July 31, 2003

News Events I No Longer Want to Hear About on Public Radio

1. Israel and Palestine. Yes, it's terrible, frustrating, sad and wholly unjust. But I don't want to hear about every rock thrown or house bulldozed, the daily body count, or I'm going to start to develop deep-seated prejudices against one side or the other (and right now Israel's higher on the list). Just tell me when it's over.

2. WMDs and the Hunt for Saddam. I get it: Bush lied so he could go after Hussein. We can't find him and he's starting to taunt us. Let me know when we find him, but in the meantime quit rehashing.

3. The Economy. If one more pundit or economist gets on the air to say "The economy is turning around any minute now! Just you wait!" I'll scream. From where I'm sitting, the downturn is either over already or it never happened, because it seems like every other day in the last five years. More people are unemployed, but I must be the only person who remembers the much larger unemployment figures of the '70s and '80s. Shut up already.

And you people who produce "The World," tell me some news that isn't about America or Israel or the War in Iraq. Your beat is the whole world -- cover it! I want to know what's going on in South America, Asia, Africa, the places that don't get covered by every other news program in existance. And covering Liberia's civil war doesn't count, since we're getting lots of that elsewhere and your reporting isn't any different. Tell me what's going on in Congo or Namibia or something. Otherwise I'm changing the channel.

Posted by Andrew Huff at July 31, 2003 03:06 PM
Comments

Amen to all the things you are sick of. I am sick of them, too. Do they plan it so when the radio alarm comes on at the top of the hour the first words to greet our sleeping ears are, "Three more American soldiers were killed today in a bomb attack in Baghdad." Well, do they? Because I can think of less repetitive and more interesting things to lead with (although I have to grant that the deaths are newsworthy).

Posted by: at August 1, 2003 01:00 AM

I guess I didn't want to post anonymously, but that's what happened. Just saying.

Posted by: Juliet at August 1, 2003 01:01 AM

So true. I switched to my MP3 player or books on tape for my morning drive. They repeat the exact same world news everyday about the same places. I could listen one day every two weeks and be no less informed. The Israeli settlement topic is particularly overdone.

*Yawn* to the morning news on 91.5.

Posted by: kegz at August 1, 2003 08:17 AM

Hey, it could be (and has been) much worse. The repetition of the items you mention is a drag, but at least they qualify as meaningful news. Remember when we were still wallowing in the tumultuous shallows of the Clinton/Lewinsky mess? Or when the world was so boring that Chandra Levy was the lead story every damn day? Gah.

Besides, what's yr alternative? Mancow? I'd rather listen to Bob Edwards read the phonebook.

Posted by: Phineas at August 1, 2003 12:56 PM

I agree with you, Juliet: AMEN, Andrew!

I've stopped listening in the morning, but I enjoy Marketplace in the evening. I'll start listening again when the news stops nauseating me in the morning.

Posted by: Lacey at August 1, 2003 01:31 PM

The alternative is, unfortunately, bouncing between it, WXRT and The Zone -- which plays "the '90s at 9" while I'm heading to work, so I get to listen to my generation's "classic rock." It's not a great alternative, but until I get my CD player fixed or get a new car, it's what I've got.

But still, just because it qualifies as real news doesn't mean I have to stand for hearing the same story rehashed every ten minutes. If I wanted that I'd listen to WBBM-AM.

Posted by: Andrew at August 1, 2003 02:39 PM

I'm with you. Especially your thoughts on The World. Right off the bat they cut to the BBC feed, but all it really does is give American news with a British accent. Not really engaging stuff, IMO.

Posted by: Jeffrey Utech at August 4, 2003 08:20 AM