A Week Without News -- Wrapping Up

The seven days without news, as expected, were effortless. Aside from fighting the occasional tendency to glance at a headline, I found the experience to be almost not worth it from a personal challenge standpoint. I guess you could say it's one of those things where a week just wasn't enough to really miss anything "newsworthy."

In reviewing some of the headlines of the past week, my predictions were fairly accurate (again, not difficult to do for a week). The ongoing crisis between Hezbollah and Israel remained largely the same. And while my suspicions about who won the Tour de France were correct, I missed the whole controversy over the failed test. Would you classify that as key news? In the grand scheme of things, no it doesn't really matter, but then again few things do in that context. For me personally, I have an interest in this topic, and I think it's fair to say that this news impacts a great number of people and even nations. I won't really get into that aspect, since it's a topic unto itself.

What else?

Well, I missed the news of the alleged serial killer, and even more bizarre (yet not surprising) events surrounding Mel Gibson's DUI and tirade. Oh, there was the Kid Rock/Pamela Anderson marriage. And let's not forget all the "news of the weird" headlines that are oh so important.

Needless to say, I survived just fine without the news and didn't have any embarrassing social moments where people stared at me in amazement over how out of touch I am. Again, it just goes to show that the challenge itself was no big deal.

Most important to me was the opportunity to highlight that so very little of the world's events are significant enough to warrant our attention. And if you strip away the stuff most of us would generally agree with (the fact that many news items are blatantly bad, unethical, staged, etc.), the real danger of media deluge is how it seeps into our daily lives and quietly affects our outlook, emotions and perhaps our core views.

I haven't been able to measure this or fully prove it, but it's not a stretch to say "current events" seem to dominate daily conversation, and we hardly question that. In and of itself, this probably isn't such a bad thing, except to say that we go into these conversations/friendly debates with passion and opinions at the ready, often because we've just read an article online or heard a report on the radio. That's not to say we're a bunch of automatons without the ability to filter and form opinions based on several sources, but the immediacy and ubiquity of news means we're quite reactionary and perhaps too focused on topics that probably don't matter much.

I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on the topic in general or the experiment in specific. While I'll be making this an annual thing, in the meantime I'll continue to limit my news intake and select my sources more carefully. Any suggestions on good, unbiased and ethical news sources are welcomed. I've often heard the BBC does a decent job of providing a more global perspective, but I have to believe there are others.

A Week Without News -- Day Six

As the week without news draws to a close, I'm left with two primary observations:

1. Despite my hopes and efforts, this exercise hasn't helped me completely forget about the news. I'm still curious as to what's going on and remain tempted to read headlines and perhaps even a few paragraphs. I thought I might find myself totally indifferent to the news after all of this, but that's not the case. Just the same, I think I'm going to continue to avoid it for some time. Perhaps not with the determination of the past week, but generally speaking I won't be actively pursuing it. Sports news is a different story of course ... fantasy football season is coming up, so I need to prep for it. :)

2. I haven't read or listened to so much as a single instance of mass media slop in over a week, yet I'm still jaded. I somewhat believed that the news was the catalyst for my occasional cynical outlook on life. And while I still think it plays a significant role, clearly it's not the sole cause of said cynicism. Bummer! I suppose Jung would say that the news represents my shadow figure and that I'm merely projecting the things I don't like about myself onto it. That's too deep for me so early in the morning.

So, the final question remains: did I really miss anything of importance in the last six days? I'm guessing that very little has changed since I last browsed CNN a week ago. My spidey senses tell me that the crisis in the middle east is ongoing and that we're still attempting to inject some sense of diplomacy in the region. Has a cease fire been realized yet? Probably not. And what of Iraq? I can't imagine one thing has changed there ... rebel fighters continue to make life difficult for everyone in the country, and there's no real end in sight for "coalition" troops. North Korea is still trying to get attention, and I imagine Africa hasn't had any good news either.

