Can watching the news be harmful?

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StarSong said:
I almost never watch the news. When looking for a new car this time last year, the local dealership had Fox News blasting from a huge screen in the middle of the showroom. I politely requested that they turn it off or change the station, which they wouldn't.

On our way out the door, hubby and I told the salesman that we'd find someplace else to purchase a car. Which we did. A nice little dealership 15 miles further away had a great car. The showroom TV was tuned to National Geographic nature shows.

As for waiting rooms, isn't it insulting that doctors, dentists and others can't imagine their customers to be capable of entertaining themselves without the assistance of an idiot box?
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Having a TV on in a car's showroom is just plain idiotic. I'm there to buy a car, not to be entertained, which in reality TV does little of these days.
 

911 said:
Having a TV on in a car's showroom is just plain idiotic. I'm there to buy a car, not to be entertained, which in reality TV does little of these days.
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I understand having a TV on. There's a lot of lag time while vehicles are being brought around for test drives, paperwork is generated, cars are washed, prepped, gassed up, etc.

From start to finish we were at the dealership at least 4 hours when we bought our car. It's a tedious process.

What I don't understand is tuning into such a divisive network. (CNN would have been equally so.) And not changing the channel when a customer complained that it was offensive was just stupid.
 

I was at a sandwich shop a while back and they had on a channel that had continuous car crashes -- one after another. I was there for a good half-hour and it was still going when I left. The Car Crash Channel, I guess. 😄

A travel channel might be good for a public business to avoid politics. I usually read the news on my phone when I'm waiting for something or riding the train, or that's what I used to do before the pandemic.
 
My wife and I ate at an Applebee's restaurant on one occasion some years ago. They had a TV on that had two guys in a cage beating the s#$% out of each other. We left. To what level of barbarism has sports sunk and why would we be expected to watch that as we eat? Never again.

Tony
 
StarSong said:
I don't understand TVs in restaurants. Sports bars, yes, but restaurants?
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I think Applebee's is a bit of both sports bar and restaurant, but the actual bar seems to be the main sports bar part, while the table seating is in another section.

Is putting two guys in a cage to beat each other senseless considered sport these days? I thought sports involved baseball, football, hockey, etc.

Even so, I agree that the restaurant part should not need to have TVs at all, since the intention is for people to eat a meal together.

Tony
 
Ruthanne said:
I don't know if watching the news is harmful to everyone but it is to me. After watching it every day I tend to start getting depressed and anxious. So, then I take a break but it also seems bad news can be habit forming. It's like trying not to look at a bad car accident that just happened. I just want to see what happens next much of the time. I think I need to go to a little cozy log cabin out in the wilderness *with no tv* for awhile and detox from the news!
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It seems like for the past few years, we're seeing one car accident after another. It's like watching a 100 car pileup unfold before your eyes. After a while, you just want it to stop.
 
StarSong said:
I don't understand TVs in restaurants. Sports bars, yes, but restaurants?
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I look at it from the standpoint that whatever establishments can do to make people feel at home and draw patrons in, then that's what they're going to do, televisions being an ideal means to accomplish that.

From an additional business standpoint, why not air a game, a special event, or a holiday special, with hopes of patrons staying longer to watch, and staying longer means spending more on drinks, food, etc.

Cha-ching, it's all about the bottom dollar nowadays. Greed at it's finest.
 
In most places where I've seen the news channels on, the TV's are placed at one end of the waiting room, so people can choose whether to sit near them or not. If the sound is on, it's usually very low.

In sports bars, of course, it's different. There, it is part of the "ambiance."

It's been so long since I ate in a restaurant (alas) that it's hard to remember, but I don't think any regular restaurants usually have a TV on. Or is my memory slipping?
 
Sunny said:
In most places where I've seen the news channels on, the TV's are placed at one end of the waiting room, so people can choose whether to sit near them or not. If the sound is on, it's usually very low.

In sports bars, of course, it's different. There, it is part of the "ambiance."

