And here is the news....

I no longer listen to the news.

I used to read The Times, it could almost have still lay claim to being "The Thunderer".

Ownership changes in the early 80s, a move to somewhere almost eternally right of Thatcher and the introduction of bingo hammered successive nails in that coffin.

Now it even has a tabloid format last time I saw it in a newspaper shop.

For a while I retreated under the covers of The Sunday Times but I could not really justify the cost, weight and wastage this mighty tome represented weekly based on how much of it I actually read.

So newsprint was left behind. It was replaced by the 24hour news for a period of time, but it seemed in a 24hour global village only about 5minutes of it was worth reporting every hour (usually a tube strike) and this was just repeated on what amounted to a continual loop, only live.

The fact that there was some sort of global catastrophe on the sub-continent was probably yesterdays news (if at all) and what really interested the viewers was the state of British Rail.

Apart from the pretence you were actually being well informed of events global when you were not, the news was/is unrelentingly depressing. Now its usually read by an autocutie with a faint smile (if its really serious, otherwise cheesy grin). If their career takes off they will appear on a tedious show holding an baby ape in a nappy telling us about endangered species.

If it doesn't take off then its reality show or gameshow for them. Same cheesy grin required.

So on the basis of being ill-informed, biased as to what you are being told, and more recently being treated like a 4 year old being read a bedtime story I have given up on all forms of forms of traditional news media.

And the news cycle gets ever quicker, a story might last 24 hours but you are rarely going to hear the conclusion of a story, we have moved on before that happens.

Most media nowadays is training us to have shorter and shorter attention spans, its good for their business.

Its all a pretence, they pretend you are being informed, you pretend you care.