I Hate the News (2006) • Hacker News Board

Re: I Hate the News (2006)

#71

Post by some_furry » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 2:14 PM UTC

austenallred wrote: post #8

I, strangely enough, agree with Most of what Aaron says. And I'm the founder of a news company. I worry about this attitude on a macro scale, but it's hard to argue with on a micro one. I spend most of my day following what's going on in the world, and it hasn't added much value to my life. But I worry about everyone not caring. Not because that would kill my company (I started it because I hate news in its current f…

Minor bug: When I sign up, it immediately reports a failure (Username not available) for a split second before going forward with the registration without a hitch.

Re: I Hate the News (2006)

#72

Post by indienkid » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 2:16 PM UTC

Several things are currently wrong with the news. From the overuse of the word “BREAKING” (does that even mean anything anymore?) to the lack of verified information (the rush to get the scoop), the news industry is a bit of a mess right now.

It’s overwhelming, and there’s no end to “Oh, you haven’t heard about this? You’re out of the loop!” I always think of this Friends segment where Joey buys a volume of an encyclopedia to try to impress everyone else (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn3eD0imnhQ).

I agree it’s hard to see how the effects of what goes on in the world propagate down to how each of us lives our life today -- but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t ever affected by them. I still think we have a basic responsibility to try to understand those things, and the primary goal of news outlets should be to make that information as accessible as possible (while still being accurate).

Full disclosure: I work for a news app (http://www.getbriefme.com).

Re: I Hate the News (2006)

#73

Post by aidos » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 2:18 PM UTC

austenallred wrote: post #67

aidos wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really like this. I too am sick of seeing stuff promoted in everyday media which is clearly fabricated. Admission. I think I up-voted some comments by accident. It's not obvious what that large up arrow does (now that I say it out-loud I think it's probably pretty obvious!) and there's no way to undo the operation. Sorry. Are there plans to add a frontend to it?

Well once I push these code changes in the next few minutes you should be able to click on the upvote again to remove it. For now, don't worry about it :) We see the "frontend" as a daily email that goes out or an app with a daily push notification that says "Hey, here you go, the best news of the day in 30 seconds." So the hours of work that the people are putting in on the back-end really just reduces the amount of…

That all makes sense. In terms of a frontend I was thinking of a read only type system. At lunch time I come to HN to entertain myself. Occasionally I jump over to bbc news (which is pretty dire) or aljazeera. It would be great to have a page I could drop into to get the digest.

Re: I Hate the News (2006)

#74

Post by mtbcoder » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 2:32 PM UTC

balabaster wrote: post #65

The most ironic thing I think about this piece is that he claims not to have followed the news since he was 13 and has drawn this conclusion... Having spent a large portion of my life keeping up with the news, other than a few minor quibbles about semantics, I'm inclined to draw the similar conclusions. Most of what is presented is not news, it's politically slanted propaganda relating to daily events that further th…

> "Most of what is presented is not news, it's politically slanted propaganda"

This was starting to be discussed on HN the other day, but unfortunately didn't seem to get much traction. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9202533

Re: I Hate the News (2006)

#75

Post by j2kun » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 2:37 PM UTC

djoldman wrote: post #13

"They point out that newspapers are a key part of our democracy, that by exposing wrong-doing to the people, they force the wrong-doers to stop. This seems to be true, but the curious thing is that I’m never involved." The sad irony of this statement is profound.

Both parts: that he was involved, and that the wrong-doers didn't stop.

They're still holding office, journals still charge an arm and a leg for publication access, and the last I heard the amendments to the laws that led to this are held up by lobbyists.

Re: I Hate the News (2006)

#76

Post by SilasX » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 2:39 PM UTC

jchrome wrote: post #22

twelfthnight wrote: post #4

Hmm. I think this article doesn't distinguish between news and bad news. Frankly, anyone reading this must be interested in news, it's in the title of the website. Why else be here? This site isn't perfect, but it's useful to know what's happening in the tech world. Knowing about the world's current events is similar. We shouldn't dwell on negative events, but they happen and they happen to real people . Just because…

Hacker News isn't so much about "news" per se. "News", I believe, should be about something new or recent. We're now talking about an article (op-ed?) written by Aaron in 2006. This isn't news and much of Hacker News isn't either. It's more just curated information.

A glance at the front page finds that it's mostly about new events or commentary; stuff like this is the exception.

Re: I Hate the News (2006)

#77

Post by icebraining » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 2:39 PM UTC

Thriptic wrote: post #57

bkurtz13 wrote: post #21

He uses voting as an example. Which begs the question: why vote? If you're living within a corrupt, self-serving political system (we are), then naturally the only people who run for office will be products of that system. If a candidate who genuinely wants to change the status quo somehow manages to slip in, they will be prevented from achieving anything meaningful once inside. No matter what, none of these people h…

> If you're living within a corrupt, self-serving political system (we are), then naturally the only people who run for office will be products of that system. If a candidate who genuinely wants to change the status quo somehow manages to slip in, they will be prevented from achieving anything meaningful once inside. If these politicians are as corrupt and self-serving as you say, then it actually becomes quite easy…

Isn't that essentially what the Mayday PAC has been trying to do? The results so far seem mixed, at best.

Re: I Hate the News (2006)

#78

Post by icebraining » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 2:45 PM UTC

skwirl wrote: post #60

bkurtz13 wrote: post #21

He uses voting as an example. Which begs the question: why vote? If you're living within a corrupt, self-serving political system (we are), then naturally the only people who run for office will be products of that system. If a candidate who genuinely wants to change the status quo somehow manages to slip in, they will be prevented from achieving anything meaningful once inside. No matter what, none of these people h…

You have gone past the point of healthy skepticism to unquestioning cynicism. The status quo can't be changed? Are you kidding? Is that why we still have slavery in the U.S., women can't vote, homosexuals can't marry, etc? Change may be imperceptible day to day or year to year, but over the long term, it has been profound and there's no reason to believe it will not continue to be. In a decade's time marijuana will l…

Parent didn't say the status quo can't be changed, but that voting isn't an effective way of changing it.

Women's suffrage is a good example, since voting was exactly what they wanted to achieve, and so they had to do it - without voting!

Re: I Hate the News (2006)

#79

Post by oldpond » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 2:56 PM UTC

Me too. I try not to listen to the radio, read the newspaper, or watch the news on TV. I figure the big stuff will find it's way to me, and the rest is marketing bullshit. News is a commodity, created to sell advertising. Only the big draw stories get air time. Just watch the CBC National; the world is ending every evening, don't miss it.

Re: I Hate the News (2006)

#80

Post by serve_yay » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 2:56 PM UTC

In 2010, I was living in Washington DC and one day I heard the pettiest political squabble between two strangers. It prompted me to stop paying attention to politics, which up to then I followed rather closely, because I realized how bonkers it was making me. Everyone is just a bunch of angry assholes yelling at each other. It doesn't improve life, it makes you upset and unhappy. It wasn't too long until I felt similarly about the news, period.

I'd say the biggest challenge in no longer paying attention to the news is the idea that it's a serious person's domain, or even duty. That you're "not a real grown up" if you stop paying attention to the news. Every now and again you'll be among some NPR listeners and you won't know what happened in Kuala Lumpur or whatever. You need to be OK with that.