My Search for News

I am a news junkie. Have been for as long as I can remember. Some say that these days we suffer from an overload of news. That’s not the way I see it.

Yes, we have 24/7 cable news networks. And we have online news from around the world. And there are more outlets for opinionating (like this one) than you can count. But all that doesn’t add up to news.

We are inundated with trivia and events that are worth a few seconds of our attention but go on and on and on. To wit: Michael Jackson, the boy (who wasn’t) in the flying saucer balloon, antics of various insipid headline grabbers, and the like.

And we have endless arguments on every subject under the sun, few of which shed any light on the matter being discussed. It’s a predictable pro and con format with more shouting than intelligent discourse.

There are a few exceptions. The best is Charlie Rose. He has calm, in depth conversations with people who know what they’re talking about. I can learn something from his program. And interestingly, a medium that is taking a lot of hits these days and many feel is not far from going under, good old newspapers, are day-to-day the best place for relatively unbiased journalism. Yes, newspapers have points of view that surface beyond the editorial and op-ed pages, but at least I can concentrate on what interests me without wading through a lot of irrelevant noise.

I hear many share my frustration. I don’t hear we’ve been able to make a difference. Suggestions anyone?