For the first time since 2001 I find myself giving up on the national nightly news

[catmandu57]

I'm in the second boomer wave, I grew up with Walter Cronkite the evening news was an addiction I lived with, now, I find it's easier to turn on reruns of the Beverly Hillbillies that I've seen a hundred times and ceased being funny years ago.
I just can't take it anymore, I held on for as long as I could, until something changes the internet will be my source for news.

[villager]

1. there's news on television?

:shrug:

[catmandu57]

3. No there are talking points

and propaganda and readers with good hair reading the things that their corporate masters will them to say. It's just too damn obvious.

[fenriswolf]

2. here is some good news

theyoungturks.com

[ixion]

4. I gave up on broadcast news years ago...

since the 80's, I've had no faith in them to practice objective investigative journalism. Since then, it's only gone downhill. I canceled my cable in 2003 and have never looked back. If I happen to be in a hotel, I'll watch a few minutes just to remind myself how disgusted I am with the whole deal.

[AlCzervik]

5. i gave up on it as well and watch BBC America's far better imo nightly newscast.

[Dhalgren]

6. Man! You held out longer than I did! As soon as I started seeing

all of the over-the-top graphics for the build-up to invading Iraq, I quit watching. And by November '04 I gave up watching PBS news, too. It is all corporate propaganda and it is blatant. But kicking the "evening news" habit will make you better informed and help to reduce your blood pressure!

:hi:

[catmandu57]

18. It seemed like NBC was actually

going to report the news after Katrina, someone was pissed and I found hope, but they're back on the reservation now with the rest of the koolaid drinkers.

[Virginia Dare]

7. I gave it up for the most part during the invasion of Iraq...

I was disgusted by the cheerleading that was going on. YOu would have thought it was the fricking superbowl.

[KansDem]

8. Welcome to the club...

I gave up on local news during the mid-1980s--can't stand "happy talk"

I gave up on the nightly news when CBS brought Connie Chung on to co-anchor with Dan Rather--I don't like antiphonal news reporting.

I gave up cable in 1996--price kept going up while the quality kept going down.

I, too, grew up with Walter Cronkite and we had CBS News on in our house nightly during the 1960s and 1970s.

The internet is my source for news and information: I don't miss today's "news journalists" one iota...

[stillcool]

9. I'm with you on those re-runs...

though I'm partial to Andy Griffith and Lucy. Not only is the news no longer watchable but most of the other 'entertainment' as well. Who would have thought television would be so marginalized? We mostly use our tv screen to watch DVD's.

[pacalo]

14. I'm a big fan of Lucy & Andy (actually, Barney), too!

My husband & I also tape a lot of TCM movies, too, to watch in the evening. :)

[stillcool]

15. TCM...another life saver.

I don't always like the movies, but I really love no commercials.

[pacalo]

20. You have to give them a chance!

We don't watch anything earlier than the late '40's & we go by the description of the movies; if they don't interest us in the first 10 minutes, we stop & go to another one.

[catmandu57]

23. There once was a cop named Fife

Who carried a gun and a knife
But the knife was rusted
and the gun was busted
cause he never caught a crook in his life.:-)

[pacalo]

10. How could you stand it for so long?

I stopped watching national & local news during the aftermath of the boy king being declared the "winner" of the 2000 election -- right after they declared Gore the rightful winner. I couldn't take the force-feeding of the painting over the obvious. Nor did I read the glossed-over newspapers. It was strictly the internet for me; I have to give a huge thanks to the UK newspapers, which were hopping mad when Blair glued himself to the hip with the boy king.

[tblue]

11. I gave that up a looooooooong time ago. In 2000, when the 'news' ignored what really happened.

[catmandu57]

12. I quit watching the national in January 2001

until late in the summer then withdrawal brought me back. I gave up on cable, PBS, and npr sometime in 02, this time I'm staying gone. I do like the BBC though.

[rox63]

13. I watch the local nightly news, but skip the national network news

I still want to know what's going on in my area. And there are some decent stations for local news in the Boston teevee market. But the nightly national network news is 90% propaganda. I will admit that I do watch MSNBC, C-Span and occasionally CNN, mostly for political news.

[pacalo]

16. Keith Olbermann is the exception for me; he's on my "must watch" list.

As for my local news, it's on the corporate team. When the late afternoon airing of our local news came on right after Judge Judy, whom I watch every afternoon that I'm home, the female newscaster had a big smile plastered on her face when mentioning the boy king's proposal to give tax rebates. It served as a reminder of why I don't watch them.

[rox63]

28. We've had some of the same news anchors on a couple of local stations for 20+ years

They aren't new-bimbos, but real live journalists.

[AnneD]

17. It REALLY was Clinton's fault.....

I gave up when I turned on the TV during dinner for our current events and all they wanted to do was talk about Clinton's penis. I am not prudish (hell, I'm a nurse), but I thought that was 1)inappropriate at the family dinner hour 2) not news 3) not anyone's damn business.

It went down hill from there. I tried PBS for a bit and that was like a nicotine patch. I am weaned off network news now and have never been better informed thanks to the internets. I never cease to amaze my family with my grasp of facts and current events. Thanks Al Gore.

[pacalo]

22. Not a prudish bone in my body, either, but it was waaaaay over the line when Starr published

the indelicate details on the internets.

[Javaman]

19. Took you this long? nt

[catmandu57]

21. Like I said above

After Katrina I thought someone would get these bastards, now I've given up, I still watch the local news but that is so much like reading the police blotter that it makes me nauseous as well.

[cascadiance]

24. Get Dish Network instead of cable and watch Democracy Now instead!

Amy Goodman's great, and with Dish Network, you can get it many times during the day between Free Speech TV and Link TV.

There are also many other good news shows on those channels:
1) International Dateline from Australia
2) Link TV's Mosaic
3) Link TV's Global and Latin Pulse
4) INN World Report
5) Deutsche Welle European Journal and In Focus

I hardly ever watch MSM any more with few exceptions (CSPAN at times, Olberman, etc.). Don't have time or desire to. Every time I switch there and "accidentally" hit a report on Britney Spears, I know why I don't watch them any more.

[catmandu57]

25. We have Dish

I do watch those programs, it's hard to break a habit that's been a part of your life for so long.

[mike_c]

26. turn that noise off and disconnect the cable....

TV is mind control-- not always ominous and devious like in a bad spy movie, but there is no better tool for influencing people's behavior. NONE. Television taps directly into the largest information conduit in the human sensory system, and its images are fed directly into the largest sensory information processing centers of the brain. There simply is no better tool for putting ideas into peoples heads, reinforcing social norms, creating expectations, or causing folks to question their self images. That's why advertisers are willing to pay billions annually to get their products on TV-- because it influences buyers, even those who claim to not be influenced by TV.

[catmandu57]

27. I can't my wife wouldn't stand for it

I have a set across the room from me now that rarely gets turned on, most of our tv consumption is on the evenings and weekends.

[Crabby Appleton]

29. I haven't watched the 3 broadcast network "new" for many years

I do not trust any of them at all, a bunch of biased bullcrap.

[tabasco]

30. They reap more profits by telling lies and giving you the news they want you to hear.

The media ownership rules must be changed so that there is competition for factual, complete reporting without spin.