Some 58 percent of people avoid the news because it has a negative effect on their mood or because they feel powerless to change events, noted Grumpy Editor.
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University two years ago found 29 percent of those surveyed worldwide said they “often or sometimes avoid the news,” including 38 percent in the United States and 24 percent in Britain.
This year those numbers increased to 32 percent worldwide, 41 percent in the U.S. and 35 percent in the U.K.
Why do people avoid news?
Leading causes for Americans were, “It can have a negative effect on my mood” (57 percent) and “I can’t rely on news to be true” (35 percent).
There is never anything positive in the news. It’s always negative, and I’m not a negative person.
I hate hearing or reading a paper that constantly has nothing but bad reports in it.
News organizations have become dependent on sensationalism and shocking news. While I agree that we need to shed light on what is terrible and the atrocities in the world, balance those with what is right in this world.
I haven’t read a newspaper in years. It was all too depressing, and I have enough to read.
I stopped reading newspapers or watching the news when I realized that facts don’t matter anymore. Pressing a political or commercial interest is all they’re good for, and that isn’t healthy.
Grumpy Editor, meanwhile, observed that broadcast news has become too repetitious with the same headlines carried through the day (without a "fresh" hourly top, as in former days) and sometimes into the next day or two.
IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...
WORKHORSE DRONE. Iran’s attack on a U.S. RQ-4A Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance aircraft flying in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz marked the first known instance of an adversary shooting down the workhorse drone in its nearly 18-year operational history.
WOMAN TO HEAD U.S. NAVAL WAR COLLEGE. Rear Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, a helicopter pilot who heads a military command in Guam, will be the first female leader of the U.S. Naval War College. She will replace Rear Adm. Jeffrey Harley, who is being investigated for excessive spending and abusing his hiring authority.
FATHERS TEND TO BE BETTER EDUCATED. A U.S. Census Bureau report finds fathers tend to be better educated than those without children and relatively few men over age 40 have children. The report also discovered more than 60 percent of the 121 million adult men in the U.S. are fathers and just under a fourth between 40 and 50 are childless.
ONLY ONE NEWS CHANNEL CARRIES S.C. DEMOCRATS' GATHERING. Other news networks were upset Saturday that that the South Carolina Democratic Party decided only one TV outlet — MSNBC — provide live coverage to the South Carolina Democratic Convention where presidential candidates spoke. Among banned networks: C-Span which has never been denied live coverage of a state convention in its 40 years.
165-YEAR-OLD BRITISH WEEKLY CLOSES. An era came to an end on the Scottish island of Bute with closure of one of the United Kingdom's oldest weekly newspapers. The Buteman has recorded the ebb and flow of the island community of just over 6,000 residents 90 minutes from Glasgow for 165 years. With circulation dropping below 1,000, its owners decided to call time.
ANGELINA JOLIE JOINS TIME MAGAZINE. TIME announced Angelina Jolie will join the magazine as a contributing editor. She will write on a variety of topics, focusing primarily on displacement, conflict and human rights. Jolie’s writing for TIME will draw on her 18 years working with the U.N. Refugee Agency.
GOING AWAY PARTY FOR SARAH HUCKABEE. A going-away party for departing White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is slated today at an upscale Washington bar and restaurant. She plans to depart her post at the end of this week.
BEAR GETS INTO HOUSE, LOCKS DOOR, NAPS. A black bear in Missoula, Mont. decided he didn't want to be disturbed while taking a nap inside an empty home he entered. So, somehow, he locked the deadbolt inside, making it difficult for authorities to reach him. They finally did, and he was relocated.
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