Back in February, my wife and I decided to discontinue our TV service which was a typical deal where we had several hundred channels of content but only a dozen that we would watch sparingly. As is typical of the demographic I represent, a few of those channels were news stations. I must say that of all the stations I thought I would miss, the cable news stations were the ones I’d miss the most….or so I thought….<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now a few months sans TV (albeit we are streaming movies and such), I must say I don’t miss cable news a bit. I’m not going to go on a political rant about the bias and ills of corporate news media (for the record, I avoid FOX News like the plague but am always suspicious of CNN and MSNBC). That said, I do believe its good to stay informed but I have found it not so good to become obsessed with news stories that the networks hype up to keep an audience transfixed for hours and hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I say all this to share that I’ve felt a bit more level headed when it comes to keeping up with current affairs. I subscribe to a national news paper and a local one. I avoid social media news feeds and, as I’ve always done, treat all information with a level of discernment. I don’t believe in an unbiased news outlet. Any human endeavor will have some bias. I try to think critically and, most importantly, keep the emotions in check, living by the principles found in The Serenity Prayer (i.e. know what I can and can’t control and don’t confuse the two). If I can’t control matters, why get worked up? Now, if I’m watching cable news with their endless parade of talking heads and opinions, how could I NOT get worked up? But, having removed that element from my life, I’m required to be more proactive in getting my information and more discerning about how I respond to that information. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Back in February, my wife and I decided to discontinue our TV service which was a typical deal where we had several hundred channels of content but only a dozen that we would watch sparingly. As is typical of the demographic I represent, a few of those channels were news stations. I must say that … <\/p>\n