Sometimes, people who know what I do ask me what I read for news, or what they should read. And I can't recall all the answers I've given over the years, but, in recent months, I feel like this has been clarified, to some degree, for me.
Read more local news. Read fewer stories from national outlets on national issues. Yes, fewer. Because I'm betting a lot of you read a lot of national news on national issues. Well, cut that consumption down by 25%. Up your consumption of local, state and regional news, from local sources, by 25%.
I suspect you'll be more informed than you were, and little less vexed.
Some local news, I'll admit, isn't as sexy. It won't send you on a 30-minute (or some cases, daylong) pinwheel of emotions and debate. You know what? That's OK sometimes. Every day doesn't need to be battle inside your head triggered by an Internet article. Log off. Put the phone down. (And my wife tell you I need to take my own advice here.)
Set the pinwheel down for a day, pick up a local paper, and see what's going on three miles away. Or three streets away.
Usually, every local daily paper has national news. And it's usually pretty much the nuts and bolts of what you need to know. Sometimes it's "wire" copy. It won't include all the emotional appeals tailored to trigger your anger or self-righteousness, all the outage or anonymous sources or rumors, but it generally puts you in the "informed" category. Plus, it doesn't derail your day.
And usually, alongside the national news, there might even be some world news - some briefs or whatnot. And so, on top of being informed about national concerns, you'll learn a little about something overseas, too.
And then there are whole sections of a local paper devoted to what's going on around you. This is incredibly challenging stuff to read, sometimes, because you drive over three streets, you look for a divided America, and you just see people cleaning out their cars. Sometimes, the local news is kind of boring. A gas station closes. Property valuations are down. A zoning ordinance is in play. Somebody put on a play. Small-scale stuff.
Read more of that. Yep, more of it.
25% more of that, and 25% less of the national stuff you read all the time. Maybe, instead of four stories on a certain politician you do or don't like, you read...2. Just 2. Or, instead of a full hour of a news talk show that analyzes what happened earlier in the week, you watch half.
And since I work for a local paper, maybe it seems a little self-serving, but it's not. Really it isn't. I probably read as much national news as anyone. I read local news, too, and I find myself reading it more and more, not because I want to withdraw from the national conversation...but because I'm trying to choose to not let it control my life as I raise kids and have a marriage and keep a job and make an impact in the lives of others. I don't shut it out...I just consume...less of the national stuff.
That's my take for you, too. Go on a national news diet. Not a national news fast - a diet. Not because it's a bad product. Not because I don't believe in many national journalists - I do. I really do. It's important now, more than ever, for me to reiterate the importance of journalism in America.
But journalism is practiced at the local level - and practiced magnificently - there, as well. What's more, you'll learn things. What's more, the things you learn you can have direct impact on, too.
And when you read something local you like - share it. Share that instead of the latest missive from some independent blogger who spends all day stoking the rage of one side or the other. Make that conscious choice. Even better, share non-political things every so often.
Mix in a salad of local news.
