How much does if it bleeds-it-leads news bother you?

[mvd]

Poll question: How much does if it bleeds-it-leads news bother you?

The beheadings overseas are troublesome, not as much for the beheading part as for the fact that innocent lives are being lost. Unfortunately, I've gotten used to gruesome news by now - in New Jersey recently, a suspect beheaded his grandmother and another woman. And I've heard of serial killers like Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Jack The Ripper, etc.

Still, I'm depressed enough under Bush - I usually don't watch the crime part of the local news or read crime stories at DU unless it's a huge story. Then I try to stop thinking about it quickly.

[regularguy]

1. TV news (esp. local) is a (mental) health hazzard.

I'd take up smoking before tuning into that stuff again.

[mvd]

2. Notice that "it doesn't bother me at all" isn't one of the options

You can put it under other if you want, but that seems too callous to me.

[AndyTiedye]

3. Our Troops Have Been Bleeding and Dying a Lot - But That Isn't News?!

[mvd]

4. That's one thing they should be reporting more but don't

They have their priorities screwed up..

[supernova]

5. I skip the first part of the local news

because of it. I just want to know the weather, the consumer reports, and local gov't - school board type things.

[welshTerrier2]

6. an educated, informed electorate

if we can't be "conveniently" educated thru our mass media, we cannot maintain any semblance of a democracy ... real news must be readily available ... people are lazy ... if TV news fails to inform, we're in big trouble ...

i can assure you that people are more familiar with Monica than with anything Clinton did for the country ... and they are more familiar with OJ and Kobe and Scott Peterson (i actually don't know who he is ...) than they are with John Kerry ...

try this little test ... ask one of your non-political friends to describe any position Kerry has taken on any issue ... most people I've tried this with can't name one thing ... they'll say something like "well, i know he doesn't agree with anything bush is doing ..."

so "if it bleeds, it leads" bothers me very much ... we've conflated news with entertainment and we're going to pay a very high price for doing so ...