It's been so long since I ate in a restaurant (alas) that it's hard to remember, but I don't think any regular restaurants usually have a TV on. Or is my memory slipping?
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In the hospital waiting rooms where I go, the TV usually only on subtitles... in my doctors surgery ( office).. they don't play TV shows, instead they have a medial information video loop continually running.. reminding people to have things like Prostate checked, cervical test done etc...
 
I think we have to be more precise. Watching an actual news program, or a discussion panel. I see nothing wrong with being made aware of the world's events. The effects of covid 19 are the same, if you watched the news or not. So burying your head in the sand doesn't help. But I believe a steady nightly dose of biased, coordinated "news" panels is detrimental to a society.
 
Irwin said:
The news today was like a huge, sigh of relief after a long, horrendous, traumatic experience. It was reassurance that the center will hold -- at least for the time being.
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Boy, Isn't that the Truth! Even the stock market enjoyed today's news....hit record highs. Now, if there can be some significant improvement in this CV-19 problem, perhaps this nation can begin to return to "sanity".
 
Too much news isn’t healthy. I’ve tried to reduce it.

Breaking News - they always start with that now and repeat with more Breaking News. If I’ve already heard it a few hours ago, it isn’t Breaking News.

At the dentist’s today, he had a travel station on in the waiting room, no sound. The hygienist has an HGTV show with no sound.

Whenever I was in a waiting room at the hospital it used to be Live, with Regis & Kathy Lee, etc. I must have had all my appointments between 9 - 10.
 
Pepper said:
Which news was that? In what decade did that occur?
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Walter Cronkite was a trusted reporter and I think just about everyone liked the man who followed him, Dan Rather, as well.

When I was young and without training, I wrote for a small newspaper and made the mistake of inserting my opinion in what was supposed to be a news report and was immediately dismissed. It seems a different world back then and I didn't have a good understanding of it.
 
StarSong said:
I almost never watch the news. When looking for a new car this time last year, the local dealership had Fox News blasting from a huge screen in the middle of the showroom. I politely requested that they turn it off or change the station, which they wouldn't.

On our way out the door, hubby and I told the salesman that we'd find someplace else to purchase a car. Which we did. A nice little dealership 15 miles further away had a great car. The showroom TV was tuned to National Geographic nature shows.

As for waiting rooms, isn't it insulting that doctors, dentists and others can't imagine their customers to be capable of entertaining themselves without the assistance of an idiot box?
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Nice to hear that you, StarSong & your husband had the backbone to walk out of that car dealership. It seems that in the last 2 decades more & more places are trying to shove some bad idiot shows down the throats of their captive audience. To walk out takes the money out of their pockets. Maybe this is the only way to stop businesses from making idiots out of all of us. Seems that so many places treat the public like we are stupid, mindless zombies. Maybe we are? I hope not!
 
Vida May said:
Walter Cronkite was a trusted reporter and I think just about everyone liked the man who followed him, Dan Rather, as well.
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Why do people seem to think Walter Cronkite would not have been editorializing through the last few years? That he would have listened to lies and not have had an opinion? Absurd. Of course he would have. Then, after bringing truth to the public he would have been ridiculed for being biased.
 
Pepper said:
Why do people seem to think Walter Cronkite would not have been editorializing through the last few years? That he would have listened to lies and not have had an opinion? Absurd. Of course he would have. Then, after bringing truth to the public he would have been ridiculed for being biased.
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sorry
 
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Vida May said:
Why? Because we once had values and a sense of honor and these were passed on in education before we focused education on technology. Sort of like I assume you would not walk out of the house without putting your pants on, nor would you intentionally burn your dinner. For sure no decent person would pass on lies.
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I didn't mean our Walter would have passed on lies except if he were quoting whatshisname. He certainly would have editorialized, to the extent broadcast news allows, because as a decent person he wouldn't allow the quotes to be thought of as truth, just as David Brinkley did as he got older. Even if it were only a wink and a nod, or a look, or voice inflection.

I certainly have walked out of the house without putting my pants on, and I have intentionally burned a dinner. Go figure. ;)
 
I have never walked out of the house without pants, shorts or some kind of bottom wear. Never intentionally burned dinner either. Go figure.

p.s. Have done plenty of outlandish things in my life, just not those two.
 

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