Poll: What is your main source for the news?

woo

i am sorry to admit it, but it's the daily show. i also read a lot of articles from independent sources too, but as i dont watch any of the corporate media, the daily show is where i just get the "low down" on the crap that's happening all over the world. . .or something like that.

Democracy Now! is good too. And I read the NYT at times.

I listen to Democracy Now on the radio, as well as NPR news. Of course, I get all my fake new from The Daily Show.

I always listen to the radio on the way to work since I drive on the major roadways. So, I also hear all the news since traffic is only on the 2s.

between NPR and the daily show.

When I worked in springfield, and had a half hour drive to work, I listened to the news a LOT more... but now that I have about a 4 minute drive to work, I just pretty much keep the same cds in my car.. and while I'm at work, at least, during the week... we just listen to music.

Mainly it's just saturday morning now.... weekend edition and wait wait.

I'm also about half and half w/ Daily show and NPR

mee too.

I get most of my important news from the radio (wake up to morning edition, listen to The World and All Things Considered when I can, and the weekend versions too.

But I also read a lot of internet news. If you count individual news pieces, more comes from the internet, but I'm weighing the NPR news headlines a bit more than the latest casting announcements for that new show, or the linux news I read, but is not all that relevant to me.

I do watch some TV news. There is still something to be said for video, but the 30second reports are too short, and between the internet and NPR, I know all but the breaking and local news before they report it. (that holds more for local than national news).

I don't read newspapers for breaking news, but I do for indepth pieces. Same goes for magazines like Time (when I get a chance to read it).

I'd love to claim the Daily Show, but with no cable, I tend to miss it most of the time.

Have I mentioned I'm a bit of a news junky?

Sadly, it's probably the Daily Show for me. I do read a lot of news online, especially the stuff that makes it onto the front page of Yahoo and things that people blog about.

I find it truly disturbing that three people have said they don't care about the news.

youth.

Which makes you wonder which is worse?� Not caring about what's going on, or caring too much.

I thought you were going to go for "not caring about what's going on? or only watching the daily show."

:D

I would have voted for daily show up until a couple months ago when like magic, I started caring again.

I had a couple of years of not giving a shit after living with someone for a couple of months who cared too much. She'd wake up and turn on the news then come home and turn on the news and watch it until she'd go to bed, where she'd listen to the news as she fell asleep.� I hated the news after living with her.

I am one of the (now) 5 people that doesn't care about the news. I don't go looking for it, but I do listen to NPR and sometimes news comes on. My life is busy and leisure time isn't something I have.

news is part of leisure time?

really. it doesn't take that much effort to be informed. I'd be surprised if you can't even spare the 5 minutes a day it would take to read just the top story headlines.

I'd say it's part of leisure time.
It's not work (depending on your job).
It's not eating, sleeping, or cleaning.
Most people find some kind of enjoyment in it.
I don't think that reading a newspaper is less leisure than, say, reading a book (novel or non-fiction).
Plus, if people didn't enjoy watching news on TV, there wouldn't be a few dozen cable news stations.

Keeping informed might be important leisure, but it is still leisure.

yeah, I'd say it's definitely part of leisure time.

It's something you do when you have free time, and she has very little of that.

I really can't agree with that. I think keeping up with current events is important enough to make time for it, even in a busy schedule.

It's part of the apathy and self-imposed cultural isolationism that is turning the US into a backwards nation.

*shrugs*
I suppose... but just because it's a priority for you doesn't mean it is for everyone.

Even if it's important enough to make time for (which it is to me), it's still a leisure activity. While I feel a need to keep informed, and I know how (many) of these things effect me, it is not actually vital for my life to pay attention.

Anything that is not vital to survival is leisure. That doesn't mean leisure isn't important. That doesn't mean all leisure is equal (I would personally rank keeping up on news above many things), but it is still a leisure activity.

what a wonderfully simplistic view. 'Anything that is not vital to survival is leisure.'

life isn't that black and white. it can't just be divided into leisure and non-leisure. something can be important, not vital to survival (although it could be argued that being informed is vital anyway) but also not leisure.

I think we're coming at this with completely different definitions (or scopes) of leisure.

To me, leisure is something that you do, but do not have to do. It's not necessarily fun, relaxing, pointless, or a hobby, it's just not work, eating, sleeping, etc.

In a way, I'd actually say that it is black and white. Just as shadow is the absence of light, leisure is the absence of work (or necessity). There are shades of gray in that too. I'd say that a lot of jobs cross over into the leisure category, but because they provide you with money, are also work. Plus, just as leisure can be boring (the news for some), work can be fun (I think everyone at least hopes for a fun job).

It's not a matter of
work="important"
leisure ="frivolous"

It's just that we have free time now. Compared to history, a whole lot of it. What we fill that time with is leisure, which includes watching/reading/listening to the news.

Of course, there are plenty of way to overlap the news into a nearly leisure-free life (car radio, a few moments online, etc), but that does not make it vital for survival.

Being informed is vital to a point, but that depends much more heavily on where you are and what you do.

I agree wholeheartedly.

I would also add, however, that being ABLE to keep up on news is a luxury that we've given ourselves...... in the end, it comes down to the whole issue of your IMMEDIATE surroundings being the only truly vital aspect of day to day life.

I know, I know..... those immediate surroundings can be affected by everything from a nuke being dropped to a butterfly flapping its wings in tanzania..... but the fact of the matter is, there is very little you can do to change those things. May as well just go with the flow.... and do what you can to try and change them for the better.

I'm not sure if I'm expressing myself clearly in that... but... as an unrelated thought.... my personal feeling is that there's only so much news I can take and not want to kill myself. The state of the world is so awful... and humans are so awful to each other.... I'll do what I can to help... but I find that doing positive things within my community... and to people I interact with directly.... is far more gratifying... and far less depressing. And, given that the majority (apparently) of our coutry are clueless morons, I clearly can't reach out to people in other countries through our government...so what good is it going to do to see how they're fucking up the world? All I can really do is sit back and wait till my next chance to vote the psychotic lunatic out of office.

*cough*
Sorry. Ramble much?
If any of that made sense to any of you, you win 2 hugs.
Redeemable at falcon ridge, or anywhere else, if you'll fly me there. :)

heh

ok, I took 5 minutes. I went to Google's news page and looked at the headlines. I learned that more people are dead, more poeple are out of work, more people are lying and some people think Clint Eastwood will win some movie award.

How am I a better person for it? Why does it matter? People die every day, and that sucks, but I have no way to stop accidents from happening or soldiers from being sent overseas. I get e-mail from my favorite political candidate that lets me know if there is some action I should take, but other than that, it's just depressing.

It has no impact on my life. If I had time to delve into the intricacies of the news and converse with others about how it will affect life, the universe and everything, then that would be different. But I don't, so it isn't, and five minutes of headline scanning doesn't make me a better person, or a more informed one, since I can hardly remember now what it was that I read. [/rant]