I broke my addiction to television news

I’m a news junkie.  At my highest level I subscribed to three daily newspapers, was a subscriber to at least half a dozen magazines and looked forward to my favorite day of the week – – Sunday – where I could watch three news shows in a row – – Face The Nation. This Week, and Meet The Press.  Every evening I would watch the news on KOMO, KING and KIRO.

I ate it up.  I felt like the most informed individual I knew.

When cable stations started running their 24-hour news channels, Fox, CNN, MSNBC – I was overjoyed – and over-whelmed.

As the print media gradually began its decline I turned more and more to television to meet my need for news.  At first I was confused.  Were these really news shows – or were they the mouth organs of the political parties?  My taste for them soured, but I was addicted.  I couldn’t break away.  Even the local news channels became less and less news and more and more slanted opinions.

I began to realize that the stations I thought were news sources were actually entertainment designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator.  Actual news disappeared, replaced with fear, violence and partisan politics.  But, I hung on.

What I slowly came to realize is that  most news is generated from the East Coast.  All networks have their headquarters in New York .  The ideas expressed on my television came from isolated and insulated staff and announcers living in a major metropolitan area.  Even my only remaining major daily newspaper “The Wall Street Journal” comes from that point of view.

There is no real news on the Internet or on social media.

I think I finally broke my addiction.   I haven’t watched a single news show in the last two weeks.  That doesn’t mean I’m not aware of events.  It just means that I get my news elsewhere.  I use my social contacts.  The people I know, and the people I talk to, keep me informed.   I learned a while back, that if it is really important – I’ll find out about it.

Here’s the purpose of this article.  If you want to be happier and feel good about yourself and your place in this world – – stop watching television news.  And, don’t believe anything you hear or read on-line.  it’s not worth the effort or the anxiety.