I have tried to avoid watching the news for many years, because as a rule it's content is biased, depressing and out of any sphere of influence I could have, therefore pointless and a waste of my time. The downside is my my ability converse about current affairs is much reduced. I recently came across this paragraph by a chap called Matt Stone who hosts an interesting web site called 180 degree health. I thank him for putting it so succinctly.
The news, in any form, is not something I
typically follow for good reason. The greatest reason is that my quality of
life is greatly diminished by watching the news. It takes my focus away from my
tangible reality and shifts it to something peripheral and out of my control.
It’s a huge distraction and pollutes my mind, steering it away from what is
important to me.
The second reason is that the news, particularly
in television format which induces a low-alpha wave state in the brain, lowers
my capacity for intelligent thought.
When a news report is constructed, it virtually
cannot be created without some kind of conditioned bias. Of course we all know
that the media is heavily influenced (okay neutered), by their sponsors and the
financial and political interests of the media outlet’s owners. That’s just
common sense. But even if this weren’t a factor, conditioning still has
dominion over the way news is presented, and how news is presented is
everything.
I’m not the kind of guy who is informed about many
things. Newscasters, when they present information, are much better informed on
most subjects than I am. This is dangerous, because I cannot question, refute,
or think critically about the information. This is what cripples intelligent
thought, because you naturally proscribe, at least in part, to the information
that’s being conveyed to you and how it’s being transmitted.
When it comes to nutrition and health; however,
it’s a very different story. There isn’t a newscaster on the face of the planet
that is better informed about the many facets of the diet-disease connection
than I am. Perhaps the reason I am so skeptical and downright fearful of
watching the news, is that when it comes to news reports on subjects that I’m
well-informed about, the errors in presentation, flaws in logic, and subtle
biases in alignment with mainstream opinion completely control the report
itself.
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