Why I Stopped Reading the News

"I, too skip the TV news broadcast from time to time. My husband and I were visiting our son and his children in another state for 5 weeks this summer. He NEVER watches the news. He chooses to watch Animal Kingdom or such programs that are "child-friendly." (Though there are few available!)
Upon our return home we found we had not missed a single "news worthy" report during our weeks away! Lesson Learned."

"Once again Andy delivers!"

"Well Said!!!"

"I have been taking news breaks for about 10 years now and I love it. I recommend it to everyone. You will miss very little except feelings of anxiety and helplessness."

"The fear of huricane Irene ended the recession in many local grocery stores and created a D size battery shortage. Thanks."

"I'm with you Andy. With regarding to the "Fear" of Hurricane Irene - A colleague of mine who lives in NY said, "The storm came a lot closer than we expected but by the time it got here it was pretty much all blown out - I think all the MEDIA COVERAGE sucked the energy right out of it"! The media contributes so much hype to our daily lives it can either suck the energy right out of us or or blow the balloon of our frustrations until we feel like we are popping!" Thanks again for the reminder to "unplug" (except from Andy of course :))"

"Awesome Mr. Andrews!"

"Andy, I totally agree. I wrote a song recently about if my dad was alive today to see TV, what would he say? This is the chorus:

Cause Andy never lived with Helen
Miss Kitty not with Matt,
Or 24-7 slanted news,
I didn’t have to deal with that.
I think I see the cause,
of your moral deterioration,
It’s a product of your 35 inch,
flat screen education.

I really had fun writing it. Also, if you want to see how this country thrives on bad, go to Amazon and look under books for Mother Teresa and then for Hitler. Hitler wins 15,373 to 1311.

Keep up the great work,
Greg Gilbert"

"I think Standard Deviation application would yield "No Change". The same happens every day on news reporting of the day's Stock Market fluctuations. But then I thought of where it could really indicate a trend - then I googled "rattlesnake theft". wow! In 2009 there were over 30 snakes stolen in 1 incidence alone. Gotta be really desperate to take venomous snakes in the dark. I mean we could be talking life or death here. I didn't find any other info on it, but thought that 2010 must have resulted in a crackdown on rattlesnake pilfering, since there were 30 fewer than the previous year? You know 2009 was a really tough year for a lot of people - you gotta feed your family somehow!"

"Excellent article!!! Points up at least 2 critical aspects for us all to consider....the news is sensationalized to sell and statistics can be most misleading!!!"

"Good idea Andy
I refuse to watch the news and the benefit is great.
I facilitate a anger group and recommend this to all who want to partcipate.
It has been years since I have listened to or watched the news.
People seem to be attracted to the negativity, the fear based personality keeps feeding on the negative.
You Are Awesome Andy"

"That's why I love those "fact-checker" reporters. I believe we need one after every news report...but then, who cares if you're not watching!"

"Stopped listening to the talk radio, news (tv and radio and paper) and my peace and serenity have improved 100%. My serenity has a high priority for me these days. Thanks for sharing Andy."

"I remember watching Fox or CNN several years ago when bird flu was a hot topic. Although it had only killed a handful of people only in Asia and had never spread human to human the anchors were telling the audience what the symptoms of the bird flu were and what to do if you had symptoms. That's when I started seeing the news in a different light."

"Oh my gosh Andy - i had to giggle at this story, as sad as it is for the dog owners it shows the media and how they continue to plant seeds of fear, constant negativity into peoples minds, all I can say I am so ever thankful for my journey with Personal Development ~ I rarely watch the news and only ever read a newspaper if I am at a cafe waiting for my coffee - some friends completely DO NOT GET ME but I learnt that I can not change much of what is happening so why firstly plant the seed, how true or how exaggerated has the media made this, and secondly then go and talk about it and allow it to spread fear into others, because we all know the chinese whisper game, as each time it is told it gets WORSE and distorted etc.