What about sports? I have a hunch who won the Tour De France, because I did happen to see some of the action last Saturday (the time trials ... keep in mind, it was my last day of news before my boycott began). Baseball? Let me guess -- the Yanks and Sox are still in a tight race for the division, the Rockies are slipping further and further out of contention, and the Tigers are still looking like this year's improbable World Series Champs. On an unrelated note, did you ever notice that despite all the high-dollar franchises in baseball, it probably has more parity than any other pro sport in America? Hockey is getting better, but baseball is unreal. The Yankees have had their share over the last decade, but splattered among those are the Angels, the White Sox, the Red Sox, the Diamondbacks and the Marlins. I might be missing one other in there, but it's definitely a sport where the Cinderella is a more frequent World Series participant.

I've completely digressed on this one, although I suppose the tangent illustrates that I truly miss sports news. Pretty pathetic I suppose.

I'll do my best to submit a final day blog tomorrow. If nothing else, I'll be doing a wrap-up piece as I review the news I apparently missed to either confirm or refute the value of what was covered during my weeklong boycott.

A Week Without News -- Day Five

Day Five is just beginning, and I think I might have violated the terms of my campaign. While waiting for my breakfast burrito at the Black Cow, I picked up a copy of Westword and started thumbing through it. Again, this is part of a routine of mine, so it was a fairly unconscious act. I ended up reading a few paragraphs of a story about a group of individuals who fix bikes at no charge (a community service of sorts).

While I only scratched the surface of the article, I think one could make a case that what I was reading was a form of news. No, Westword is not the evil villain I had in mind when I started this whole thing, but this actually brings up an issue I considered from the beginning -- "Where do you draw the line? What constitutes mainstream media? What's safe and what's not?"

There's a lot of gray area there, so my intention had been to avoid EVERYTHING (with the exception of the tech e-newsletters I need to read for my job). Thus far, I've not read a single story from My Yahoo!, CNN, ESPN or 9News. I haven't listened to even a second of radio, or watched so much as a glimpse of TV news. With the exception of catching a Denver Post headline, I haven't had so much as an ounce of newspaper ink on my hands ... until I picked up Westword today.

I won't beat myself up about it, because in all honesty I don't feel it violates the parameters I set forth from the beginning. Just the same, it serves as yet another reminder that news is everywhere, and trying to avoid it in your typical American city is next-to impossible.

Perhaps one of the primary outcomes of this whole thing is not so much the complete abandonment of news, but rather teaching us to better distinguish between the crap and the stuff that's actually worthwhile. We vote with our dollars and our eyeballs, people. And at the risk of sounding like a rallying cry, we have the power to vote the infidels off the island!

A Week Without News -- Day Four

I had very little to report yesterday, as I continued with my productivity theme here at work. Actually, my morning was spent at the dentist getting prepped for a crown. Seems I broke another tooth, so they got me nice and numb (it actually took 5 or 6 injections), and put the temporary crown on. Feeling a little sore today (big baby, I know), but the point is I arrived at work later in the morning which really gave me no time to even think about this little anti-news adventure I'm on. The only time it became evident is when I arrived at home, and my wife had the Channel 7 news on. I'm a polite guy, so I asked her nicely to change it. We ended up with That '70s Show, followed by Jeopardy, which was a vast improvement.

My wife kindly mocked me, saying something to the effect of, "C'mon, you're missing really important news ... they had a story about how the guy from N*Sync is gay." She realized the irony of her comments, so we had a bit of a chuckle, stuck our pinkies in the air and finished our Earl Grey. :)

Seriously though, I'm finding this to be easier and easier, and I'm starting to wonder why I didn't do this sooner. Actually, this whole event is making me axious to try my 30 days of no TV. Speaking of 30 days, there's a new season of that show coming up (it's the show from the guy who brought us "Supersize Me"). I guess I'll be spending my 30 days of no TV NOT watching 30 Days. :)

One thing I want everyone to know -- I realize I'm making a semi-big deal out of something that I imagine people do all the time (by that I mean, not reading the news or watching TV). It's important to note that I don't think I'm doing anything revolutionary here. As I stated from the beginning, this is something for me, and if anyone else gets something from it, then that's great. While I feel strongly about the message behind all this, I'm as equally jazzed about the fact that this enables me to step outside my routine and try something new. I'm not ready for Mike Patton's sleep deprivation experiment, but I'd like to think this is in the same spirit of that exercise.

