We ignore the news at our peril, but the key is to be selective and choose media outlets with integrity.
An example is Tibet. The Dalai Lama acknowledged that Tibet had ignored the world news. It had no idea that China had regarded it as a province for 400 years, had developed an interest in mining its mineral wealth, and that it was preparing an invasion. As a result, it had not been able to prepare any kind of self-defense.
No news source can ever be perfect, but some, such as Reuters, take the greatest possible care with their sources and run multiple background checks. Reuters supplies serious newspapers like the New York Times, The Guardian in the UK, and Le Monde in France. If we choose the right sources of news, we are highly unlikely to be misinformed, are in a better position to lobby against injustice, avoid dodgy products or prepare for lethal weather events, and are more likely to make better choices in electing our public representatives. And we develop a better understanding of human nature, history, law, and how our culture and social systems work. Further, the more people who boycott the dodgy news outlets, the sooner they could die of commercial starvation.
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at January 5, 2018 11:08 PM MST
But it feels so wonderful to be outraged about things, even if untrue. Just look at The National Enquirer, it is doing great even though everyone knows it is crap-news.
Do you want to even see how sick we are?? While standing in line at the grocery store, I call Don and read to him the hilarious articles posted on 'Star", "National Enquirer," or any other rags that happen to be screaming out their "Headline News" antics. In my own defense, I am polite when I get to the check-out person, put my phone away and talk to the person. I don't hold the line up either. But, some of them are really funny :):)
Benedict Arnold 