My name is Alison and I am a news junkie. Like an AA meeting, I feel the need for a support group to help me turn off the news that has been my constant companion. I wake to NPR Morning Addition and listen throughout the day. I read two papers the Washington Post and New York Times online, and watch C-Span, MSNBC, and CNN. I try to watch Megan Kelly on FOX, just to hear the other side. At night when I can’t sleep I turn on NPR. When I worked in Washington D.C.. I read Roll Call, Politico and The Hill. But, no matter how much I read, someone would invariably say, hey did you read that story? I had missed something, the information and news would make my head feel like exploding.
Since the election, I can’t listen or watch any news. It is depressing, reporting rumors and speculation. What may happen, who might be appointed, and if what Trump may or may not do.
I am going on a news diet. Restricting myself to an hour of NPR Morning Addition and the PBS News Hour. I am devastated by Gwen Ifill’s death, and hope she is in a better place without Donald Trump.
I grew up in an era where we read a newspaper and watched the evening news, which was 30-minutes of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley or Walter Cronkite telling us everything we needed to know. When news became a 24-hour phenomenon, the nation didn’t get any smarter. We heard about missing pretty white children and husbands who killed their wives, storms and floods. With 24-hours of news, we could have learned a lot more about the world, our environment and how government actually works. Not sound bites and slogans. But that did not happen.
So today the 24-hour news is all about rumors of what the coming Trump administration may or may not do.
My post-election new year resolution, is listen to more music, sing out loud, and listen to podcasts. Have you heard Modern Love? I am asking for your recommendations of fun and interesting podcasts, that are not news related. And of course audio books.
“Turn off the TV, throw away the paper, move to the country, build you a home, grow a lot of peaches, and try to find Jesus on your own”, to quote John Prine. Can you hear me singing at the top of my lungs? I hope so!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG0-iWCKjsw
