Comments on: Watching the news is fine…just like watching Seinfeld or the Simpsons is fine.

By: Chris Booth

Chris Booth — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:39:40 +0000

I’ll be the party pooper:

http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-Death.html

Interesting that the cartoonist used the (short-form and ‘entertaining’) medium of cartoon to make his point though.

Oh, and I do have a tv and only *self-righteously* basic cable

By: Idhrendur

Idhrendur — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:31:46 +0000

Hooray for the 21st century!

By: Drew Pearce

Drew Pearce — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:55:01 +0000

NPR is great. I listen every morning and evening (yay for commuting in Atlanta). While it is leftward leaning, it doesn’t lean nearly as far as any of the cable news channels (in either direction). Honestly, NPR is the closest thing you’re going to get to an unbiased news story in the US.

By: Drew Pearce

Drew Pearce — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:53:28 +0000

We still have a tv for videos and dvds, but if we watch tv programming, it’s online.

By: Abraham Piper

Abraham Piper — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:14:25 +0000

I give that impression, too.

I don’t have a TV…

But that’s cuz it’s all online and that’s where I watch it.

By: Idhrendur

Idhrendur — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:13:01 +0000

People sometimes get the impression I’m trying to do that when I tell them I don’t watch TV.

Eventually they realise I’ve just substituted video games as my entertainment of choice.

By: Kevin Ring

Kevin Ring — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:52:58 +0000

Good for you, Ed.

By: brandontmilan

brandontmilan — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:36:39 +0000

I’m a youth pastor in a Baptist church in Northern Manitoba. Our youth group is made up of youth from both our church and the local Mennonite Brethren church. These Mennonites are certainly not the type that shun any type of modern conveniences or technology. Not at all. But they still have hang ups about television. I take that back. They have very serious pride issues at the fact that many of them do not have cable.

I’ve noticed that if you ask any of them if they’ve ever seen such and such a tv show or if they caught the game or something, their response is NEVER a simple, “No.” Its always a, “I don’t have cable,” or “I don’t watch much TV,” and, almost always, laced with a tone filled with pride and disdain that says, “I am way more spiritual than you because I spend my time doing other things than watching TV.”

By: carissa

carissa — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:42:59 +0000

i just started listening to NPR a couple months ago and i kind of really love it. but i hate admitting that, because every hipster-yuppie i know loves it too.

By: paul merrill

paul merrill — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:54:06 +0000

NPR is intelligent – and listening is better than watching.

Yes, they are admittedly liberal in their slant, but at least a good portion of the material is interesting and informative.

By: Crystal

Crystal — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:28:29 +0000

I agree. The news has a much more detrimental effect on my mental state. You get a warped view of how the world is, but since it’s given as fact, you can find yourself getting confused. But when I sit to watch a cooking show or a cartoon with the kids, my world view doesn’t come into question, nor does life appear darker than it actually is.

By: ED... (who blogs at Sincere Ignorance and Conscientious Stupidity)

ED... (who blogs at Sincere Ignorance and Conscientious Stupidity) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:41:39 +0000

Who is that?

By: Kelly @ Love Well

Kelly @ Love Well — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:04:37 +0000

I like what John had to say. As a former NBC news producer, I say with authority: You speak truth. Most news is little more than entertainment today. We don’t show you what you need to know; we show you what you want to watch.

And the bigger hypocrite is the news media, since it’s pretending to give you information. At least “Scrubs” doesn’t put on that face. It’s why I got out of the business, frankly.

By: Brook (Matt5verse6)

Brook (Matt5verse6) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:37:11 +0000

Sometimes I will read “World Magazine” articles but I generally do not watch the news on television/internet (nor read the newspaper/internet for that matter) for many reasons…one being I do not like the way they “edit” news stories.

By: Melissa Parnell

Melissa Parnell — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:33:20 +0000

LOL! She is certainly a strange character…

By: John

John — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:09:05 +0000

In “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” Neil Postman argues that watching the news is worse than watching pure entertainment like sitcoms. When you watch Seinfeld, you know it has no educational value. But when you watch the news, you *think* you’re learning something when you’re not.

By: Lee Shelton

Lee Shelton — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:02:16 +0000

I think the fact that she even wore an outfit is newsworthy.

By: Kevin Ring

Kevin Ring — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:52:36 +0000

I don’t know. Top story on CNN.com today was about Lady Gaga meeting the Queen of England. The analysis of Lady Gaga’s outfit choice was pretty academic.

By: Lee Shelton

Lee Shelton — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:51:22 +0000

A two-person gas mask? Ingenious!

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:38:01 +0000

What nasty, unscrupulous distinction-unmaking.

The parry, of course: CSPAN is where ‘it’s really at’, the uppish might say.