I hate listening to the news. Anyone else?

[GeoX]

Saturday Night Live is one of the most depressing casualties that actually makes me yearn for the 1995 and prior late night skits I never got to see because my child brain was too much of a bumble bee. The garbage Colbert poops out of his facial-rectal cavity is everything that stands against comedy. Also Jimmy Kimmel really does seem like the next #metoo (don't get me started on how the news ran with this) despite him being another mainstream media mouthpiece. I can't stand his hypocritical grave dancing that certain groups aren't allowed to dish back (according to MSNBC and CNN).

Proper and predictable is what may fly for college campuses these days, but comedy isn't about soothing your feelings about societal problems, it's about being able to laugh at everything and yourself. Everything today being "except for key issues", and "yourself" being if you aren't an interest group for propaganda machines. People who have no care or passion for humor are being given the microphone, and as any reasonable person would expect, it's hurting these corporate parasites where it matters.

Good. Lose your viewership, you feed everyone your own brand of hatred even though you decry specific voter groups or the country as a whole as a source of incorrigible hatred.

Amen brother! The same to the Critic, I am glad I am not the only one who feels this way!

[Voor]

I’ve gotten over news biases. For example, I really like NPR, but they have liberal leanings, so as long as you’re aware of it, you can filter things properly.

I blame cable TV. Cable news came out, and with that, the need to fill up content for a 24 hour channel. So, plain ole boring news wasn’t enough—now, half of it is just “experts” blabbering whatever bloated opinion they have. Not actual news.

[Herschie]

Can't say I like the news any better. Even the weather. Ever notice how they make every little rainshower into the storm of the century? The other night you'd have thought that we were going to have monster F5 tornadoes ripping through the Chicagoland area. Turned out to be no more than your typical spring storm. But oh here they are, interrupting TV, making a mountain out of a molehill! Take cover, you're all going to die!

[JohanOberg]

I too hate listening to the news. I follow american news to a degree, and there's rarely any good news (from my perspective).

[icepeople]

As a professional journalist who's spent the past 35 years covering news literally all over the world from the South Pole to the northernmost town on Earth (and not just "parachuting" in for a few days or weeks), and for everything from major papers like the Los Angeles Times and The Guardian to my own single-person Arctic weekly...yeah, I have a few thoughts.

1) I'm a hopeless lifelong junkie, beginning when I read the paper (as in cover-to-cover) at recess in the 5th grade, which is why I was a nerd with no friends (which would suit my persona well when I discovered computers, video games and programming a year or so later). These days reading/watching news from sources worldwide is both a profession and most of what I do in my "leisure" time.

2) I still have enormous respect for a large percentage of current-day journalism, which is playing a vital role in everything from global news such as the Ukraine war and COVID-19 pandemic (and longer-term urgencies such as climate change) to local politics and social issues. The stereotype of reporters being obsessed with agendas and pursuing clicks/money is beyond infurating for such reporters, who generally speaking are unknowns and often literally make less than the starting wage at McDonald's.

3) It is true much of the media – and unfortunately it's largely the most watched/read media – has been increasingly insufferable for quite some time. Yes, there's too much Fox/MSNBC personality programming happening under a news banner (and the likes of OANN are in a separate class of their own...but before anyone says I'm anti-conservative media I believe The Wall Street Journal remains among today's exceptional media entities).

4) Cutbacks and downsizing at many companies have decimated the ability of many entitles to cover the news fully and competently – small town and once-independent newspapers being an especially hard-hit example.

5) The deliberate obliteration of "truth" (i.e. a third of U.S. residents and majority of Republicans saying the 2020 election was "stolen") and sabotage of the media as an institution the past several years is one of the critical-level threats that have many questioning the future of the U.S. as we know it. There will be doubtless be counterarguments that I am part of the evil contributing to a wide variety of efforts to sabotage the country...and I recognize there simply is no reason to even attempt rational responses.

So yeah, I get why people hate listening to the news. And if you're working two minimum wage jobs to feed your family of four while having no idea how to pay for a doctor to treat the broken ribs your spouse suffered after getting hit by an uninsured driver, I get not giving a damn about suffering in Ukraine.

But after 35 years I'm still up late tonight struggling to sleep and sweating, hoping to hell the three stories I wrote for tomorrow's edition of the newspaper in an isolated small town in Alaska about various parts of next year's proposed budget (the classic definition of "boring, but important" news) are 100% accurate after wading through a four-hour finance committee meeting and a thick pile of spreadsheets during the past day (and, no, it's not because I regularly or even rarely screw up...but over a lifetime mistakes or misunderstandings are going to happen at some point). Tomorrow I'll repeat the process with stories about bird flu worries, the retirement of an iconic ski patroller who's been at his profession as long as I have mine and whatever else happens.

