<p>Is anyone feeling like the mainstream media is become one big, boring , irrelevant reality show ? I have always been somewhat of a news junky, no allegiance to any one network or news source , but lately I am bored on a good day…why oh why is the make believe internet romance of a college football player worth reporting on one day, let alone a headline on all mainstream media sources for over a week ? WHO has any interest in it whatsoever to keep beating this dead horse ? I just don’t get it…nor do I understand why the subject of Beyonce’s lip syncing is of any importance…I weep for our nation when it seems like what is now deemed newsworthy consists of articles about anyone named Kardashian or anything of similar relevance as fashion , hairstyles and o ther pop culture silliness…
I made a choice to tune out from TV during the days before and after the inauguration , with the exception of pre-recorded cable and or movies…now I am seriously contemplating how to wean myself off of television altogether.</p>
<p>The good news is my house looks like a show home and my kitchen has been in heavy use with lots of good food cooked…and I began painting again in my free time :)</p>
<p>I get most of my news on the web, and it would be really good if I could create a profile with what I’m interested in or not, and have the news presented according to this filter. I’d like to have a “kill” list of names/subjects whose news items will always be kept out. Perhaps this already exists and someone can enlighten me, but on the Yahoo site, I haven’t seen something like this. You’d think the technology for this available, as is the demand…</p>
<p>My main news sources are listening to NPR and reading the Wall Street Journal every day. There is a bit of fluff in each of them, but the main focus is real news. And by keeping up with both I achieve a nice blue/red balance.</p>
<p>Have you read “The Braindead Megaphone,” by George Saunders? It’s about 10 years old now, but still the smartest thing I have ever read about the media in this country.
<p>Today I had that exact thought about that football player. Who gives a S**t!!! I feel the same way about most of that fluff (although I’m not above an occasional voyeuristic impulse, I will admit).</p>
<p>The whole Kardashian thing is just a mystery to me. What would those women do if they had to live a life with the cameras off? It’s like that movie years ago with Jim Carey, “The Truman Show”. Except The Kardashian are willing subjects. </p>
<p>My other pet peeve is when a network news station “reports” about an episode of the bachelor or Dancing with the Stars! THATS NOT NEWS!!!</p>
<p>lje–I have L.A. Times, NYTimes, BBC News, NPR, Science Daily and my local community paper bookmarked along with a couple of political blogs I enjoy reading online. I really don’t see any value added to TV news anymore. If I watch TV, it’s for something like Downton Abbey, the Olympics, or maybe a re-run of House. For the last few years, I think our TV is on maybe two hours a week, unless something special is going on in the world that prompts us to want to tune in to something live, like election returns.<br>
Reading all that stuff online does take time, so unlike you, I don’t think I’m gaining more time for getting other things done instead of watching. I’m probably getting fewer things done because you can multitask more easily while watching TV than reading on a laptop.<br>
25 years ago, you could turn on CNN and actually get hard news. So there would be something to watch while you were cleaning or cooking. It wasn’t all about the personality of the “newscasters.”</p>
<p>I have not followed the ND football player dilemma from the beginning, but I must admit it tore at my heart, upon hearing of it from a friend…and if it is the real deal…how sad that he may have been an innocent (and nobody believes that there could be an innocent in this day and age) … that he was played by a savvy and sophisticated victimizer. And as you say…why is this newsworthy? I am sure the victim just wishes it would stop already…And so do I…for his sake. There is still goodness in this world, if you look for it. I like NPR for information about science and everything else. Christian Science Monitor is also a good source for “just the news”. I avoid political stories at all cost.</p>
<p>I have been a long time viewer of the Today Show…I don’t watch it for the news , but it is a component that I have grown accustomed to… have been trying to figure out what exactly I feel is missing from the show…I think I miss some of the personalities who have either quit or been forced out , but I also miss the light morning show fluff that consists of food segments , family , pets human interest . This show has been part of my morning routine for many yrs, but beyond morning TV , there is nothing worth watching any more…news is biased and unbalanced .</p>
<p>I couldn’t agree more that mainstream media is a joke. Even on the web it seems that “news” is so limited and narrow in scope with the same few topics covered by all in a shallow way.</p>
<p>Ive never been a fan of TV news. You can’t control what stories are on. I’ve read newspapers my whole life, where you can decide what articles to read, and now do the same online (even if there’s fluffy topics online or in the paper, you don’t have to wade through them to get to more important/interesting stuff; just skip over them.)</p>
<p>But the answer to why they’re there, either on tv, in papers, or online, is that most of these sources are commercially driven, and they “report” whatever grabs eyeballs and thus sells commercials. Obviously, a lot of people want to hear about the ND guy, or that K-whatever family(I honestly don’t know who they are, but I guess a lot of other people do.)</p>
<p>I might like that. I like the masterpiece theater stuff, and I’m a doctor who fan from high school when the f/x were like carboard boxes with a tube coming out of it and a lot of beeping and flashing lights. </p>
<p>Another vote for public radio. We’re lucky enough to have 3 local stations, and one is almost always on when I’m at home. I haven’t had a tv for more than 30 years.</p>
<p>I love public radio and listen to it exclusively in the car. I was surprised that during the inauguration coverage, the best station was our local news channel (New England Cable News). I found the discussions to be well balanced and well informed compared to the bigger stations.</p>
<p>I don’t watch tv news, but I’m a pathological newspaper junkie. There is a newsstand in Times Square near my office and I’m like a newsprint crackhead. However, I do get a huge variety of news from sources on all sides of the spectrum and various countries. Without the personalities, snark, fluff and body language.</p>