A Week Without News -- Day Three

I shouldn't be surprised by this, but the biggest change I've noticed with my anti-news diet is a dramatic increase in productivity. As I stated before, I typically spend too much time just browsing the same news sites over and over. It seems I found something more valuable to do with my time, which is good because I'm incredibly busy presently.

I have to tell you that I probably couldn't have picked an easier week to do this. For starters, I was out of town most of Sunday, this week I'm slammed at work, and we're smack-dab in the middle of the dog days of summer. The latter means different things to different people, but to me it means the complete lack of anything worthwhile in the world of professional sports. Hockey and basketball are long since finished, football doesn't officially get moving for another month, baseball is only at the halfway mark, there are no golf or tennis majors presently, and the World Cup is over. So, I'm really not missing anything where sports news is concerned, although I can tell you that I'm giving up valuable fantasy football preparation time. Oh the horror! :)

So far, the lack of news has had zero impact on my life. I've yet to respond to someone's story with, "Oh, I wasn't aware of that" or "No, I didn't read that story/hear that news." I have to believe it will happen at some point this week, but I won't be too surprised if it doesn't.

And in case you care, today I just sat and thought while on the john, rather than reach for the paper. More productive!

A Week Without News -- Day Two Cont'd.

I'm getting better at this thing. Now that I'm on guard, I've found it fairly easy to "not make eye contact" with the headlines. I know my way around my "My Yahoo!" page, so I know precisely where to look and where not to look. Yes, I feel a little silly (borderline OCD, in fact) making this much of an effort to prove a point I already believe. Yet as I said previously, this exercise is as much of a protest as it is an exercise designed to test my own will and conviction. If I'm successful, my next move will be to avoid TV for a month (I'll make an exception for rented movies, but I might insist they be classic movies and not the rash of Hollywood's less-than-lasting moments).

I think what I'm finding here is there's a fine line between harmless entertainment and vacuous junk, informative reporting and editorial garbage. And what I've always known about my dislike for the media is that it's quite difficult to separate the good from the bad and illustrate what's valid and what's grossly inappropriate. Sure, some news is just so blatantly sick and wrong, it's not even worth pointing out. But it's the less-obvious stuff that I find most frightening, because it's the kind of thing that floats below the radar and cleverly influences us without notice. I know -- here comes the conspiracy theory, right? No, because the toughest part about all of this is there isn't just one perpetrator behind all the unethical reporting, so you can't just single out an organization.

In American politics, it always comes back to the president. In football, the quarterback is usually the hero or villain. In baseball, you either knock in the winning run or you're the pitcher who gives it up. The media doesn't offer that level of black-and-white clarity. And ever since the New York Times scandal of a few years back, nothing is sacred and no one is immune to shoddy journalism. I recognize that I often generalize in my rants, and I don't really dig generalizations at all. So about the best I can do is to simply call out the sins as I find them, rather than merely piss all over the industry without concern for the few folks who actually adhere to a higher standard of journalism.

It's late, and I'm starting to cover old ground here.

A Week Without News -- Day Two

I'm halfway through Day Two of my seven days sans media. Interestingly, today I'm reminded that part of my reason for doing this is that I spend way too much time reading and listening to mainstream media (I'm my own worst offender). This came to mind as I settled into my work week and began my normal routine of browsing select websites. It was then that it occured to me that three of my five standard sites are news-based entities, namely 9news.com, CNN.com and ESPN.com.

The other part of my typical day includes reading the newspaper while I'm in the bathroom. Without even thinking, I reached for the paper and had just finished reading the recap of Letterman's Top Ten when I realized my folly. NO NEWS DUDE!!! I knew going into this that I'd have to be extremely conscious of my actions, because again, the news is such a part of our culture that I just automatically reached for it without thinking about my quest.

