You Cannot Turn it Off: News Addiction

BizangoBob writes: "In this time of madness, I find myself staying up later than usual, watching more tv than ever before, tracking more channels, with more open browser windows than even I did before. As though KNOWING more will somehow help. There's a great piece about news addiction in the Washington Post. It made me feel I'm not the only one."

Sleepless week

[Anonymous Coward]

The article hit it pretty much spot on. I've watched more CNN since Tuesday than I did the entire time I worked for Uncle Sam.

My wife and I pulled out the couch to sleep in front of the TV, and I'm constantly either checking cnn.com or flipping amongst the myriad of news channels available to me.

I'm sure it will pass, but I don't think I'll sleep soundly until I know the patch of sand the culprits reside on has been melted into a sheet of glass by weapons of ludicrously massive destruction.

Re:Religion is to blame

[Skyshadow]

Of course, religion doesn't kill people. People kill people -- religion can just sometimes serve as a suitable excuse. Nationalism works pretty interchangibly well for this, as do items like feelings of racial superiority, etc.

We could go into all of this now, and I could explain why your "insights" are sadly shallow, but I suspect you're just trolling. Shame on you for doing so on the backs of 5000 innocent people.

However, on the off chance that your viewpoint actually is that shallow, may I suggest some basic reading: "The Battle for God" by Karen Armstrong. It's an excellent primer on the role of religion and root causes of fundementalism.

IRC - The other news source

[ChipX86]

IRC has proven to be a fairly good source for news coverage the past few days. Volunteers on the #wtc-confirmed and #worldtradecenter channels on irc.openprojects.net have been watching various news channels and sites, posting the latest news regarding Tuesday's attacks and the aftermath.

There's even an article [linuxworld.com] on LinuxWorld.com about these channels.

I'm one of the volunteers in that channel. News has been fairly slow lately, but we do welcome people to sit in and listen or participate.

'Net better than TV

[fleener]

This event has made me realize that web-based news is more extensive and informative than anything coming from corporate media. There is a ton of information that escapes mention or gets scarce coverage on TV news, including tidbits such as:

• the CIA's training of Osama Bin Laden,
  
• the USA's funding of Afghanistan ($43 million this year),
  
• how oppressed Afghanistan's citizens are,
  
• the nature of Isreal's 30+ year military occupation of Palestine,
  
• the many incidents of hate being directed toward Arab-Americans by their hate-filled neighbors,
  
• the false alarms and racial profiling since the security crack-down,
  
• the inaccurate jumping-the-gun reporting of the TV networks,
  
• and that not all of America is blood-thirsty and calling for war.
  

Oops, the URL should be:

[dgroskind]

A Terrorist Profile Emerges That Confounds the Experts. [nytimes.com]