Turn the channel

Believe it or not, I'm in PR and I don't watch the news. Once in a great while, I have a client with a story and we use the news to spread the word. Most days, that's not the case. So I don't watch the news. I turned off my television to the six and ten o'clock news programs eight years ago. It was after a gradual phasing out and flipping away that eventually led me to turn it off for good.

My kids were little when Bill Clinton was president. I didn't need them hearing about Monica Lewinsky and cigars. "Turn the channel." Around the same time Jon Bonet was killed. We lived in Boulder. She had been one of "our" kids. "Turn the channel." Then on April 20, 1999, just a few months after my dad died, the Columbine massacre happened just an hour down the road. That was the end of television news for me. "Turn the channel."

Not watching the news hasn't curtailed my awareness too much. I listen to the radio and I read the headlines on the internet. I watch BBC on PBS, and sometimes the McNeil News Hour. But mostly I stay informed through my mother -- a TV junkie whose television never gets a rest.

My mom's the one who told me about Virginia Tech. It was Monday around 3:15. I had arrived early to get my son from school, I had a few minutes to kill, so I called my personal anchor. "What's going on?" I asked. Without skipping a beat, she told me about the horrific events in Blacksburg. "Turn the channel," I said. Not a chance.

Now I'll admit that Monday night around 8 p.m. I turned on CNN. I needed to be informed. I wanted to know. But the sadness was unbelievable. And in the middle of it all, there was Paula Zahn -- practically jumping up and down in excitement over the big story she was hosting that night. She didn't look sad. She looked downright elated. Perhaps it was her over-done botox that wouldn't let her scowl. Or maybe it was her cleavage that seemed a bit inappropriate for the occasion. Maybe it was just her enthusiasm for what she was doing -- holding court over a team of reporters who themselves didn't seem so spry. Paula's excitement seemed somehow out of place and inappropriate. Once again, I couldn't watch. As much as I wanted to be informed, as much as I felt an obligation to know what was going on in my country, I couldn't watch TV personalities getting so much enjoyment and so much air time out of others' pain.

"Turn the channel."

Sure, when it comes to news impacting my clients, I'm up to speed. But most of them have businesses that are not affected by Dannilynn's paternity, or murders, or other horrible, sensational, really, really bad news. My life isn't affected by those things. Yours probably isn't either.

"Turn the channel."