Submitted without a closing summary/opinion (a.k.a. "we report, you decide," to satirically borrow a slogan I despise...and, yes, there are plenty of others).

[Robotrek]

Hard to not get political with this kind of topic, but I'll be as neutral as I can.

There IS quite a bit of bias in modern newscasting, especially with cable news (Though I've ditched cable entirely after being a total TV junkie 10 years ago and further back. Seriously, aside from gaming, it was all I would do.) My 82 year old mother (it feels so weird knowing my mom is that old......) is always watching Fox news when I walk in, and it's absurd. She's always complaining about the SJW's, and the "China flu". Whining about "kids these days" and the like.

And it's very interesting to think about, because she was arrested at a George Wallace rally in 1968 for standing up against the kind of evil he was pushing. She was at freaking WOODSTOCK for crying out loud (my brother was CONCEIVED at WoodStock, fun fact). Her and my 31 year old, long haired hippy dad were the "SJW's" of their time. They had their parents screaming at them about how stupid they and their social views were. This "young vs old" division is something she's always harping about and I see it on Fox when she's watching them. I never understood this. And American news media seems to egg it on and stoke the fire like crazy.

Modern news material is nothing more than a division. EVERYTHING is partisan. "This side thinks this, and since I'm on the opposite side, I must think the opposite, even if it means making up my own facts!". It's why my mom thinks that the evil colored-hair lesbians are coming to her house to smash her pictures of Jesus or whatever.

Kind of an all over the place post, but there's my two cents.

[ThePixelatedGenocide]

As a professional journalist who's spent the past 35 years covering news literally all over the world from the South Pole to the northernmost town on Earth (and not just "parachuting" in for a few days or weeks), and for everything from major papers like the Los Angeles Times and The Guardian to my own single-person Arctic weekly...yeah, I have a few thoughts.

1) I'm a hopeless lifelong junkie, beginning when I read the paper (as in cover-to-cover) at recess in the 5th grade, which is why I was a nerd with no friends (which would suit my persona well when I discovered computers, video games and programming a year or so later). These days reading/watching news from sources worldwide is both a profession and most of what I do in my "leisure" time.

2) I still have enormous respect for a large percentage of current-day journalism, which is playing a vital role in everything from global news such as the Ukraine war and COVID-19 pandemic (and longer-term urgencies such as climate change) to local politics and social issues. The stereotype of reporters being obsessed with agendas and pursuing clicks/money is beyond infurating for such reporters, who generally speaking are unknowns and often literally make less than the starting wage at McDonald's.

Quoted for truth.

Anyone complaining about a lack of quality journalism didn't care enough to look for it.

They may complain about all the poison they've been offered instead, but it's usually their favorite addiction, and they'll keep coming back to hear how important it is to protect us from diverse casts in entertainment and LGBTQ kids.

Even after 1 million dead Americans due to COVID misinformation.

And yeah, MSNBC is almost as bad. You'd think they'd be obsessed with all this, but they'd rather talk about which wealthy oligarch insulted which other wealthy oligarch. The Supreme court seems to be about to end a whole bunch of rights beyond just the reproductive kind, we've seen decades of war crimes passed off as foreign policy, while Libya, Afghanistan. and Iraq collapsed, and the DNC wants to talk about how Vice President Harris has to deal with a lack of respect?

No wonder why some people want to believe alien lizard people are running the planet...

[VideoGameCritic]

When I was growing up the three big news networks had a half hour of national news every night. We're talking Frank Reynolds, Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, etc. My dad would always watch it and it was very dry. They just stated the fact and never used any incendiary language. It was like that for a long time.

But with the advent of 24-hr news, internet, and social media, you have to take those 30 minutes and turn them into 24 hours. How do you do this? By putting on "opinion" programming. Talking head "experts".

The problem is the "opinion" stuff became more popular, because it was a lot more exciting watching some guy rant and rave. At some point the line between fact and opinion blurred. Naturally news sites are all about clicks, so they tend to mix the two together, and just barely mentioning one as opinion in the fine print.

I think the effect is that the media is driving a wedge in the country. Social media is all us versus them. But this is not real life. In fact 80% of people are moderate and probably have the same general opinions regardless of party. Unfortunately I think politicians see all the crazies on social media and think that's a reflection of the American people.

Anyway, for all those people who say "it's always been this way" I can attest that is 100% BS.

[Nevermind]

Must admit I’m the opposite - I quite enjoy current affairs. (UK based) Like to start the day with BBC Radio 4, then dip in and out of BBC News 24 and GB News on the telly. When I worked night shifts I ended up being a frequent watcher of ‘Asian business report’ on news 24, as it was on in the middle of night.

I did, however, vastly reduce my News consumption during the pandemic. Got sick of navigating it at work and didn’t need it at home.

[ASalvaro]

SCTV always ruled over SNL anyway