be out of touch...but realized that I was better able to choose just what news I wanted to focus my energy on...and hopefully have some input to a solution or outcome. Grist online is a source I get newsletters from...and have found utne reader another good place to read. For laughs..the daily show. Sometimes I just need to laugh at it all. Freespeech TV, Democracy Now all available on TV but so buried in the channel lineup...no one can find it.
I always feel that if we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem. But I think the problems have gotten so big, we can't solve them anymore. All we can do is shut them out and try to find some sanity and serenity in our own worlds. So, like you, I try to avoid the "bad" news and concentrate on some of the happy stuff for a while.
Nancy..i am also trying to stay positive.Thsi oil spill makes me crazy....so I limit my news..I would seriously re think the later in the evening news..because sleeping with that on your mind can not be good..I have a TV in my bedroon and my husband used to turn on the eve news before we went to sleep, while I read or blogged...and I would have bad dreams or have trouble sleeping..now we only have positive things on..the news he hears in his office..it has made a diff in my sleep..going to bed on a positive note!
I don't have to watch the news to keep up with the oil spill. All I have to do is call my cousin in New Iberia, and he will tell me how much oil is in his back yard. Or go to my local seafood market and find that there are no shrimp to buy, today. But, if we are to be a part of the solution to these problems, we must keep informed. Ignoring them, will not make them go away.
Nancy, you should know my solution to all things political:
JON STEWART
JON STEWART
JON STEWART
and, of course,
COLBERT REPORT
hahahaha! only way I can deal with my news junkie habits.
Maybe it is not the news itself but the way it is given to you? Feeling like you have no influence...is that maybe what people (read; goverments/big companies)want you to think?
I firmly believe people stay the way they are because they can...because we allow them to...
I also believe the same applies to companies, governments, papers, tv-stations, etc.
another thing I believe in; the power of a big crowd, especially in a democracy...we DO have power but if we all think we don't...well than you will prove yourself right.
Knowledge is power...So allthough I get frustrated, angry and sad (often at the same time) I do still gather as much information as I can and try to avoid sensationalistic media...which automatically excludes most american (or english) media...
I haven't watched or read the news for years. I have not missed it one bit. The bits I need to know, tend to find me regardless.♥
I usually catch my news from The Today Show in the morning.
u r correct,
the best way to deal with it is to either ignore or do something about it.
Happy Friday!
i wish there was "the daily positive news" with only the good focused on for a whole hour. Wouldn't that be awesome to watch? And negative newscasts would be shortened to 15 minutes.
:-)
As both a journalist and someone with post-graduate training in ethics, I share your woes.
I've always been a critic of media (particularly big corporations = networks and big newspaper chains). Especially Americans ones, which normally don't understand there's a whole world outside of the U.S. and American interests. (Sorry!)
So I tend to be very critical of what I read, see and hear. And I keep asking, "Where is the humanity in this story?"
Why on earth would you want to upset yourself late in the day? I try to stick to educational & comedies in the evening.
I watch the news early in the day, but I don't dwell on it. Do what is in your power to do, and then move on. Maybe pull out an old photo album and reminisce.
I wish I wasn't such a news junky. First thing in the morning I have to log onto all the news sites. Then I just want to put a gun to my head for the rest of the day. Thank God for Xanax. You've definitely got the right idea, and I'm going to try to ween myself, but I pretty sure I need some sort of 12-step program.
Meanwhile, I'll keep writing the Sunday Recaps to at least put a humorous spin on some of this crap.
And Republicans in Congress are STILL fighting Democrats attempt to increase BP's liability for the spill. Arghhhhh!
Read newspapers - you can filter out what you want, and get it so much faster. It's best to keep in mind that the news is entertainment, and designed to attract the lowest common denominator - so fear and outrage are going to feature strongly.
News locks you into the ego's world of opinion - information is sorted according to the ego's need to confirm its fears. 160 people died in the plane crash in India, but 400 die every day of the year on the roads of India, and we never hear a word. 14 Han Chinese died in the Han-Tibetan riots in Tibet in 2008, and there was mass outrage in China. Front page news in China was the 5 unfortunate little Han Chinese girls who died in a fire in Lhasa, set by the Tibetan rioters. But the 500 000 Tibetans who have disappeared since the Han occupation began have never received even a sentence in the Chinese media. I could mention other obvious distortions.
I have found that developing silent states of mind in presence means that most information systems have little effect on me. Once you are getting sucked into the emotion of news, you are basically in a media-generated illusion.
I do it in the opposite order, Nancy. I find if I read the news at the end of the day, I will dream about less pleasing things. As a result, I wake up rather worried.
However, if I "front load" the news, reading it in the morning, it's much easier to take when well rested, and (this is key) I work out in the afternoons...so I'll be producing endorphins.
It is important to be informed, of course, but it's also important to manage ones stress level, isn't it?
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