Fortunately, I stopped suddenly and consequently heightened my defenses. The result thus far has been that I didn't unconsciously select 9news or CNN or ESPN from my browser, so I have no clue as to what "important" things are going on locally, nationally, globally or in sports. Even with My Yahoo!, I've avoided the articles, although like yesterday with the newspaper incident, I couldn't completely avoid the headlines. I did in fact catch glimpses of a headline that had the words "Rice", "Hezbollah", "Lebanon" and "Israel" in it. Again, this is another nice thing about avoiding the news -- I didn't read the article, yet those four words right there tell me everything I need to know. I'm guessing the article had something to do with Rice being in the area, performing her diplomatic duty of trying to smooth things over. Anything important I missed?

Stay tuned!

A Week Without News: Day One

Day One in my personal boycott of all things media couldn't have been easier, and it even included a nice little reminder as to why I'm doing this whole thing.

Sunday was spent doing something worthwhile -- namely, camping and rafting on the Arkansas out near Buena Vista, Colo. My wife and I had a great time -- our first-ever rafting experience. Both of us were a tad apprehensive about it, especially after hearing stories about the flash floods that happened on the river the day before. But as we were doing a Class III trip (perhaps the most popular rafting trip in the US), we didn't fret too much. And while we weren't roughing it (car camping ain't a challenge), it was still rather easy to avoid news of any kind. No TVs, no online access, no radio (music only) and no reason to seek out a newspaper.

Ironically, the only time I was tempted to view the news was upon our return. We went to pick up our dogs from my mother's place, and the first words we heard were, "Did you hear about the rafters who were killed on the Snake River in Wyoming?" Now, if that isn't a perfect example of how useless news is, then I don't know what is. Here we were, just returning from our first rafting trip (a successful adventure, by the way) and we're subjected to the typical fear-based headlines, as passed along by family.

My wife decided to read the article, while I managed to stick to my guns and avoid it. But here's where I learned my first "A Week Without News" lesson -- complete avoidance of the media is impossible. I suspected this going into the week, but found out firsthand on the very first day, despite being somewhat isolated for most of the day. Like I said, I didn't read the article, but I couldn't miss the headline (something to the effect of "Casual Float Trip Turns Deadly" ... typical crap).

You see, the news exists in our peripheral and (in my opinion) by extension is ingrained in our subconscious. I think many folks do a decent job of filtering out the noise, but I would suggest that a lot, if not most, absorb this "information" and allow it to affect them unnecessarily. It certainly affected my wife, who upon finishing up the article stated she wouldn't have gone rafting had she read this before the trip. Now, understand that she just had a great afternoon on the river, overcame her fears and experienced a trip that will live positively in her memory for many years. But a simple news article about a tragic yet extremely rare event had enough weight to give her pause.

Am I really alone in my thinking on this, or do most of us just accept this as part of being a modern citizen in a first-world country?

Crisis averted?

This morning's news of the death of The Butcher prompted me to consider the mindset of those who opposed the Maoist movement in Cambodia and were subsequently beaten, tortured, killed or all of the above. We've often heard the phrase, "Are you willing to die for your country?", to which I always say yes without much thought.

But in considering the Khmer Rouge and its bloody war, it occured to me that sometimes dying for your country means being on the losing side of a civil crisis. Is it any less honorable to die as a perceived traitor in a fundamentalist revolution? The Khmer Rouge would have suggested the opposition were the ones without nationalistic pride ... the unworthy scourge needing a good cleansing. What did the British say of the colonists at the time of the American revolution?

I'd be guilty of being a bit melodramatic if I tried to compare the polarization in America's current political climate to the genocide that took place in the Killing Fields of Cambodia. But you have to recognize that civil wars all start somewhere and typically begin with differing ideas.

