Are you sick of the news?
 

When I was young, I only took a passing interest in world events. I voted, but I was shamefully uninformed about the candidates.
In my twenties, I started taking an increased interest, probably because of Viet Nam. Watergate made me rabid and I voraciously consumed media.
35 years later, I find that I've become disgusted with the gumint, and helpless to do anything about the decline of western civilization. I'm starting to feel like Garfield (below).
Where do you fall on my curve?

I keep a "healthy balance." I'm not out of the loop, but I'm not UT either. :)

I was disinterested in politics until I hit my late teens. Then I was a fairly active member of the left....was member of the Socialist Workers Party for a while....went on demonstrations against the conservative government of the day....Then Thatcher was gone...it was like we'd won....But then somehow the tories kept on going....So I thought ok, look how bad the country has gottn surely surely they cant win another term. And it looked like they were finished yet somehow they clung to power despite the degeneracy of their reign.....When Major won the election in the midst of a recession with business going to the wall left and right and whole streets of houses up for auction because the owners had posted the keys through the door and walked away, I was devastated. I couldnt believe it. I had been an idealist then a realist and now was just defeated.

I pretty much stayed away from politics ( apart from the anti nazi stuff) and the news I just found depressing. Then there was a sense of change in the air and found my attention dragged back there again.....Labour stood to win by an historic landslide....Things could only get better! ran the slogan. For my entire adult life and most of my childhood too, the tories had been in office. I'd marched against them, I'd watched them fuck up entire towns I loved with their devastating attacks on the manufacturing industry. They'd lined their pockets and the pockets of their friends and written the book on sleaze and finally they were being pushed aside by a desire for change and a kinder vision of Britains future....This was huge.

...........Anyway.....Some stuff got better, some stuff got worse. Then the Prime minister I voted for, the leader of my political party abandoned many of the fundamentals of his party and his manifesto, his Home Secretary turned out to be somewhere to the right of Goebbels and my country has been coupled to a Juggernaut driven by a slowthinking incompetant driver who has clearly been drinking.

I am now totally hooked on the news. Its a compulsion. I am angry at my government. I am particularly angry at Blair. I feel a certain thrill at the political game being played out in front of me. Both in local terms and international. There's a certain electricity which seems to crackle in the media when a politician is soooo under siege.

ignorance is bliss...

i get much of my news here, or on howard stern of all places....and a little sports news on WIP 610 am

OC,

if you don't cheer the fuck up soon, we're going to have to hold an intervention. get to a shrink....you're obviously depressed.

Who love ya, Baby?:joylove:

Its not so much that I'm sick of the news its that I'm sick of what passes for news these days.

I've lost a lot of confidence in the media over the years and no longer believe that they are reporting as much as they are advocating or advancing a position. I used to enjoy Fox/Hannity/etc. as much needed relief from CNN/Dan Rather/Peter Jennings/NYT/etc. but they have fallen into the trap of catering to the audience they created. Now, I really don't know where to turn for the straight scoop and I am weary of reading all of them and averaging it out.

I pretty much ignore the political stories which, unfortunately, includes anything coming out of Iraq.

I'll modify LJ's position somewhat and take the stand that ignorance is better than being a stooge for the left or the right.

I do a fair amount of work that involves having live news feeds but outside that I mostly rely on weekly publications rather than daily ones.

I go back and forth between being a news junkie and being news ignorant, largely based on my time availability. If it's busy at work I'm barely cognizent of what the next patient's issues are, much less the issues of the day in the world at large.

"35 years later, I find that I've become disgusted with the gumint, and helpless to do anything about the decline of western civilization."

Who says you can't make a difference? I am passionately disillusioned with a populace overwhelmed by passivity and inaction. So many people hold (often brilliant) opinions that never make it into action - but thinking never changed anything (don't shout - devils advocate here!). Seriously though, at what point does a person lose their youthful optimism, passion, hope? When do we stop thinking we can make a difference?

I tried to change the world and then later found out I was wrong and if I'd changed it I would have wanted to change it back.

I tried to change the world and changed me instead.

I like the news because I know I don't understand the world or the people in it, and here are these people trying frantically to explain it to me.

My boots are not talking to me.

UT, your post made me stop and think for some time.

I firmly believe that nature is a process of correction, perpetually rectifying errors, imperfections. Humanity has brought with it many flaws: war, pollution, pain. Should we take steps to correct this? Or let nature go it alone?

