About ten days ago, CNN (I still do occasionally review their 'product')....wrote up a fine piece on too much news being bad for you.
I sat and pondered over it for a while.
In the mid-1970s, you basically had 30 minutes of local news and 30 minutes of national news, a brief eight minutes of Paul Harvey news via your radio, and a chance to read one of four regional newspapers. You might have had Time and Newsweek, or perhaps gone overboard with US News and World Report. Then from your front porch in Alabama, you would have engaged conversation on folks about something you read. The conversation might have gone on for ten minutes, and then the other guy would have chatted on some church revival. The stress level of a guy over this type of news and conversation? On a scale of one to ten....it barely ever arose above a 'three'.
Today? You could watch four different morning pieces of local news....then get three hours of C*PAN. Then you'd go to CNN, Fox or MSNBC for four hours of news. Then read through not only the local newspaper, but had access to the London Telegraph, the NY Times, and some Texas business journal. By 10 PM, you probably have poured over 700 bits of news. The stress level? Some folks might be able to limit the intake and still have a 'six' for stress, but I would imagine some folks are moving along with a 'ten' (maxing out).
The question is.....how would you throttle back?
In some way, we need a rehab center where there's just a eight-minute version of the Paul Harvey news. All of this news business is creating heart-attack situations.