Which is why I bring up the ongoing debate in America. Opinions are so entrenched that it's more than just a little scary. And when a nation differs so significantly on some fairly fundamental points, you end up with a recipe for potential disaster. So the question becomes, "Do you want to be on the winning side or the right side?" From a personal point of view, the article of Ta "The Butcher" Mok's passing made me realize that my life has been spent on the losing team, where my possibly unrealistic idealism could become my eventual downfall. If push comes to shove, am I as willing to stand up and die for the America I believe in as the nation's radicals are? Ironically, I'd probably die still trying to answer that question.

The good news is a civil conflict is likely not in our future. After nearly five years of being the aggressor, the US finds itself back in a defensive position, operating in a more cautious manner. In a strange way, our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan now becomes a good thing, as we're stretched so thin that Bush CAN'T go into Gaza with guns ablazing.

Whatever is really happening behind the scenes is largely irrelevant, because the growing crisis among Israel and the Middle East is no longer a US thing. For now, the heat is off us as the UN unites to figure this one out (don't worry North Korea -- we're still thinking about you, but Japan can take the lead on this one). All of which means the US should begin to garner a bit more solidarity among its citizens. It won't be anything noticeable like it was after 9/11, and it will soon descend into finger pointing, but at least I can delay my plans to flee to Vancouver.

Speaking of finger-pointing, I think it's high time the dems started planning for life after Bush, rather than continually sounding the rally cry over his every misstep (of which there are too many to count). Of course, I said it was time to do that the day after Bush was re-elected, so why would they listen to me now?

Challenge: "A Week Without News"

Regular readers (all two of them) of my blogs are more than familiar with my incessant rants on all things mass media. Let's face it -- most news is not news at all and therefore a waste of my time. I'm not out to be Noam Chomsky here, but let's just say we share a common disdain for the Fourth Estate and the crap it continually shovels us.

In honor of going beyond mere rhetoric, I'm issuing a challenge that takes direct action against these purveyors of scare tactics, infotainment, advertorials and mental pornography. I'm designating the fourth week of July to an all-out ban on The Fourth Estate and its many iterations.

Kicking off on Sunday, July 23, "A Week Without News" will be seven days of no mass-market, corporate-sponsored news. No newspapers, no talk radio, no online news sites, no 24-hour cable news networks and certainly no local television news. The idea? To show producers, journalists, media moguls, benefactors and all associated that I've had my limit of unethical reporting, exploitation, profiteering, histrionics, instigation, misguided agendas, agendas period, mindless ranting, editorializing, fiction, friction, armchair experts and every other aspect plaguing what had once been a proud institution.

Full disclosure -- I, myself, spend an inordinate amount of time absorbing this slop. I listen to sports talk radio during my commute. I browse headlines on My Yahoo!, CNN.com, 9news.com and ESPN.com. I pick up the local papers and scan the articles. And every so often I'll watch a few minutes of the 10 o'clock news. I'd like to chalk it all up to research, but let's just say I have a basis for my bias against the media.

Now, I'm issuing this challenge to myself and myself alone. But if you, too, are fed up and ready to demonstrate your frustration, I invite you to join me in this small-scale boycott. We've been told time and time again that this is a consumer-driven economy, yet we so infrequently use that power. This is just one way to show a decaying industry that it's time to change. If you agree, then I urge you to spread the word.

A quick recap:

What: A Week Without News
When: 12:01 a.m. Sunday July 23 to Midnight Saturday July 29
Why: To demonstrate that we don't need or benefit from the overwhelming majority 'news' we're being sold. We want the return of core journalistic ethics and the elimination of packaged, 'productized' news.

Cheers,
Sean Hawk
sean.hawk@gmail.com
http://dailydirge.blogspot.com/

PS I'm not the first person to consider this type of boycott, and I certainly won't be the last. In fact, there were some recent rumblings in the blogosphere to make July 4 the day of boycott. Personally, I can do anything for one day, so that's why I'm pushing it a week. And I'll guarantee you I won't miss anything in that time ... kind of like a soap opera, where you skip a week and don't seem to miss a beat. :)