Why I Don't Listen To The News Any More.

[Plaid Adder]

It doesn't help.

I have been unplugged from the news for a while, which is one reason I haven't been posting much here. The attack on Lebanon just sort of made the whole media pool too toxic for me to go into. But today we were listening to NPR on the way in to church. Holy cats.

* Hooray! The U.S. and France are sponsoring a U.N. resolution calling for an end to hostilities in Lebanon and Israel! Only since the U.S. and France aren't the ones carrying on hostilities in Lebanon and Israel, and since Hezbollah certainly doesn't give a damn about the U.N., and since Israel certainly doesn't give a damn about the U.N. either, it's kind of hard to see how that's going to make any difference. Oh, and Bolton got the original resolution amended so that Israel is only supposed to stop their offensive operations, which I guess means defensive ones are OK. Well, since Israel always claims that all of its military operations are defensive, again I ask, what's the point? Oh, wait, I get it: this way, they pass the resolution, and then Israel can claim it's complying and that Hezbollah isn't, so they'll suddenly have world opinion on their side. Well, that's a good use of the world's time and money.

* Some NPR reporter went down to a mall somewhere in Israel and interviewed the shoppers there about what they thought of the war in Lebanon. With the exception of the one Palestinian they interviewed, everyone thought it was fabulous. Prize quote from one interviewee, a woman who worried that Israel cared too much about world public opinion: "I think we should just act like any sovereign democracy would act, and blow them all to bits." Thank George W. Bush for setting such a good example.

* Meanwhile, in Lesotho, AIDS is killing huge numbers of people, orphaning children, and destroying society. But hey, we can't be bothering about that or about the much larger African AIDS pandemic, because that might involve teaching people about condoms or getting pharmaceutical companies to lower their drug prices, and anyway we have a war on terror to fight, and besides, Iraq and Lebanon have pretty much used up everyone's dying-civilians give-a-damn these days.

Criminy. NPR's new motto should be, "You give us twenty-two minutes, we'll destroy the world." Look at the week in review and actually the brightest spot in it is Mel Gibson's DUI arrest. Because it means that 1) Gibson has finally and definitively been exposed as the nut he is and 2) it reminds me that no matter what else may ever happen to me, I should always be grateful that at least I will never have to be Mel Gibson.

I'm going back under my rock now,

The Plaid Adder

[NanceGreggs]

1. For someone who claims to be ducking the news lately ...

... you sure have an incredible grasp on exactly what's happening, and why.

K'd & R'd, Plaid Adder!!!

[Tin Man]

2. The news is only gonna get worse

I'm afraid we're entering a very dark period in history. Finding a comfortable rock under which to set-up housekeeping is probably a wise idea.

[KatyaR]

3. I quit listening to NPR right around the last Presidential election.

It was one of my favorite stations, but I can't stand it now. I also don't listen to any news--I get my news by reading it on the internets. That way I can scan the headlines and still know what's going on but not read anything in detail unless I want to. I do listen to Air America to and from work, but I'm getting to where I can't stomach a lot of it lately as well.

I'm amazed at what passes for mainstream news these days. Our local newscasts are an absolute joke. Once in a while they'll have a real story on, but most of the time it's fluff pieces. And the news guys are convinced their serious journalists. What a laugh. And our local newspaper? It was named the worst newspaper in the country by the Columbia Journalism Review.

Oh, and the main reason I don't watch much TV any more--no more car or male impotence commercials. Yuck.

[MoseyWalker]

4. I'm going through the opposite

I couldn't watch any news for a couple of years. All my news came from the internet. Now. I have both, and can't get enough of the news on tv.

I see through what they are pretending to say, to what they are actually saying. I see many times what their purpose for the propaganda is. It helps me to chart a mental course for the future.

I can't live without it anymore for those reasons. I need to see the devil's eyes so closely these days that I want to know what color they are beneath the colored contacs.