My Daily News Sources Are Depressing Me
This is totally un-Photoshop or photography related, so you might want to skip this, but my wife and I were having a discussion over breakfast last month that sparked this post, and I just felt I had to write about it, even though it’s well outside my usual area of reporting.
I usually like to start my day by checking the news, and I usually start by taking a quick look at both CNN.com and Fox News.com (that’s my attempt at trying to get both sides of the story), but I’ve gotten to the point that I don’t want to read the morning news anymore, because they include so much tragic news of children being horribly abused, or women being killed or raped, and children being killed, that I don’t start my day informed—I start my day depressed.
I want to read about politics, world news, finance, what’s happening in the Middle East, sports, entertainment news, weather, our government, science, health, and technology. I do want to know about suffering and tragedy around the world that we can do something about, but I hate reading every day about the husband that bludgeoned his pregnant wife, and then killed his four year old daughter. I hate hearing about kids being tortured, and women being beaten, and a mother putting her child in a microwave. As a parent myself, it not only sends chills down my spine, but it chips away at my soul wondering how anyone, anywhere could do these horrible things to people, much less to their own family members and children.
We’re a country of 300 million people, and within a group of that many people, lie some incredibly tragic stories, but when they’re served up to you every day in your own home, it feels like it’s happening all around you. As my wife said, “Do I have to hear about every bad mother that does something horrible to her kids in every state, every day?” Even when it happens 3,000 miles away, they make it sound like it happened in the house next door.
Of course, you might say, “Well Scott, just don’t read those stories” but you don’t even have to — as I showed my wife, the news headlines are tragic and depressing all by themselves—you don’t even need to read the story. So, as a totally unscientific experiment, I thought for one week, I’d write down every personal tragedy headline from both CNN.com and FoxNews.com and see if I’m being as bombarded with it as I feel like I am.
I started on Saturday, January 12th 2008 and for one week I just copied and pasted those headlines right off their home page, and into a text document. So, how bad were these headlines really? You tell me:
- Cops Dig to Recover Pregnant Marine’s Remains
- Stabbed Woman, 4 Kids Found Dead in Burning Home
- Police: Dad Who Wanted Son Killed Baby Girl
- HIV-Positive Man Pleads Guilty to Sex Acts With Teens
- Baby tossed from SUV
- Mother Charged With Murder: Kids Were ‘Possessed by Demons
- Cops: Mom Put Son, 7, in Oven as Punishment
- Body of 1 of 4 Kids Thrown From Bridge Found
- Cops: Dad Sodomized Teen Stepson to Avenge Rape
- Unconscious Ohio Man Charged With Killing Wife, 4 Kids
- 2nd Body Found in Search For Kids Thrown Off Bridge
- Manhunt After 2 Women, 2 Kids Shot Dead in Indianapolis
- Woman tried to save four girls, no one listened
- Stray Bullet Changes 10-Year-Old Boy’s Life Forever
- Iraqi Official’s Convoy Runs Over, Kills 5 Children
- Ex-Scout Leader Caught in World Child Porn Sting
- Americans Eyed in Brazil Nudist Colony Abuse of Kids
- Man Charged in Missing NYC Woman Case
- Schoolgirl Rape Victim Burned With Acid
- Kenyan Gangs Using Genital Mutilation as Weapon
- Tiger Attack 911 Tape: ‘My Brother’s About to Die!’
- Dead Girl’s Hell Revisited at Stepfather’s Murder Trial
- ‘Baby Grace’ Laid to Rest After Washing Ashore in Texas
- Dramatic 911 call in hiker’s murder
- Gruesome Pics Show Slain Coed’s Home Night of Murder
- Student Shot in North Carolina Drive-By
- Ohio Man Accused of Killing Family in Fire
- Texas Teen in 911 Call: ‘I’m Dying’
- Student shot in school parking lot
- Mom says boy was bullied to death
- Teens accused of pimping girls, gang-rape
- Slain hiker remembered as ‘angel,’ ‘firecracker’
- Hiker’s alleged killer named in 3 more deaths
- Mayor: D.C. failed 4 slain children
- Baby Dies After Sitter Swings Him in Sleeping Bag
- Missouri Mayor Charged in Internet Child Sex Sting
- House party teen charged with child porn
- 2 tiny corpses found; search on for 2 more
- Sleeping bag prank kills toddler
- Letters show misery of jungle hostages
- 5 Found Dead in Submerged Car
- Baby Thrown Off Freeway Bridge, Hit by Cars
- Mom Backing Out of Driveway Kills Daughter, 2
- Lawmaker Gets 44 Years for Raping Foster Daughters
- 4 kids under age 5 trapped in burning car
- Letter from dead sister haunts brothers
- Woman Kills Self, 2 Children by Walking Onto Interstate
- College Wrestler Killed in Crash on Way to Meet
- Police Find Body in Search for Florida Mom
- 15-Year-Old Fatally Stabbed in Schoolyard
- 4 Arrested in Indianapolis Murders of Moms, Kids
- Baby Put Up for Sale on Craigslist
- Alaskan Group Wants to Kill Wolf Pups in Dens
- College Wrestler Killed in Crash on Way to Meet
That’s how much personal human tragedy is served up to me every week, 52 weeks a year. Now, here’s the thing: These aren’t all the headlines like this they ran; these are just the ones I found at the time that I checked the news from my home, so it’s really just a sampling from the few times a day I check the news. As I said, this wasn’t scientific (by any means), and was just a “chance” sampling taken at whenever I got around to checking the news that day.
