Is news irrelevant?

A single day’s news is usually irrelevant.

What I look for is trends – movements – long term changes in mood. So forget about the cat that that was rescued today. Look at the things that are in the headlines from week to week and month to month. THOSE are what affect you.

I don’t think it’s irrelevant because something happening elsewhere can wind up in your area affecting your life. Knowledge is power, I want it all.

I look at daily news the same way I look at the weather. It is good fodder for small talk and inaccurate more than half the time.

As a former newspaperman, I disagree with your premise, @antimatter. The news, good and bad, relevant to our personal interests or not, helps bind us together as citizens of planet Earth. There is much for which to criticize the Media (bias, inaccuracy, sloppy writing, etc.) but heaven helps us if the time comes when we decide we don’t need the information is provides.

Someone has to decide what is news; what is worthwhile putting on their website, new channel or newspaper; what will sell or be of interest. Unfortunately, here in the US news and entertainment have become synonymous and it is the unwashed masses that are guilty for that sin.

Just pick and choose and visit as many different sources as possible.

While you may not care much about a train derailment in Italy, not having friends, family or business interests there, or a direct financial interest in the train manufacturer, the rail manufacturer, the railroad operator, the contractor who built and/or maintained the system or the residents of the town where it occurred, it might be somewhat more interesting if your interests do coincide with some of those. And the more business and personal interests you have, the more likely that is.

I’m not trying to put you down in any way when I say that “some of us perhaps have broader interests than you do”. For example, I work for a large multi-national company that does manufacture trains that are used throughout Europe and Asia. I have been to Italy and I have business associates there. Many of the goods that my company uses for its other businesses ship by rail. The town where I live is on a high speed rail, even though I don’t use it myself. Our rail line might have some of the same problems that the Italian one did; I’d prefer that our rail operators know that – and act on the knowledge – before we have a derailment here, too.

Regarding “the man who saved a cat in India”, that reminds me that I did hear a story about a subway in New York City that was held up for two hours (!) in order to rescue some kittens that had gotten onto the track. The reason that story was interesting was the follow-up: Why is the Transit Authority taking such a “species-ist” position to rescue kittens, when they don’t care two cents for all of the rats that exist in the subway tunnels and around and under the rails? After all, they’re just two different mammalian species. Why does one species hold up a train for two hours, and the other is ignored or exterminated whenever possible?

Sometimes the news just gives you something to think about.

On the other hand, how ‘bout them Red Sox, eh?

@cwotus – to answer your question:

there is a big and noisy cat lobby. They would have castigated the transit authority of one cat had his felines hurt.

There is no rat lobby. (Except maybe Congress)

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room A close family member unfortunately was on the receiving end of gossip- turned national news, and therefore “truth”. It derailed our lives for two solid years. During that time, that family member lost his job (largely due to the media) and had his life threatened multiple times. It was horrid.

We moved, got new jobs, and it happened again. (It was a different subject this time, but fortunately this time little permanent damage was done because it never went national. But wow, what a bunch of idiots).

This is what we see happening: The unscrupulous morals of many in the news media drives what passes for news, which is due to the public’s overwhelming appetite for sensational drama. Even if you’ve got a true story with documentation from a credible source, and a fallacious story from a questionable source about the same subject, no journalist can afford to go with the story from the credible source. People won’t read or watch the news if there’s no drama in it.

Our opinion of the news media and journalists is rock bottom right now. I doubt it will improve, but there’s always hope.

Consumer-driven news is the problem. Ratings, subscribers=money. It’s out of style & so is politics.

Sorry I didn’t read the replies on this one.

I have friends and family who think that way about news and politics. Bugs I have had to defend and think about it.

I think it is irresponsible not to know what is going on. Ok I completely sidebar celeb stuff and never pay much attention to our newest hero or bad guy. Stuff is a waste. Like treyvone for example.

Rascism exists but so do accidents. Profiling is something we do before we can sensor it. If you want to have a good view of minorities as automatic reflex focus on their outstanding citizens. During adrenaline rushes we get tunnel vision and shut down our other senses. Says more about America the story was so huge.

But we can make a difference. Maybe a small one but we do. And it affects our lives to a certain degree. Wars and economy and job markets 401 ks etc.

Saying that news is irrelevant to us is like saying history doesn’t matter. Nothing van be learned from it.

But it can become unhealthy obsession we can lose perspective and momentum because we are frozen with fear helplessness and anger.

There is no NEW news under the sun, and that’s a fact!
Same old recycling of the same old issues that plague humanity since the dawn of time.
Plato was complaining about “kids today” back in his era.
The ONLY thing that is new, is the lightspeed with which
“news” is delivered in modern times.

War, pestilence, political corruption, murder, mayhem, robberies, violence against minorities, women, children…..nothing “new” about any of it. This is why I checked out of all media over 10 years ago.
I don’t care, I don’t want to know, and if someone is going to nuke us to smithereens, well..WTF…let it happen while I am in-joying a beer in my garden.
.I don’t want advance notice, I do not want to spend my last minutes or hours in terror.

No thanks….just push the freaking button and poof, I am atomized with my crooknecks, tomatoes and zucchini and flowers. lol

@Coloma sad in this existence but your atomized particles will go on to recombine, perhaps even with some of your zucchini, into different forms throughout the universe. So, we all live forever.

“We are stardust….........”

@Coloma What are crooknecks?

@Coloma Crooknecks are a type of squash. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_crookneck_squash

@KNOWITALL Crooknecks is an old amish term for what we presently call “Chickenneck”. That dreaded disease in women where the skin on the neck sags and begins to look like a wattle. The same thing happens to men but, since they do not seem to care, nobody had named it.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it

My problem with the news is that it does not tell a whole lot. It is enough to read the headline and the first few paragraphs. Beyond that, all you will find are a lot of specifics about someone saying something to someone at some particular time.

The big stories seem to come from out of nowhere. There was nothing in the newspapers leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union and nothing leading up to the Arab Spring and no advance warning of the current recession. There may have been people who saw these things coming, but you would not find their stories in the news.

Sooo..I shall be squash woman in the afterlife.
Some mutation…will I have dark green skin I wonder? lol

@Coloma Orange, like a oopa-loompa! lol

There is no afterlife. It is all one continuous existence in an infinite variety of forms. Heck, you could be part of a new planet (no offense).

@rojo I agree…just being humorous. To infinity and beyond. :-)

Some news are relatively irrelevant, especially those common in tabloids. Other news are very relevant and if you miss them it can have consequences.