23-06-2025
- General
- Wall Street Journal
I Envy the Nightly Newsless
Years ago I wrote a little book on the large subject of envy. It was part of a series on the seven deadly sins. What I discovered is that apart from the standard resentment-laden envy, there is what I termed 'emulative' envy. Under the spell of emulative envy, you don't wish to attack or strip the possessions or qualities of other people but instead to imitate, match or surpass them. I envy people who restrain themselves from watching news on television, something I am apparently unable to do.
Every so often I mention to a friend some event or incident I saw on the television news. The response will often be a version of, 'Oh, I stopped watching a decade ago.' Others respond: 'I restrict myself to 15 minutes a day. No more.' When I query them about this, the answers are generally short and not sweet: 'I find television news depressing.' Or: 'I really don't get that much out of it.' Or: 'It's all so hopelessly politicized.' All true.
Television news has the advantage over print media of being able to show things 'live.' Print describes a riot while television shows it. Today, given all the security cameras hanging about, TV can often show robberies, even murders, as they are happening. Yet there is something missing from television news—intelligent commentary on what is being shown.
Television news is too ubiquitous to be useful. Most channels broadcast local news four times a day—morning, noon, evening and late-night. On cable, the news is on all day long. Sports and weather each get five minutes, whether they need it or not. They usually don't, so viewers learn about drizzle in Montana and a nice catch in a minor-league baseball game in Alabama. Repetition of previous news gets even more time.
