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Ignore the news

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Re: Ignore the news

#21

Post by regal »

danso wrote: post #6

As a former newspaper person, I'm inclined to say "But oh, knowing current events is our civic duty"...and it is ....but consuming journalism isn't the same as consuming news, and reading a lengthy in depth story about an event that happened last month or last year or even the last decade is likely more helpful than staying abreast of the 24 hour news cycle. This has been said before, but I'd also argue that the cons…

"all those accumulated hours of listening didn't mean a thing."

This is exactly it.

I had an 8-hour a day office job with about 10 minutes of actual work a day for a couple of years (so a whole heck of a lot of time to kill), and frequently spent hours every day reading the news. One day I asked myself, "What have I learned?"

I couldn't come up with anything.

After that, I quit reading the news and started reading classics like "The Prince" and "The Brothers Grimm" and "The Grapes of Wrath." Much better use of free time than reading the same rehashed stories of shootings and stabbings and rapes and murders and robberies and earthquakes and bombings and shark attacks over and over again with only slightly different details.

Re: Ignore the news

#22

Post by corin_ »

jgrahamc wrote: post #18
corin_ wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the subject of your personal choices: why the Telegraph/Observer combination, when both papers have more similar sister publications to cover the other days? I would imagine than Daily Telegraph + Sunday Telegraph or Guardian + Observer are much more common combinations.

It brings some semblance of balance given the different politics of the papers and I prefer the Observer's 'weekend' coverage (e.g. things like their coverage of arts, travel, ...) The Telegraph is pretty conservative and the Observer fairly liberal. The two views are interesting. I don't think I could take The Guardian every day. And given that I also have Le Monde as well that's plenty of centre-left stuff.

Fair enough - I just don't think I've previously come across breaking down like that over the week, most people I know who want multiple points of view do so on a daily basis.

Do you read Le Monde because of its language or would you still read it if it were in English?

Re: Ignore the news

#23

Post by jgrahamc »

corin_ wrote: post #22
jgrahamc wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It brings some semblance of balance given the different politics of the papers and I prefer the Observer's 'weekend' coverage (e.g. things like their coverage of arts, travel, ...) The Telegraph is pretty conservative and the Observer fairly liberal. The two views are interesting. I don't think I could take The Guardian every day. And given that I also have Le Monde as well that's plenty of centre-left stuff.

Fair enough - I just don't think I've previously come across breaking down like that over the week, most people I know who want multiple points of view do so on a daily basis. Do you read Le Monde because of its language or would you still read it if it were in English?

I speak French and one of the ways I learnt the language was to read Le Monde. When I moved to France I got a subscription and read at least part of it every day. I still read some of it regularly, but I don't get it every day any more. The downside of Le Monde is that it reports pretty deeply about French politics (which is either your thing or it isn't).

One other thing about the Telegraph on a daily basis that's important to some people: the crossword.

Re: Ignore the news

#26

Post by yareally »

workbench wrote: post #24
jacquesm wrote: post #4

I'll settle for an 'ignore medium.com' button.

Read so many bad "articles" on medium this month that I'm gonna stop clicking them.

I mostly come to HN for the comments and the articles secondary. Sometimes I want to flag a link bait or potentially bad article, but I decide against it because while the article might be sub-par, the comments that will follow on HN will be much more insightful and interesting.

Re: Ignore the news

#27

Post by scholia »

corin_ wrote: post #16
jgrahamc wrote: post #13

There are lots of new ways of filtering and understanding the news emerging so that you don’t have to suffer the constant barrage, and yet still be informed enough to be able to understand. You don't need technology to do that. You can just stay informed by buying a high quality newspaper or news magazine and read that. For example, (personal choices ahead), you could read The Economist once per week. Or, since he ap…

On the subject of your personal choices: why the Telegraph/Observer combination, when both papers have more similar sister publications to cover the other days? I would imagine than Daily Telegraph + Sunday Telegraph or Guardian + Observer are much more common combinations.

If you ignore its politics, the Telegraph is a good newspaper, in that it gets high volumes of objective facts into small spaces. (I could prove this a decade or so ago, when I did some comparative research, but I don't think it's changed much since then.)

In general, it's better to buy the Sunday Times on a Sunday because the Observer is online whereas the Sunday Times is behind a paywall....

Re: Ignore the news

#28

Post by scholia »

mgkimsal wrote: post #14
fallingbadgers wrote: post #2

I remember laughing at the story about the judge who asked "Who are the Beatles?". Now I find them a very wise person indeed :)

link? If he'd said this in 1964, yeah, it might make sense. Otherwise, probably not so much. Ahh: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1340891/Judge-James-... Doesn't say when he said it though.

Judges frequently ask questions to which they know the answers. It's a way of putting facts on the court record, which may be helpful in 100 or even 500 years time.

Re: Ignore the news

#30

Post by slacka »

Growing up the muppets came on at the same time as evening news. The muppets always lost. After the news, my parents would answer our questions and then start debating some some relevant topic. As I got older, I'd participate more in this process. As a result, I have an intellectual curiosity for world news and strong critical thinking skills. Something kids today could use more of not less.

Also, by choosing to get his news from Twitter over let's say NPR, this idiot is choosing to be misinformed. Of all the hoax or inaccurate stories that I've come across this year, Twitter take the crown followed by news aggregators and email. The only false NPR story I can think of was the TAL retraction of the story on work conditions in Apple factories. According to my twitter last week "NASA disproved global warming"

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