Andy Andrew YOU are one of my absolute mentors! I had the absolute pleasure of meeting you in the Bahamas at the Atlantis Hotel 2008 with LLI ... trust you, your family, dog and birds are well. God Bless - Kaz from Australia
(oh yeah I still have the pictures of us on stage ... and what I learnt from you on that one day changed my life forever, it allowed me to play the movie over in my mind and face my father after my mum died, something i feared as a sexually abused child by him, YOU helped me get through that day so i could claim so childhood photos of myself, and my mum - hugs)"

"Andy,
No I don't read the paper, not even the comics, and if I do catch any news it is on the face pagr of my computor.
We do not watch T.V., Have found it is a lot more fun to talk, yes I said Talk. It is fastly becomeing a lost art, that and writeing letters. Just when was the last time you wrote a letter to someone you cared about, and I don't mean e-mail, I mean write on paper with a pen, real words.
thank you
Robert"

"I still watch the news but from a different perspective. I remember as a child hearing my dad say "don't belive a D@&$# thing you hear and not over half of what you see with your own two eyes" ! I simply changed the channel "IN MY MIND" and now I do watch the news but from the standpoint of pretending I am watching a daily comedy special and see the spectacle of everyone trying to validate their self esteem, sell a book or simply draw some attention to their boring lives (like the parents of the balloon boy). On a more positive note Andy's book
"The Travelers Gift" changed my life at a very demanding and depressing time. I have probably given out 50 copies ! The
follow up book , "The Final Summit" is right on the mark too ! Keep it Andy !

their self esteem"

"This is exactly why I stopped watching or reading the newspaper about six years ago. :)"

"I started ignoring the news years ago, especially when a study indicated The Daily Show contained as much actual information as a "real" news show, but it's far more amusing.

Mostly, when I'm watching the news, and they're wasting time on silly human interest or sports stories, I spend most of my time wondering what they're not reporting on. Even during a supposed disaster like Irene recently, we saw they were far more interested in ratings and advertising than actual news.

As for reading news, I have a similar policy. I subscribe to a few news RSS feeds, and can glean almost everything I need to know from the headlines. Other than that, if it's important enough, it usually comes to me. Life without fear and anger (news induced, anyway; if I could get away from traffic that would help) is pretty good."

"Amen Andy, I'm with you. There just has to be some good news out there somewhere, but we rarely hear anything about it."

"Actually S.Korean newspaper companies and brodcasting services also use and use the sensational topics, even the topics often same, too. Because of that some internet users say we should need to stop the news cast of the potalsite example NAVER(which is the YAHOO + GOOGLE)."

"thanks to sis son y for the add."

"Thank You for posting this story. I watch the news every morning with my husband while having coffee and him reading the paper. I have never thought of going on a news fast........i like that idea because the news scares me, it makes me worry for my children and grands.......maybe every once in while ignorance is bliss! Oh, and maybe I'll just grab one of your books off my bookshelf and read it again while having my morning coffee."

"I agree - we don't have the TV hooked up - no newspaper either - love it - but do love NPR stories (radio/web) to hear of people like Zoe Keating who made a new life out of her "mistakes' on the cello."

"The news media reports facts, but distorts the facts into sensationalism to sell their "news". Did the media ever attempt to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? No. Their profits would fall.

Also, consider photographs that accompany news articles. The lowly mole hill is turned into a mountain by the camera angle.

Enjoyed your books, DVDs, thought-provoking blogs, and especially your participation in the Gaither Alaska Cruise.
Jones is proud of you, Andy! God bless you."

"I consistently DO NOT watch the news. My mom watches it and lets me know anything of importance. The only time I watch the news is about 30 minutes in the morning before I go to work and then if there is a "disturbance" in the Gulf, I watch weather news. I, too, feel like I am less fearful if I do not watch the news and try to just place it all in God's hands. Loved this blog, Andy."

"Yes!! Watching the news can make me depressed!! When I am out and about in our area of the state, Ashville in St. Clair County, I see others out and moving, working, eating out, trying to live their lives. Yes, the economy is not good, but I believe the news media is making things worse, not better!!
Love your spirit, Andy!!"

"I never watch the news willingly! I, too, discovered that I just got upset and extremely angry at the manipulation by the media! So I stopped watching the news, reading newspapers or reading news feed on the net... like you, someone always lets me know what I need to know and in general I am much happier! WooHoo!"