In my un-official sampling, I did note which ones were from CNN.com and which ones where from FoxNews.com, and the majority of the tragic headlines turned out to be from FoxNews.com, so at least that told me maybe I don’t need as much “Balanced” news as I thought. So I’m on the lookout for an online source that tells me what’s going on in the world, in politics, finance, sports, etc., without making me depressed, disgusted, frustrated, and just plain bummed each morning on my way to work
I’m not trying to pretend these things don’t happen—I know they do (I’ve been served a steady diet of it for years now), I just need a break from it. I need a breather from daily piles of personal tragedy and I just need the “other” news. I need a different daily world news source, and if you know of one that I should be reading instead, just post it here in my comments section, and I’ll gladly give give it a read. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and maybe if enough people find they need a “new news source,” these sites will start to change. That would actually cheer me up.
I live in the Middle East, so I get the local news, but check out the BBC, CBC and Euronews, sorry I don’t have the URLs handy. These organizations don’t have to sensationalize.
Scott,
As Scoop Nisker says “if you don’t like the news go out and make some of your own”.
Steve
Scott, I disagree with you that the “news” is depressing you. I read FP, NG, Time, etc. for all my news info but as a concerned parent, citizen and human being, I am interested in these headlines. I actually have google alerts specifically for cases of child abuse, torture, etc. for toddlers and babies ONLY and I have to tell you, I get 20-30 alerts a day! The WORLD and HUMANS depress me severely! These cases are on the rise and there is a much larger issue at hand. Drugs play a large part of these cases as do being a young parent, not to mention the constant flury of predators! The future of children and their safety needs to be addressed by the roots. This is the truth of our world, it gets very ugly and I certainly can’t live my days and pretend it doesn’t happen or that if I turn the other cheek it goes away. I know its everywhere and I pay attention. I try to get more involved with my community and with my neighbors to help protect and educate for the children’s sake not to someone else’s dismay…
please excuse the misspellings on my last post! Hey Scott, speaking of the Middle East, have you read about all the dead women and children there!?!!!
You know, I’ve been meaning to blog the very same thing. There’s too much sensationalism in the media. Every time I go to CNN.com and look at the “latest news” headlines, I’m disgusted. I read the headlines and ask myself: does this help me? Does it inform the decisions I make as a citizen? Or is it the equivalent of interstate accident rubbernecking? I’d say a full 25% of what appears there is the latter. No wonder we’re a nation of imbeciles.
Hi Scott
I travel a lot and the only place to go is the BBC. Either on the web http://news.bbc.co.uk/ (check the button for International) or on the TV. It is unbiased and you can trust it. The other alternative is The Economist which is light years infront of the two American newsmagazines. You can get the Economist on the web with daily news updates when you subscribe.
Avoid both Commercially Notable News and Fantastically Over eXageration if you want to know what’s happening. As many people have said, BBC is far better, although the best address for US news is the slightly more specific page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/default.stm.
Scott, thanks for writing about the dismal state of news reporting. My wife and I feel the exact same way. We stopped taking the daily paper (”The State” in SC) about 9 months ago and try to selectively screen out and mute many news stories. The one news joy we’ve recently discovered is “Sunday Morning on CBS” with Charles Osgood. It’s an hour-and-a-half news and events program each Sunday morning that always leaves us informed and mostly uplifted. I’ve found nothing else like it out there. Thanks.
Scott, I noticed about 6 months ago that the TODAY show on NBC began using sound to attract attention to each of it’s news stories. Every 30 or 40 seconds as they transition to a new headline, you’ll hear some digital audio that sounds like a car crash, or screaming tires, or something designed to make you look. I can hear the producers now, laughing, “Made you look…made you look!!” It’s so ridiculous that I’ve totally stopped watching the TODAY show.
i haven’t been able to check your blog for a week or so and i am just now catching up…although “off topic” i think this is a very important topic and i agree with you 110%…and by the looks of the comments here, you are definitely not alone…
Scott,
I have to agree with you. This news are gettin’ more desperate than before. I used to read every morning about it but those are not what I want to read. So I used news.google.com instead and read the tech stuffs and I’m better off than reading CNN and FOXNEWS. Also, iphone.foxnews.com is slightly better than the real foxnews and not too bad depressing. CNN is worse. Great article by the way!
for real news you don’t hear from the corporate media, definitely try pacifica radio (i.e. kpfk.org), democracynow.org and read the nation. I know the feeling with the tv — I can hardly read/watch any of it, but I do want to know what’s going on and what people are doing to make this world better, so these sites I depend on regularly. Hope you get a fresh perspective! Rach
Bravo Scott!
You noticed what a lot of us didn’t know that we knew. All the negativity create anxieties, and lead nowhere positive. Is the glass half empty, or half full?