No News Is Good News?

[Duque de Bragança]

I avoid comment sections.

That's the trick. I have a couple of browser extensions that hide them, works pretty well.

Lemonde.fr hides them for non-subscribers which is perfect. 

Avoiding 24-hour news channels is easy, as well.

[Bauer]

Yes the 24 hour news channels, social media, and comment sections are the best things to avoid.

Also the standard associate press stuff repeats itself with little insight.  The best sources are the ones you pay for that actually put on their thinking caps.

[Savonarola]

Have you considered not listening/watching or reading about the news for an extended time?

If so what did you find were the benefits and costs?

Is there a moral position as regards being engaged with the news?

Yes, I just gave up reading the news for Lent.  The thing that really surprised me is how little changed in that time (between early March and late April.)  The wars are still going on, Trump is still making unreasonable demands on Zelensky, Trump's on again/off again tariffs are still happening, Elon Musk is still running amok, Trump is still pardoning corrupt politicians, Trump and academia are still feuding.  Each news cycle had seemed like a momentous chaotic event when viewing it in real time; but taking a few weeks off it seems the Trump administration is  more like Groundhog's Day.

So the benefit was perspective and certainly a much less stressful life.  The cost was not knowing the exact reason why my 401(k) was taking a beating (though I had a pretty good guess why.)

I do think that there is a responsibility a voting citizen has to be informed; but being hyper-connected wasn't working for me.  It probably would be best to quit reading online news entirely (other than weather reports) and just getting a subscription to The Miami Herald; but I'm not ready to take that step yet.