The Diet that Really Works! Try The News Diet!

Last updated on: February 15, 2017 at 6:00 am by Molly Wingate

The Diet that Really Works! Try The News Diet! 2017-02-14T19:54:22-06:00 Molly Wingate

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I have been on a news diet for about a month, and I have gained at least one hour of sleep a night. Less news in my life brings less confusion, less double checking odd sounding stories, and less time trying to sort it all out with my friends and family. On this diet, by the time I read the headlines for everything from the New York Times to National Public Radio to FOX News, the stories have usually been sorted out. The fake news has been identified, called out, and now there is another huff and puff about how it was reported to begin with. I just skip the whole event. So far, I haven’t missed a big story that matters.

The News Diet

I ingest all my news in accordance with my news diet, and right now it is working for me. I spend a maximum of 45 minutes a day attending to the news. This includes listening to NPR, reading stories on the news page I designed for myself on my notebook, clicking on stories from trusted Facebook friends, talking to someone about the political stories du jour, and it even includes Stephen Colbert’s nightly monologue.

Colbert is very clear about his show’s relationship to the news programming, “That is the news, this is entertainment.” Nonetheless, his monologues are political, and they “count” on my diet. I just walk away as my husband’s belly laughs echo throughout the house.

President Trump’s ascension has precipitated toxic levels of frustration at the news. That there are fake news stories in the media, social and traditional, is crazy making. That I have to double check stories friends share on Facebook is maddening. But it is my job if I really want to know the truth. On the surface, fake news stories take our eyes off reality and tells us something else. That is not good. Then fake news distracts us with requiring more research to check out its veracity. This is kind of fun for research nerds, of which I am one, but this research takes time and attention away from what else is happening.

Fake news is exhausting. It is very small reward when, in the name of truth, I prove that a story is truly wackadoodle. Fake news can wear me down. And if I have years of fake news stories complete with “alternative facts,” I could become quite cynical about all news, all reporting, even the good stuff. I will cease to be the good citizen who calls shenanigans early and often.

Quaker Simplicity

My solution is to use what I’ve learned from Quakers about simplicity. Because attending to the news brings me complication and chaos, I don’t listen to the news in the background as I drive, cook or mess around in the yard. I read headlines and a few stories from a variety of news sources with coffee in the morning, and then I stop until the evening when I listen to local public radio stories.

A few F(f)riends who used to listen to the news all day tell me that they are listening to more music these days, and they are glad of it. A friend and I stopped to chat in the produce aisle the other day. He had remembered that he hadn’t been able to watch the news while George W. Bush was president, either. It made him crazy. “Huh, I remember that, too.” The Trump presidency seems to be a whole new level of frustration, but I realized I survived before on a news diet. I can do it again. And I have more time for sleeping. It is that simple.

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