Is watching the 24 hour news channel a good idea when you’re convalescing?

February 25, 2013
Posted by Amanda Furness

I don’t know which stable you come from but the recent horsemeat scandal has highlighted to me the effect our current 24 hour media circus can have.  I find that you get drawn in to these closely followed stories, listening in to hourly news bulletins waiting to hear the latest development, who might be affected, who’s responsible for the crisis and how we might prevent it from happening in the future.

I had it reiterated to me, whilst lying on the sofa with the telly on and my brain in neutral recovering from flu recently, that the news channels must love these stories as they can fill hours with them.  What I realised though was that, having spent an entire afternoon listening, you could actually have summed up all that I had learnt in a fairly succinct paragraph and dozing to a film would probably have been more beneficial!

It made me think that perhaps “little and not too often” should be my new mantra when following these high profile news stories.  It’s not that I don’t want to know about all the different elements of the story, I just think I could be as well informed if the hourly “he said, she said’s” were removed and a summary of the real facts was provided in detail.  I hate to say it, as I’m not a fan of football, but similar to a match report.

I put it to my other half when he returned home and stood in the doorway checking that I was ok but ensuring he was out of reach of my germs.

“Well”, he said “it’s an interesting idea but someone got there before you, they called it the News at Ten!”

I know you get over-sensitive when you’re ill but I think sometimes he purposely tries not to pick up the thread of what I’m trying to say.  So I’ve decided that I’ll continue with my new mantra of “little and not too often” on the news front but also use it regarding deep and meaningful conversations with him … as well as towards any form of processed food just to be on the safe side!