I Can't Hear You!

News reporting has been a recurring theme in my life today. It began with a news story in our local paper's online edition, about one of our popular longtime news anchors having been fired from his TV gig. Accompanying the story were 87 reader comments, most complaining about the unfairness of it all and praising this fellow for being a good journalist. This gave me pause to reflect on my decision to give up on TV news. First of all, TV anchors are not journalists, they are attractive people who read the news. They are more about emotion than they are about the news. The idea is to strike at your heart with indignation, anger or fear. They are trying to connect with you in order to remain relevant and employed. The veracity of the news is secondary, even though they won't admit that. Most of the crap we are warned about never happens. A wise man once said, 90% of what you worry about never happens and 90% of what happens is not as bad as you worried it would be. So you are wasting your worrying energy 99% of the time. I think he was right. If you don't believe me ask yourself, am I dead from SARS or bird flu? These were nightly news warning, and very ominous stuff. As I sat in my cubicle today, a young guy who sometimes seeks my advice on life issues, strolled in and announced that he is in the second week of following my advice to turn off TV news and talk radio. I was surprised to find out I gave him that advice, although I run my yap so much, I often forget much of what I say. Several months ago it occurred to me that I spend way too much time listening to crap on the TV and the radio. It has dawned on me that news reporting has become all about making me mad enough to agree with one side or the other politically or to rev up my sense of fairness. It seems to me that no matter who is in charge, I am bombarded with messages designed to convince me of the need for a change. The idea is to get me to see the unfairness of it all, whatever it all is at the moment. Powerful people are all about power and priviledge, not about you and me. Republican, Democrat or Independent, they get elected and then they get theirs. We're supposed to help them get theirs, in exchange for the promise that they may throw a crumb our way. Libertarians my be different, but they don't get elected so we don't know. Anyway, I am out because stuff happens with or without me. I am not willing to be a soldier in the armies of unfairness, power and greed, whether led by George W. or Hillary, cheered on by Limbaugh or Franken. There are plenty of people worrying about who screwed the pooch, I won't be missed. Getting back to my young friend. He was marveling about the positive change in the quality of his life since instituting the Merle Sneed Checkout Plan. He put it succinctly when he said, "Things happen whether I am worrying about them or not, so I gave up worrying about them." Part of giving up is the decision to stop listening to the professional naysayers. Later at lunch with my friends, my 89-year-old friend Charlie wandered over to our table and said that he couldn't bear to watch the news anymore because things are just too screwed up. Amazing. We get indoctrinated with the notion that we have to be informed and involved to be good citizens. Nonsense. There will never be a shortage of people willing to play in politics, you won't be missed, but your life will change for the better. Get an Ipod, find music or podcasts you like and tune out. The insanity you prevent, may be your own. Merle. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong and sometimes just full of it. Tag: Daily Life Personal Finance Humor