Yes or No. Would people be less informed if they turned off TEE VEE News?

[devilgrrl]

Personally, I'm going with "No" - if the Tee Vee is on at my place - it is to watch movies or sporting events, I can't be bothered with Tee Vee News. Even though I love Rachel, Keith and Lawrence O'Donnell - I don't watch them because I'm already aware of the subject matter they are covering and I get upset enough reading about it here, so why aggravate my heart more by watching their shows? The Networks are a total joke and I haven't bothered with 60 Minutes since Harry Reasoner retired.

So what does everyone else think about this?

You tell me.

[PBS Poll-435]

1. Pick up a fucking newspaper or magazine (online or in print)

There is a reason that TV is called "programming"

[Scruffy1]

15. I don't think newspapers are much better.

Every morning i watch the day shift get their newspapers and read them. Got to be the most unibformed bunch I've ever worked with. In their defense they mostly want the sodoku and sports. I think most realize they are just BS.But then to each his own.

[PBS Poll-435]

22. The difference:

You get to choose what to read.


Rather than it being read to you.

[JitterbugPerfume]

2. TV is a tool

to be used . I watch Thom Hartman, Amy Goodman ,and Rachel Maddow on TV .

That is keeping pretty good company.

[monmouth]

18. Tonight: American Experience...Harry's Law (Kathy Bates)...n/t

[we can do it]

3. I Watch NO TV and My Friends Always Ask ME What's the Real Story

[eleny]

4. I'm going to try and spend my evenings reading more

If there are important interviews to see then there will be videos available of those segments shown previously on tv.

[Webster Green]

5. I get my news online. Much of it through DU.

I don't have a TV, and I don't want one in my space. IMO, TV is a waste of time.

[HopeHoops]

6. Turn the fucking thing off. There's more noise than information.

[Iggo]

7. I haven't watched tv news in a long long time.

And I'm more informed now than I have been for a long long time.

You're as informed as you want to be.

[leveymg]

8. They would be better informed if they got their information from print or on-line media.

TV has a valuable immediacy for breaking news coverage of catastrophes like bridge collapses and the start of wars, but is a terrible source for understanding why they happen.

[wtbymark]

9. Im pretty well informed

I haven't had cable since 96', and somewhere in the late eighties to early nineties the 'news' stopped being the news, so I've pretty much ignored MSM for at least a decade. I've never watched one of Katie's broadcasts. (disclosure: I'm a senior broadcast engineer, I build and maintain stations)

I'll watch the local news, read foreign press, a few articles from domestic press, progrssive blogsphere and progressive radio (Thomm is my favorite)

[SheilaT]

10. I don't have a TV. I can watch

what I want on the internet, and I listen to Amy Goodman as well as the BBC every morning. I also read the local newspaper (The Santa Fe New Mexican, which is quite good)and various newspapers and magazines on-line. And I'm generally far better informed about pretty much everything that matters than most people. I have no idea about who's on American Idol or who is Dancing With the Stars, which immeasurably riches my quality of life.

I also am insulated from the wall to wall coverage that so absurdly happens over truly unimportant things, such as the sudden death of Michael Jackson. Or various other such non-events that pre-empt everything else. When the Tucson shooting occurred, CNN went to streaming coverage, linking to a station in Tucson, and I watched that for a while. The very best thing about no TV is that I was completely separated from all the political advertising this past election season.

[old mark]

11. K&R- NO- Where would you find REAL TV news? The best I can find is BBC America...

I generally watch local and regional news on TV for the weather and crime news, keep CNN or HLN on for a while for noise. To actually learn anything, I read the news online from my homepage.


mark

[Scurrilous]

12. Corporate news is garbage.

Turn it off.

[grasswire]

13. the people I know who don't follow cable news are exceptionally uninformed

These are bright, accomplished people who are "anti" TV except entertainment. Granted, they don't belong to DU either. But they are clueless generally about what's going on in Washington and in politics that affect every aspect of their lives.

Low information is not always a good characteristic.

[CBGLuthier]

14. Corporate Mouthpieces. Who needs them?

It is all manipulation and lies. The only thing I have done that is better than stop watching cable news is stop watching cable tv altogether.

[Codeine]

16. Other.

The term "tee vee" is a ridiculous affectation that immediately renders an attached opinion ignorable.

