An old friend I haven’t seen for some time emailed me this week.
A former award-winning journalist, he asked, ‘Are you all surviving the lockdown?’ followed by, ‘How do you read what’s happening?’
I fear my reply may have disappointed him:
I’m reading/watching as little of the news as I can. I don’t think the media is helping matters at the moment. Decision-makers will make mistakes but I’m sure everyone is doing their best in difficult circumstances and I’m not keen on the ‘Gotcha’ attitude of many journalists and broadcasters - or the army of armchair experts!
Of course, I’m largely aware of what’s going on - it’s impossible to avoid all the news - but I have stopped listening to Five Live’s incessant chatter on the subject and yesterday I even stopped buying the Daily Mail, a paper I have read for almost 50 years.
My wife insists on listening to the Today programme (it acts as an alarm clock at 6.00am) but I insist on the sound being turned down so low (“Alexa, volume down!”) it’s difficult to hear, especially with a pillow over one ear (mine not hers).
The World at One passes me by and I only listen to PM if I’m in the car, which I rarely am these days.
Credit to PM’s Evan Davis, though. Calm and thoughtful, he’s one of the few presenters who doesn’t repeatedly interrupt his guests. God forbid, he may actually be listening to them.
If there is a five o’clock news conference at Number 10 I may watch that but I switch off as soon as journalists start asking their inane and often deliberately provocative questions.
Most of them are clearly more interested in a sensational headline than informing the public of the latest developments in a sane and rational manner.
So I rarely watch the news and I NEVER watch Newsnight.
Am I missing out? I don’t think so. It’s like muting or blocking someone on Twitter. They’re still there but you no longer have to listen to them.
It’s quite liberating actually and life is far more tolerable.