When You Can't Turn Off the News

[DonViejo]

May 19, 2018 at 2:05 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard

Dahlia Lithwick: “In other words, if you work in media, you would be well within your rights to have had a tequila shot with your breakfast every day this week. It’s all just terribly sick and sad and the constant stream makes it hard not to be sick and sad all the time. We’ve long since stopped describing news consumption as drinking from a firehose. It went from firehose to tidal wave a year ago. Nevertheless, we’ve persisted.”

“Perhaps the most common refrain journalists hear from strangers is ‘I feel bad for you. I feel sad that following all this is your job.’ The truth of the matter is that there is not enough hazard pay in the world. It’s hard not to want to shut it all off and just hope that some combination of Michael Avenatti, Bob Mueller, and the 2018 elections might restore normalcy. Normalcy would be nice, because weeks and months of being the head/desk emoji is hazardous to one’s mental health. Our brains, messed up from all that banging, still know something is amiss. It feels like the only way to exert any control at all over the insanity would be the capacity to turn it off.”

“And, of course, turning it off is exactly what a president who wants to kill the news is hoping for.”

more
https://politicalwire.com/2018/05/19/when-you-cant-turn-off-the-news/

[CalMark]

1. Good point. I never thought of it that way.

As much as I love being around people who are well-informed, I never thought about the mental stress they must endure due to the requirement that they pay close attention to the news.

I'm glad I can turn it off or avoid it whenever I choose.

[scarletwoman]

2. I'm glad I went to the Slate link and read the whole thing.

Especially the poison wheat parable - heavy!