[devilgrrl]

17. I'm so sad to hear that.

:spray:

I keep forgetting all the good it has done the past 25 years since the Fairness Doctrine went down. :hi:

[dembotoz]

19. at least tv news is something--otherwise it would be 24-7 bread and circuses

besides i need my Packer coverage

[treestar]

20. I vote more informed

Print media - you can scan and choose what to read. Teevee pre-cans it to what the network chooses.

I can remember when only the college library had newspapers from foreign countries. Now anyone can get to them on the internet. People can be informed on anything they want. Relying on teevee would mean one is informed on what the networks want to inform you on. Even if the networks were in good faith trying to give a broad perspective it would still be their version.

[Erose999]

21. In debates with conservatives I often call them out on their watching Fox, then they ask me "who do

you watch? I bet you watch MSNBC" As if some form of TV news were the only option for staying informed.

One Repub acquaintence of mine was talking about how they were supposed to "televise the health care debates and votes on C-span" (he didn't know everything was already on C-span anyway). I asked him if he had ever watched C-span, or if he ever would watch it. "No, but its the principle of the matter..."

Thats the thing behind TV news... it adds the color and excitement people want with their information. Its easier for them to watch people like O'Reilly and Beck because they are animated and they color their rhetoric with fear, prejudice, etc. If they were limited to watching the raw footage from the House and Senate floor, or reading their information from newspapers, most of them would lose interest for politics in favor of professional wrestling or celebrity gossip TV.

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[devilgrrl]

24. "little less MSNBC and a little more Rush or Hannity"

But of course!!!!



Enjoy your stay. :hi:

[Iggo]

26. Welcome to DU.

:hi:

(EDIT: I typ gud.)

[Webster Green]

30. No shit? They do news now?

Enjoy your short stay. Anchovies? :hi:

[guitar man]

32. Get the door! It's Dominos!!

:silly: :spray: :rofl: :hi:

[rko_24550]

25. not likely

[fishwax]

27. it depends on what else they do

But I certainly don't think TV news is the best way to keep yourself informed on a regular basis.

I watch a fair amount of TV news during the daytime, but that's not the only way I keep myself informed.

[Spike89]

28. I went with other because your examples aren't news

Rachel, Keith, O'Donnell, Hanity, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, etc. are not newscasters, reporters, or anything really connected to delivering the news. They are commentators, editorialists, and entertainers. Of course they aren't "all the same" in how responsible they are in delivering that commentary, and of course in the process of discussing and delivering their opinions, they also deliver some news (some better than others). However, for all of these people, the news is their raw material, not their product.
I think television has some serious limitations as a news delivery medium, but as a headline service and for some types of coverage (natural disasters, scheduled events such as moon landings, speeches, etc.) it is very good. For complex, deep, and/or non-visual events, television is really only good at steering people to print resources (including the Internet).
The network nightly news, CNN headlines, local news, and a few of the best interview and magazine-style shows are pretty good sources for news as long as they aren't the only sources you use. Relying only on commentators for your news is one of the worst strategies I can imagine.

[BOG PERSON]

29. nope

not only that, they would be forced to confront the void in their lives where a personality was supposed to go

[EFerrari]

31. There are great indy shows on teevee. Most of them can be streamed

but the bigger screen is easier to watch, so "other".

[earth mom]

33. Most people who only watch tv news are too lazy to educate themselves any further

which is why we have a country full of bankster gangsters, fleabaggers and fundies. :puke:

[Carolina]

34. TV news also propagandizes

so turning it off would be good even for the "uninformed" sheeple

[dionysus]

35. other: they need to read.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

36. Of course the left would be less informed

People here go out of their way to stay informed, but we're not representative of the public at large, including those who align themselves with the Democratic Party. Have you never had conversations with your left leaning family or friends? Mine really don't know what's what? That doesn't surprise me because I used to be like that, too: vote Democrat but look to MSM-TV to stay "informed." It's only since listening to progressive radio hosts like Thom Hartmann, finding DU and liberal blogs, I've become far more informed than I ever was. But in my circle, I'm the exception, not the rule. I find the majority of people still turn to MSM-TV as their only source of information, like I used to.

Those who lean right couldn't be more uniformed and misinformed, deliberately so, than they already are. They're proudly ignorant.