Bad News

[Shannow]

It's a bit of a shocking indictment of the media at present.

My 4 year old has decided to draw us a newspaper every couple of nights, and it basically reflects the "news" that she's picked up through the day.

She starts with the "bad news", such as last night was a three yer old clinging to the roof of her father's truck for a fair distance.

We always get her to temper her newspapers with good news, whether it's stuff she's heard on the news, or something good that happened during the day, or she heard in the neighbourhood.

It's been obvious that most of what she gets from the idjit box is negative, or sensational.

Today it comes out that our state Premier (allegedly the most powerful bloke in the state) won't let his kids watch prime time T.V. without supervision.

While that's not a bad thing, and parents should supervise what their kids absorb, for the Premier to come out and say that things aren't good is a bit of a first...this guy can spin anything in a positive light.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/tv--radio/the-prime-time-bloodbath/2007/06/16/1181414607815.html

We've even got "family" oriented shows in the 7 to 7:30 timeslots (I know 5 year olds that go to bed at 9PM) which show teenage (15/16) relationships "progressing to the next level"

I should prolly follow the lead of a guy I hugely respect, who has a great family with tremendous support for and from each other, and ditch the idjit box altogether

 

[sprintman]

ASk any family who has and they wouldn't have it back.

 

[NJC]

For a few yrs between 1999 and 2001 we were putting our TV away for periods of time (only to come out during Olympics/Hockey playoffs). Summer 2001 we gave it away until this yr ... we have it back but only as a DVD player.

It's one of the best things we've done.

 

[OriginHacker21]

Agreed, other than the history channel and NASCAR/Formula One - TV is worthless. I do buy/rent a lot of DVDs and watch them on my computer. I can't stand commercials at all. Don't know how people put up with them.

My family grew me up on Cartoons (real cartoons: Roadrunner, bugs bunny, tom & jerry), Gilligans Island, Andy Griffith, Beverly Hill Billies, Sesame Street, and Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. Later on they let me watch Star Trek in junior high and high school.

Other than that, they didn't let us watch anything else.

No idea what I'm gunna do if I ever have kids. Something I've never thought about before. Having worked with kids a lot (3rd grade to 6th grade) I do see how TV really influences them.

 

[Gary Allan]

In our almost empty nest, the tv gets very little mileage. The Weather Channel is used a good bit (my wife was the first WC fan that I ever knew existed when we bought her jeep)...but it's mostly idle. The boredom killing business is getting very boring. My daughter tends to thrive on (alleged) neo-healthy mellow dramas like "Gilmore Girls" or such things ..along with some music channel stuff. I can't complain when she's an honors student and has managed to avoid any "troubles" of substance. She also works a good bit ..so that limits the time for brain drain. Some people just don't bump the walls of acceptable behavior in spite of media influence that would send them in another direction.

 

[moribundman]

Even more relevant now than back in 1988:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THlJYix6r3g