Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for April 16, 2012

Garbage in, garbage out.

I stopped watching the evening news when I noticed just how far afield they had to go in order to find a violent crime to cover. They really go out of their way, as in thousands of miles.

Stick to the net for news. Much less of a strain on the credulity.

This is why I gave up on the news a very long time ago. The most I can take of it is the top of the news bites on the morning radio show. I truly believe that the news has become nothing more than a sensationalist fear mongering machine with zero creditability. In the last few years I’ve added weatherman to this as well. More inaccurate than they were 20 years ago and scaring everyone for no reason what so ever.

I also prefer the net. You only have to see and read it once!

One reason why I like the Lehrer News Hour … far from sensationalist.

I gave up on the news because although I’m in a metropolitan area of a city, it was all local news. If I’m going to watch the news, I want to educate myself about what’s happening around the world, not how many got murdered today.I’m with IMudd. I don’t believe a lot of what’s online, so I try to go to reliable sources and then double check it.

The most reliable news sources for the U.S.A. come from other country’s.

@ Lingee Whiz: I get most of my (American) news from the BBC online for that reason.

Worst of all is the 10 or 11PM news. The blonde or black co-hostess ‘updates’ us on the events of the day and then turns us over to a glum field reporter-ess and her crew who’s beenhanging around the site of the shooting/robbery/crash/drowning since 10 that AM to only show us the darkened street/building/lake and roll a field-edited tape and…“Back to you, Andrea” ..Then off we go on another merry chase in the dark ‘coming up next’..(cut to car commercials)…….Gaaahhh.. (click).

Hey all if I did what you did not listen, we would be in serious trouble. I do agree with Wally on turning the radio off when listening too much. Our national and local news gave us a days warning for sever weather conditions. This happened Saturday into early Sunday with massive tornado’s., there was destruction. One small town did not get warning and 5 death’s took place. Here in KS we had very good warning and preparation.Then the FL parents of slane teen was reality with angry people protesting. I did not protest.I’m also not very interested in global warming. Industries took care of this and provide what is left of jobs.

Switching to paranoia mode now, are we Joan?

The amount of news I saw on TV made me incredibly paranoid. With it off, I feel less of a constant need to know what’s going on, and read the newspaper and web news at my leisure instead.

5.56 M855 is better.

I visit Starbucks to buy the Sunday New York Times – it gives us stuff from all over the world. Some papers do well to cover anything outside their COUNTY (if that), and many of their readers depend on them for all their print news. I know some condemn the N Y Times as the Devil incarnate – good that this is a free country, m. o. l., so I can read what I please.

Better keep her away from the TV, too.

One of the things I like about reading the British Daily Telegraph online is that it’s all about ALL the world, all subjects, not who was the latest killed/ murdered / maimed/ raped, etc. U.S. news seems to consist of nothing else! Makes me feel like someone is wrapping me with a blindfold.