"I have been listening to talk radio lately and the talk is all about how 9/11 was the doing of our own government. I was wondering if you had reshearched any of the 9/11 talk--that the buildings were rigged with explosivies; the building across the street was leveled and it looked like explosivifes were used; the CIA were in on the plot. Please address this issue and publish your thoughts. Thank you"

"Andy, am totally resonating with you on this one. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the media, with their unquestionable influence, have a responsibility to manage that influence.. with responsibility.. which most of them don't.

Also, the awareness that when we are mad or scared, we make decisions for different reasons. Mad or scared is generally a stress-response, based on survival and escaping threat - and in that place we make comparatively poor judgements. Whereas when we are not mad or scared, we have better judgement - because better judgement is not about survival or threat evasion, better judgement is about creating value..

Nice post.. and nice blog.. found you via Michael Hyatt.."

"Great post Andy! The news and how it is/can be sensationalized is often a topic with our family. I have tried to instill in my children (both teenagers) to really look at the news in that manner when they see it and go out into the world."

"I'm with you, Andy. I stopped reading/watching the news a few years ago because I found that the tension was causing physical troubles for me. Ignorance is an interesting accusation. Is it real ignorance to not know whether Angelina Jolie will marry Brad Pitt, or that someone in Virginia got his leg eaten off by a shark? How are these things more important than, say, knowing that the Germans were sinking ships in the Gulf of Mexico? Or that the best way to fight bacterial infection is through healthy diet, exercise and sunlight? Or that miracles still happen? Thanks for your courage, Andy."

"Totally agree that the media plays off our fears. I usually do not watch the news and I guess I look silly at times when people are discussing the lastest happenings. However, my fears can sometimes get the best of me. I remember the day of 9/11 and the days that followed. When you turned on the TV that is all you heard and saw. I was so upset and depressed that I finally had to tell the whole family we needed to keep the TV off for the next couple of weeks. We did just that! It sure helped us see things in a better light."

"My granddaughter is the only child in her 6th grade class that does not receive TV in her own home. They have one for watching movies and playing games, but it is rarely on more than an hour or two a day. She reads avidly...and her teacher just about had apoplexy coming up with another assignment for her when they had to compare concepts by watching for their use in TV commercials. :>)"

"In addition to skipping the morning news, I'm now adopting the habit of listening to something motivational first thing in the morning. Its more beneficial to me and my loved ones than Constantly Negative News-get it, CNN."

"When I first met my wife Maritza, I thought it was really strange that she did not watch the news or read newspapers. Heck, she didn't even have cable!

She called this a "media diet."

Finally tried it - and it changed my mood. Less anxiety, more excitement.

And you're right Andy, if anything big happens, someone will tell us...

Thanks

~ Jeff"

"Even though I'm 12 years old, I read and loved your book (Mastering the 7 decisions that determine personal success)."

"Andy, I wish I could convince the world of the truth of what you are saying. The marvelous skills of people in creating amazing tools to spread information around the world is being misused to destroy people from doing it in the future. Fear is only one example!

I used to watch a "thriller" movie at night, just before going to bed, only to have fearful nightmares during the night, and sleeplessness, and a complete loss of creativity in the morning!

The whole media scene needs to refocus their efforts on the Glory of God and His Handiwork, given back to humanity for a short time to begin to develop a heart for - after all, they will account for their use of it in the ceaseless ages of eternity."

"My family has not had tv in 6 yrs and I didn't have it a year before I started my family!! I have to say the anxiety of IT ALL has been released by taking just this out. During a college retreat I had a gentleman state he figured television was satan sitting in our homes and he gave this illustration. In the 50s on television crap wasn't even allowed, you didn't even see the ladies legs or any other part of her body, and it has progressively gotten worse.......... now they are showing lesbians and marijuana like it is ok and a way of life. It has stuck in my head and can't even stand to watch commercials b/c satan has perverted everything.........what goes in comes out and thats 1 boundary I have set in place for my children and self."

"Andy, I love your perspective! I am just wondering what if there was a Network that only reported good news, news about a successful company, news about kind people that no notices, marriages that are still together, despite all the struggles, families that are making a difference in the world, you get the picture, how big would their audience be? I really personally think it would surprise all of us, cause people are tired of junk news. I believe it could change our world! It would replace alot of that fear, with faith and trust in people and companies once again. Wish someone would take that risk and give us the good news. Thanks Andy for all your books. They are changing my world and I am telling every one about them."