Yeah, the free papers over here, unsurprisingly, aren´t exactly the pinnacle of journalism either. They´re what lots of people read though, where they get their information from, as scary a thought as that is.
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Reading an article that contains first-person reporting from the demonstrations in Hong Kong is good for you. Reading about events you can attend in your local area is good for you.
Reading an article about some individual tragedy that you can’t possibly influence happening to somebody who you find either appalling or sympathetic is bad for you.
So what will the newspapers lead with? Doom and Gloom and Octo-Mom sells papers!
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News is bad for you ... and you should stop consuming it altogether.
Tonight at 11:00 — Is this seemingly innocuous activity that you do every night at 11:00 actually KILLING YOU? We’ll have the full story tonight at 11:00, after Chicago PD.
Most news consumers – even if they used to be avid *book* readers – have lost the ability to absorb lengthy articles or *books*. ... We need reporting that polices our institutions and uncovers truth. But important findings don't have to arrive in the form of news. Long journal articles and *in-depth books* are good, too. ... *The Art of Thinking Clearly: Better Thinking, Better Decisions* by Rolf Dobelli is published by Sceptre, £9.99. Buy it for £7.99 at guardianbookshop.co.ukNewspapers are destroying your brain and your immune system. If you want to think clearly, don't read newspapers; read books. For example, I just happen to have this book over here, written on this very subject of how to think clearly... (And it's cheaper if you buy it through my partnership with your favorite newspaper!)
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There is good news, neutral news and bad news, but usually only the bad news gets reported. Some people choose not to expose themselves to constant negativity because it makes them feel hopeless, helpless, angry or depressed.
There is also propaganda and bias – abundant in the MSM – and people who know that may not want to waste their time being lied to.
…aaaand obligatory.
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“That everyone can learn to read will destroy, in the long run, not only writing, but thinking as well.”
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Makes me think of this:
Sensationalist, readily available news will be the death of us all…yet again.
“This Moment! From the gateway, This Moment, there runneth a long eternal lane BACKWARDS: behind us lieth an eternity. Must not whatever CAN run its course of all things, have already run along that lane? Must not whatever CAN happen of all things have already happened, resulted, and gone by?”
A friend of mine recently blogged about this phenomenon, noting that people who say things like this tend to have decided that everything peaked at a very convenient time for them:
The English language was perfect right about when I was three years old and learning the rules, don’t you see. All these modern changes are corrupting the one pure form of the language.
Technology needs to stop right here right now so I, a writer who publishes on the bloody internet, can avoid having to absorb something new like Google Glass. Can’t you all tell that the technology I am familiar with right now is sensible and new things are terrifying?
Culture ought to be the same way it was when I was a teenager. Just slightly different from my parent’s generation so that I can feel like we fixed things, but then it needs to stop changing! These new ideas are weird and I am pretty sure we had it all right when I turned 20.
One wonders exactly what year journalism had things right and then started to go downhill in this author’s eyes.
Herodotus ruined everything.
I quit trusting TV news when newscasters stopped smoking on camera…
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“Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.”
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