If you are a news junkie, you have a many ways to feed your habit. Most people have their favorite sources. I have a friend whose home page on her computer is the Wall Street Journal. My niece favors the BBC. My sister reads her local paper and watches cable news. I have friends who only trust PBS and NPR, while others never turn off CNN or Fox News. They all get the news, albeit with a slightly different spin.
My preference is none of the above. People are aghast when I tell them I don't watch the news, listen to the news, or read the news. Despite my vigilance, however, the headlines seem to the sneak through, so that I am not completely ignorant. People ask, "Don't you want to know what's going on in the world?" My reply is, "No."
What is going on in the world, according to the media (newscasters, news analysts, news commentators) is too terrible to take in on a regular basis. In a single day, one can hear incessant reports on floods, earthquakes, multiple wars, starvation, corruption, mass murder, suicide bombers, assassination, political name-calling, and more. In some cases, there is an attempt at objective reporting; in others, the vitriolic hate language and yelling hurt my ears.
Why would I subject myself to a steady diet of toxicity hour after hour, day after day? I started my last book with this sentence: Words have power. I truly believe that. And to be buffeted by horrific, frightening, heartbreaking words and images is akin to taking poison.
Forgive me for this downer of a blog post. I just accidentally tuned in to a report of a suicide bomber in Iraq who killed 100 people and wounded scores more. The report was only one sentence, and then the news anchor moved on to a different catastrophe.
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