24 hour news stations

Okay, bandylu.....we ARE connected. That's all there is to it!

I watch 'Friends' on Thursdays, too. I also watch the one hour repeats during the week because I just got into the show recently. (Have to catch up, ya know!)

If my television is on otherwise, it is tuned in to CNN. If the television isn't on, I have cnn.com constantly updating on the computer.

I've become a news junkie since 9/11/01.

I predate you somewhat, rae -- both with Friends (which I started watching when my kids were still home and kept right on after they'd both moved out) and with the news stuff. I remember when MSNBC first started (around the crash of Flight 800 which was right off Long Island and for which MSNBC had the entire WNBC staff and their choppers available and thus had more immediate coverage). And on CNN I go back to the Gulf War, though I stopped watching for a while. I actually get depressed if there aren't any interesting news stories being covered and then I'll turn to HGTV out of boredom.

'Predate' me.....Miss Cutie.....!

I started watching 'Friends' repeats because I needed something to laugh about after work and because I'm usually in bed very, very early. 8 pm is a late weeknight for me. Thursday nights and the weekends are the exception!

As far as the news goes, I felt guilty after 9/11 for being so news-dumb. I don't ever want to as uninformed as I was.

I read the Chicago Tribune every day. It's too conservative for me, but it's the main home town paper so I read it. On the web I read the NYT and the Washington Post. I hear public radio. That's where I get the news. Oh yes, there is also the New Yorker and Harpers.

The last news cast I saw was on 9/11. We were in Washington at the time and there was little else to do.

Right now I am watching "The Forsyte Saga" on Sunday nights, and that is all.

I used to feel a certain snobbish pride in not viewing the tube. I do acknowledge that there are drawbacks to not watching TV news. I do not feel too uninformed about the news in general as a result of not watching, but what I do miss out on is simply the "TV Culture." There is a big hole in my awareness of the Total American Cultural Picture.

Why don't I watch? Number one I hate it that over a third of the watching time is taken up with advertising. I would prefer that those subtle, invideous images not enter my sponge like mind.

I usually do not like the choice of items that the news editors put on the air. I think that the news casters and the talk people on TV would like to become the arbiters of our minds. They'd like to be able to tell us what we should laugh at, when we should cry, what is important, and what is trivial etc., etc. I prefer not to allow them to do that.

If I were to watch TV I might pick candidates because of how they look rather than based upon what they have done or said. Candidates on TV are all show.

I hate this business of getting hooked on some important event like 9/11, or the death of Diana, or the sniper, and then being afraid to leave the TV out of fear that I'll miss some important fact. So if I were watching, I,d sit there and vegatate. The same words and the same images cross the screen hour after hour and still I'd watch, waiting for that fresh bit of info. In the meantime I'd soak up those commercials, which is the real reason for TV. Think about it. What if you just checked the NYT on the web every couple of hours? Wouldn't you find out if anything new happened? Do we really have to know instantaneously what is happening? I know I miss something by not watching, but I think it's worth it.

Also, I've never been disciplined enough to stop everything just at news time and go sit in front of the tube.

bandylu2- I sometimes watch the 24 hr. news shows. The problem, is that on a slow day, there is not much substance, mostly fluff. It reminds me of the TV newsmagazines (except for 60 Minutes, of course). How long does someone have to watch the newsmagazines before they realize that it is the same stuff, repeated over and over again? I would bet, that in an hour show, when you exclude the commercials and the redundancies, there is probably no more than 20 minutes of straight programming!

bandylu et al,
We all could be related....I also have become much more of a news junkie then I used to be. That, and the weather channel of course (another whole thread) is the only thing I watch during the day. I don't get MSNBC, but in the a.m., go back and forth between NBC, CNN and Fox - looking for coverage of something that interests me. I find with CNN, the first couple of hours are just about it, although they might have something good after 9. NPR during the day, unless I turn on the news again just to check to see if anything is happening, then NBC Nightly News, and then start all over again the next morning. Oy.

I do believe one can become addicted to the news channels. I actually feel somewhat lost when nothing of great interest or importance is happening. Forced to seek entertainment elsewhere, I will check out HGTV or the like.

I actually got hooked on News channels during the Gulf War, the O.J.Simpson trial, William Kennedy trial. I'm sure I'm leaving something out before 9/11. Now, I can scarcely bear watching too much of the news about Iraq, too much repetition, fill-ins. I try to watch only twice a day. Favorite is Fox News but getting bored with them all, soCNN. Maybe we're all afraid something will happen and we'll have missed it!