Turn off the 24-hour news.

My husband loves the television, and whether he is actively watching it or not, he wants the TV on in our living room and in our bedroom. He wakes up every morning, opens the curtains, turns on the TV in the bedroom, turns on the TV in the living room, takes the dogs outside, and then, he brings me coffee in bed. I appreciate everything he does for me and our family, but I have grown to abhor the television news. My husband loves it, but I hate it.

I figured out recently that listening to the news constantly causes great stress for me. I don’t need to know everything that’s going on in the world all day. I certainly don’t need to hear politics all day. Sometimes, I prefer something that isn’t based in reality. So you know what I did? I walked into the living room, picked up the remote control, and turned on The Jeffersons. My husband was taken aback and asked what I was doing. I responded, “I’m turning off the news. I can’t listen to it anymore. You can watch it upstairs in the game room or in the bedroom, but it’s not going to be on in the living room anymore. It stresses me out. I’m turning on some mindless TV that makes me laugh.” And you know what? He didn’t even argue. He simply went into another room with his laptop and turned on the news in there. Problem solved.

Personally, I think 24-hour news did some damage to our collective psyche. Remember when Walter Cronkite delivered the news? He didn’t interject his opinion. He just told us what was happening. However, when 24-hour news channels had to start filling up 24 hours of television programming, we started getting more opinions from “journalists.” And you know what they say about opinions…everybody has one. Once we started hearing everyone’s opinion on TV, it changed the game. Some people started taking those opinions as fact. I truly believe it started dividing the population. Some are brainwashed by one side of the aisle, and others are brainwashed by the other side.

Therefore, there will be no more daytime news if I’m in the room. I will change channels in the blink of an eye. Maybe I’ll watch/listen to The Jeffersons. Maybe I’ll tune into MeTV and watch Perry Mason (quality programming right there), The Andy Griffith Show, or Green Acres. Maybe I’ll turn on some Nickelodeon or HGTV. Or maybe I’ll just play some music. But I refuse to listen to politicians and pundits all day long.

Not gonna do it.

I think I will be happier. I think all of us would be happier if we would step away from the news channels for a while. Maybe we would form our own opinions based on our own moral compasses and ethics. Maybe we would all get along a lot better.