Remember When the News Was Just ‘News’?

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I can be a little obsessive. Just ask anyone who knows me. I worry about my kids (well, I suspect every parent does that); I worry about my friends’ kids. I frequently worry about strangers’ kids. I worry about my Mom. I worry about my home. I worry about the environment – a lot.

In a time when people – even dear friends and family – are divided over just about everything; in a time when most news channels cover stories that have been carefully crafted and custom-designed with a very specific viewer in mind, it is impossible not to take a side. Do you lean to the left? There are news channels guaranteed to mirror exactly how you feel about every possible news story that interests you! Do you lean to the right? We’ll provide you with news guaranteed to make the left look like idiots! Just watching the news is pretty much certain to leave you feeling confused, torn, frustrated, anxious, and likely, pretty angry.

Back in the days when the news was, I believe, quite a bit more impartial, I recall my father (who would have been about the age that I am now) watching the news channel – and the weather channel – pretty much to the exclusion of everything else. I recall privately rolling my eyes at this when I was in my thirties and my forties. How could those be the only things of interest to him, when there were so many other things to watch?

And yet somehow, somewhere in my fifties, I began doing the same thing. There was always something to become a little obsessed about: climate change; some terrible weather system that was bearing down on some country, somewhere in the world; that next species that was now in danger of extinction; that crazy politician who seemed hell-bent on single-handedly dividing the world…

When you obsessively watch the news, you discover that there is always something to fret about; some riveting story to follow; something to keep abreast of. The thing about bad news is that there is always going to be an unlimited, endless supply of it, just waiting in the wings. And the problem with bad news is that it has a way of convincing you that there is no other kind of news to be had.

For many months, now, I have been making an all-out effort not to watch more than one cycle of the news each day. I try to limit my watching to either the six o’clock suppertime news or the ten o’clock evening news. I also do my best to stop watching after the newscasters have read through all the major headlines (you know, when they’ve given you all the facts and now must resort to guessing, inferring, suggesting or outright winging it for ratings).

My husband – who inadvertently becomes the sounding board for all of my worried ruminating, has been delighted with this turn of events.

The one difference to our limit-the-news-we-watch rule is our local news channel. I don’t know how local news looks in other provinces of Canada but here in the Atlantic provinces, our local news is… and I assure you, there’s no other word for it… sweet.

There is always a segment – including photos – devoted to the birthdays of folks who have made it past age 95 or so. This same segment also includes pictures of couples who have been married for 60 years or more. The weatherman, Kalin, always highlights a child’s drawing – usually including rain, rainbows or snowflakes – and sometimes all three together. Katie does cheerful features on local artists, musicians and other upbeat stories. Jason and Maria present local news stories – the majority of them about people being kind to one another – and I frequently cry right along with Maria as the story unfolds (she doesn’t do the ugly cry like I do, though). Last night, there was a segment featuring the arrival of a pair of guinea pigs who were recently adopted by an elementary school in a neighbouring city of our province. During that same show, Jason also took a colleague’s puppy for a little walk, just outside the station, and chatted with surprised, star-struck passersby. You may have noticed that we know all of the newscasters by their first names: it is not unheard of for one or the other of us to call out, “Come and listen! Kalin’s about to tell us about that weather system that’s moving in from the States!”

Yes, there is occasionally – frequently even – bad news in our little corner of the world but that type of news is reserved for the more serious six o’clock news.

I’ve been feeling much better lately. Oh, I am still very much concerned about crime, politics, corruption, global pandemics, species extinction and the environment, to mention but a few. But it’s easier not to obsess about it when you limit what you hear to a wee bit of spoon-feeding each day, and you focus instead on the good news stories; the sweet news stories; the uplifting news stories.

I guarantee you: there are more of those types of stories out there than the other kind. It’s just that those stories don’t generally make the news.

Well, except for here, in my neck of the woods…

Patti Moore Wilson/© wednesdayschildca.wordpress.com

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