I can't recall a single time, ever, that the news gave me actionable information that I didn't already get from other sources. Basically, when you subtract all

I can't recall a single time, ever, that the news gave me actionable information that I didn't already get from other sources. Basically, when you subtract all the feel-good stories and all the scare stories, what is left is the weather, information that affects my commute and extraordinary events. The weather i get from looking out the window in the morning. If something affects my commute i have to try to make it anyway, so knowing ahead of time just gives me more stress. And extraordinary events will be told to me in other ways. Taking your examples: (1) nobody should need to tell you to protect your kids, (2) you should always vote, (3) you can see whether you need a raincoat in the morning. Basically, the actionable content of the news is exactly zero. When i watch it, i don't expect to take action, i expect to be informed about the zeitgeist so i can gossip along with everybody else. We like to gossip about bad things more than good things, so if the news tells us only good things, it's not giving us what we want.