Hey friends! Happy Thursday.
According to The People Who Decide Such Things, today is National Cook a Sweet Potato Day.
The sweet potato is the state vegetable of North Carolina.
You’re welcome, rest of the world.
The Part Where There’s an Essay: A Few Thoughts About the News
It’s a Presidential election year, which means many of you might be paying more attention to the news in the coming months. One question that my husband and I field from time to time is “How do you guys get your news?” There’s a lot to say about this question, all of which has been covered by people better studied than me. But here are four thoughts that tend to guide how we consume news:
News isn’t Important.
News is Important.
Slow is Better Than Fast.
Long is Better Than Short.
News Isn’t Important
Most “news” that might get handed to you daily isn’t news. It’s filler. I vividly remember the days the headlines began scrolling across the bottom of all of our news channels, not just the twenty-four-hour ones. It was the week after 9/11; most channels put the rolling headlines up to supply the steady stream of information that might be necessary in a time of national emergency. However, they never went away.
Whether it be a network station, a website, or cable news, these channels have time to fill. They’re going to try to keep you watching or reading. To filter the noise, try asking yourself if what you’re reading or watching will be noteworthy in a year. Then reduce it to a month. Then a week.
In addition, some of the news isn’t news at all; it’s “analysis” or “opinion.” This year, I’ve noticed an uptick in news sites featuring lead headlines linking to “analysis.” They aren’t the same thing.
Maybe the most insulting trend recently is what news sources label “breaking news.” It’s a ridiculous example, but true: yesterday some breaking news was that a certain Football Player Whose Name Starts with T landed in an airplane on the same continent as A Singer Whose Name Also Starts with T. This in no way affects my life. You can enjoy it if you want to. But it is not worthy of a breaking news announcement.
News Is Important
If 2020 taught us anything at all, it’s that our news sources are important. We came to a place where people’s grasp of reality was compromised due to which news sources they took in.
It’s not the complete answer to the problem, but we get what we pay for. If you believe a news source is doing a good job—and there are many ways to judge that—you should subscribe using your hard-earned money. If we continue to expect freebie news, we will get freebie quality.
Slow is Better Than Fast
We get a newspaper in our driveway each day. Compare the task of the writers and editors of this paper to the task given to the writers and editors of your favorite news website.
The newspaper staff has a deadline; they have to work quickly. But they have a handful of hours to interview sources, track down leads, and get a decent picture of what’s happening. They have an established hierarchy of editors and accountability. Certainly, this establishment has biases and weaknesses, but racing to be first online isn’t one of them.
The website staff has no deadline. The deadline is “now,” or “before that other site posts it.” It’s a race. Without a doubt, this introduces sloppiness and substandard quality. It brings on the possibility of a half-told story—which is a danger in any kind of journalism, even the slow kind. The urgent pace of internet news only makes it more difficult to tell the full story.
What’s more, some “news” sources have no interest in adhering to any kind of journalistic standards whatsoever. They’d rather deal in rumor and speculation. This occurs on both ends of the political spectrum.
Long is Better Than Short
Of course, I’m going to tell you to read your Bible to help with this, but I’m a little shocked at how quickly we humans (myself included) can leap from eternal perspective to panicking about current events.
Sometimes when people ask us how we take in news, we tell them to stop. Just stop taking in the news. If you need to know something, you will probably find out eventually. But you’d be surprised at what you don’t need to know.
We would rather you read a book about history, explore some ideas about civics, or tackle a work of fiction that will draw your eyes to nobler ideas. To put current events in perspective, use your reading habits to draw a bigger picture of what’s happening.
That’s not a complete picture of how we think about news, but I hope it gets you started if you have this question, too.
For the Anglophiles
It came to my attention this week that the following letter exists. It was in response to a letter to the Crown, asking for her to take the USA back into the fold (check the date).
Reads & Listens of the Week
Here’s a long one from David Brooks: How to Have a Sad, Lonely, Angry, and Mean Society. “I confess I still cling to the old faith that culture is vastly more important than politics or some pre-professional training in algorithms and software systems. I’m convinced that consuming culture furnishes your mind with emotional knowledge and wisdom; it helps you take a richer and more meaningful view of your own experiences; it helps you understand, at least a bit, the depths of what’s going on in the people right around you.”
Here’s an interview with Drew and Ellie Holcomb all about their marriage. I really loved it.
There are some intriguing suggestions here for “Sowing Anachronism.” “…in an age where technology has wholly reformed our imagination, visible models of anachronism serve an essential role in reminding us that slowness and effort make us more human.”
This is a good perspective: Productivity is About Faithfulness.
is doing a glorious series on Oxford authors’ gardens. Check it out if such things strike your fancy. Here’s the introduction.Have courage for the great sorrows of life, and patience for the small ones. And when you have finished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake. - Victor Hugo
Those are some good points, which highlight the complexity and importance of our news! We are what we read: sobering thought.
And thank you again for your support! :)