Once upon a time I was passionate about the news. I am going to give away my age here and reveal that I was in college when Kent State happened. I followed the news intently from that point on, since I figured my government was out to kill me, and I wanted to have at least some idea of what it might be getting up to next. I continued in this mode for a very long time until I got a job that required me to commute almost an hour and a half each way to work. I am a big NPR fan and I listened to "Morning Edition" coming and "All Things Considered" going. I watched CNN and subsribed to 3 newspapers plus I read my Mom's paper that she got each week from Switzerland. In all due modesty I was probably one of the best informed persons on the planet regarding current events. Then one day I was driving to work when the reports of the Oklahoma City bombings started to come in. I heard about those poor little kids in the day care center there. Tears started to roll down my cheeks and before I knew what hit me I was sobbing uncontrollably and had to pull off to the side of the Interstate. It took me a while to regain my composure and I was twenty minutes late to work that day. I realized that all those news reports were doing were telling me tales of suffering and horror that I was powerless to do anything about. My own life was difficult enough. I didn't need this other stuff on top of it all. I did a complete 180 and stopped listening to the news or reading the papers at all. If anything earth shattering happened, my friends would be sure to tell me. Now I get a little news (as much as I can stomach) from the headlines when I log onto the net. I'm happy this way and see no need to go back to being the news junkie I once was.

I'm engaged, I'd say. Sometimes what I see makes me sick and want to give up. I take a break. Still, I am curious. I seek out info, look for international sources and try to watch that news of the world doesnt overwhelm me and negatively effect my emotional state in my immediate "real" life. The Cellar has been great for me to hear a diverse range of takes. Its helped me clarify what I believe. Cynicism comes, but I try to stay tuned to what I can do-- Have an intelligent conversation about an issue I care about (or at least do my best!). Vote at all levels. Support charities that do work I'm proud of. Stay openminded and look for hope, through individuals. Pace yourself but keep your feet moving.

Does anyone here use shortwave radio for their news? You can hear the same world news from all different slants, and for real fun, you can listen to North Korea's news program.

I used to surf the radio waves, but I stopped paying attention to most news except my yahoo headlines.

I listen to BBC Radio4 and BBCWorld service more or less obsessively

I'm a news junkie, but I don't worry, giving up is easy, I do it every day ;)

Bwahahahaha. Right on, Yelof.:beer:

i'm not sure what my title would be. i went into the military at 17 so i paid attention to world news because at some point it does have a direct affect on my life. like "where am i going next?"

politically i lean more towards the right, although i refuse any affiliation to a party... anyway - i occasionally listen to hannity/fox/cnn/peter "al jazeera west" jennings, etc. but i never lose sight of the fact that there is no honest, unbiased source for info left. what passes for journalism today could really be labeled as entertainment. each source identifies which target audience they can profit from most by drawing into a close association. personally i have found that if you take talk show hosts/reporters and just bring everything they say down a couple of notches, you will be about as close to the truth as we can get now.

Sick of it, but can't turn my back on it either.

Reminds me of a song by Sixto Rodriguez from the album Cold Fact - "this is not a song it's an outburst"

The mayor hides the crime rate
council woman hesitates
Public gets irate but forget the vote date
Weatherman complaining, predicted sun, it's raining
Everyone's protesting, boyfriend keeps suggesting
you're not like all of the rest.

Garbage ain't collected, women ain't protected
Politicians using, people they've been abusing
The mafia's getting bigger, like pollution in the river
And you tell me that this is where it's at.

Woke up this moming with an ache in my head
Splashed on my clothes as I spilled out of bed
Opened the window to listen to the news
But all I heard was the Establishment's Blues.

Gun sales are soaring, housewives find life boring
Divorce the only answer, smoking causes cancer
This system's gonna fall soon, to an angry young tune
And that's a concrete cold fact.

The Pope digs population, freedom from taxation
Teeny Bops are up tight, drinking at a stoplight
Miniskirt is flirting I can't stop so I'm hurting
Spinster sells her hopeless chest.

Adultery plays the kitchen, bigot cops non-fiction
The little man gets shafted, sons and monies drafted
Living by a time piece, new war in the far east.
Can you pass the Rorschach test?

It's a hassle, it's an educated guess.
Well, frankly I couldn't care less.

that's a really cool song.