No News is Good News

People always complain about how depressing the news is. "I can't listen to this anymore!" "Ok, that's enough of this for one night." "When will we ever hear good news?"

To that, I present the expression: "No news is good news."

News channels aren't full of fluff every day because the way we live our lives is that we assume everything is fine, unless we are told otherwise. It is up to news channels to tell us otherwise.

(Side note: I could go on to write a book about all of the politics and agendas involved in the news, or the fact that it uses fear to drive ratings etc. but that would require a lot of research, probably some sources, and is way too complicated. I'm going simple on this one...)

On any normal morning, I wake up, get ready for work and walk out to my car not worrying about a serial killer on the loose, or acid rain falling on my head, or anything else bad happening to me...unless the news tells me one of those things is likely to occur. They don't need to (and they can't) give me a nightly play-by-play of all the bad things that aren't going to happen to me -- "Aand there's no need to worry about burglaries tonight because they're all taking the night off!" -- and if they presented "good" news, I can't help but think it'd seem somewhat random -- "A tenant just mounted some beautiful flower boxes from his window on the corner of Comm. Ave and Harvard" -- thanks for that announcement, I'll go on living my life now.

An indication of a "good news day" should just be the anchors saying "Well...we have 10 extra minutes in this broadcast with nothing to talk about!" No news really is the best news you can get for your day. ...But they could fill those 10 minutes with puppy videos and I'd be happy. (Note that news channels actually do this quite often...don't think you'd EVER see a water-skiing squirrel if there was anything more pressing they could be talking about.)

 It may be easier to think of the news as just a guide for survival.

Our lives are so full of activities and obligations and relationships that oftentimes we don't think of the fact that our main goal everyday as humans is survival. While we may not be outwardly acknowledging this fact -- "What do you want to do today?" "Live through it." --it is still an instinct that we are subconsciously attending to.

When we turn on the news, or read a newspaper, or go to a news website, the majority of the content can just be interpreted as a giant "Don't do this/don't travel here/don't eat this/don't believe this if you want to live" list. And while that may not be happy and uplifting, it can be pretty helpful. And if you think of the fact that maybe you didn't die today because you listened to something on the news this morning...you should be pretty happy about that.

"Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic."

-Dan Rather