I watch the news ~

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I watch the news.
I not only watch the news, I listen to the news.
And I read news from a variety of sources.

I live in a small country town outside of Sydney yet each day I read the Washington Post, the New York Times, the BBC World service (off their app), the Sydney Morning Herald, and Wired magazine. I get emailed newsletters from them all too.

In the morning while I have my shower I listen to the breakfast show on Radio National on the ABC, or the ABC’s radio current affairs show AM. Of an evening I watch the first half of SBS news. It gives me a global perspective. 

I don’t watch Fox news, commercial television news, I don’t read any Murdoch newspapers. And I don’t get my news from social media, or from Google.

Now, you might say that I live in a left wing echo chamber and you might be right. So what? I believe I’m capable of discerning between what’s news and what’s commentary.

I was trained as a journalist.

I studied journalism at university before getting a cadetship at the ABC. I completed my three year cadetship and then joined the ABC’s flagship current affairs show This Day Tonight. For a brief period I worked on Four Corners before moving from current affairs to documentaries. After twelve years working as a journalist and documentarian I moved into independent filmmaking.

Why am I telling you this?

Because the world is going through a time of unparalleled change, and I believe it’s critically important that I keep up with things, to know what’s going on and why, so that I can make informed decisions that affect not only me but my loved ones, my country and the world.

Also, how can I ever hope to contribute creatively if I don’t have any social or political context?

I don’t understand people who say they don’t watch the news.

There’s a lot of so-called new-age people who say that. They think this somehow protects them from all the negative energy that they perceive to be out there.

What a load of crap.

It’s like saying you’re going to cross the road with your eyes shut because you don’t want to get hit by a car.

Burying your head in the sand isn’t going to change things. What’s going to change things is action based on informed choice. 

There’s many who say they don’t believe the mainstream media. They talk about fake news. I’ve worked as a journalist and what I know is this – good journalists are driven by a strong desire to expose contradiction and hypocrisy. That’s what gets them out of bed each day.

The media conglomerates might have their agendas, such as the Murdoch empire, but if you are selective in what news you ingest, you can remain factually informed.

History is happening around us every day, and it’s being chronicled by the news. I saw floods in subways in New York the other night. It looked straight out of a disaster movie. This is climate change in action.

Like all the bushfires.
Like the destruction of the magnificent Barrier Reef.

I saw the storming of the Capital in Washington, live on TV as it was happening. Who would ever have thought that was possible?

America got out of the Vietnam war because of the TV coverage. The visual news reporting, and the reporting of the My Lai massacre were instrumental in creating a groundswell movement stateside that forced political change.

I read somewhere recently that democracy is under threat because it requires diligence and effort to maintain democratic ideals, and a lot of people aren’t prepared to put in the effort.

If they watched the news maybe they would…

3 thoughts on “I watch the news ~”

  1. Well said Bill. I get very frustrated with people who mouth off (often) wrong facts about international affairs when I know all they read is the local rag.

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  2. Good Morning, Bill!

    At least it’s Saturday morning here in Roseville, CA. So it’s probably the middle of your night in Mudgee—well, for most Mudgeeans (?), but for you it’s probably only an hour or so before you get up early on Sunday. Hopefully, it’s a good morning for you as well then!

    I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading your blog first thing this morning. I’ve had my hands full with so many things I’ve had to take care of in the past couple of months that I haven’t had the luxury of writing more personal responses to posts and such by my friends. I knew your most recent blog that I found in my emails (I usually organize them during my breakfast so I know what I need to do with them later when I make time for them) was going to be exceptional, because I knew I had to read it immediately. Not only was it exceptional, but inspiring. I hope many people get a chance to read it because it’s a clarion call from one who is not only an expert in the field, but also one who lives by intuition.

    Most people seem to not realize that it’s quite simple to tell if what or how they are thinking is due to their connection with Spirit and their own inner truth or to them becoming a hostage to their ego. The ego always issues some form of the ultimatum, “Either-Or”. Either you read whatever is written out there and believe it hook, line, and sinker OR you have to not read anything written because they will take you down. Either you have to take all news as gospel truth OR throw all of it out the window as lies. Spirit on the other hand is all inclusive, “Both-And”. News, like science, deals with facts and information. Good news, like good science, gives us “just the facts, ma’am”. Hahaha…. Great news, like great science, delivers those facts in a way that we all can understand in a context that we can put into the perspective of a larger picture and in a way that makes it interesting and enjoyable to discover. I’ve felt that true journalism is science, art and craft that provides us with a deeper glimpse into what is happening in the world around us so that we can personally and collectively communicate and cooperate with one another with compassion and wisdom.

    Spirit and intuition deal with the ultimate truth, not facts. As souls incarnated here, we need science and journalism and the technology and the media through which we can all inform ourselves to navigate our way through this labyrinth we call the world with intuition back to truth. Being in communication with the rest of the world enables each of us to live our lives true to our own inner truth.

    I enjoyed experiencing more of the journalist in you, Bill. Your education and training in journalism may have gotten you started on that track, but it’s obvious that the years of experience you had in a variety of ways made you the true journalist that you are. As well, that prepared you to become the wise teacher that you are.

    Thank you for your inspiration!

    I hope you and Jennifer are doing fabulously.

    Good Day!

    With gratitude and love,

    Michael

    PS – I was delayed in sending this email off due to taking care of a time-sensitive matter: Raphaelle needed me to be her hair stylist this morning before her hair dried! Hahahaha…… Yes, I am preparing for my new career as Michael Baboon, the world-famous hair stylist (not to be confused with Vidal Sassoon)! This has been another one of the perks of “sheltering-in-place” for the past 18 months.

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