Whenever I visit friends and family who watch more TV than I do, I’m re-confronted with the toxicity of network and cable news programs, even on supposedly liberal channels like MSNBC. The emphasis these shows place on toxic personalities like President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein and the all-too-common mass shootings in the US is not only depressing and disempowering, I believe it’s skewing the thought and behavior of Americans in negative directions. I think there would be fewer mass shootings, even without the strict gun control we obviously need, if the news didn’t make heroes, however negative, out of the shooters. Trump is also given way too much attention, his every lying, self-aggrandizing tweet and statement dominating the headlines and endlessly commented upon. We know by now that his statements and actions aren’t always followed by concrete action, so what’s the purpose of all this attention? Just as during the 2016 presidential campaign, it encourages him and his followers, and makes him seem like a real option for political leadership, rather than just the “star” of his own bizarre, un-reality show. The mass media have been and are allowing Trump’s surreal, insane, and completely uninformed unreality to become our reality – clearly a bad thing for our country and our individual psyches, including those of our children.

There are a lot of other things the news media could and should be focusing on: climate change; cruel, destructive, and unnecessary wars, many of them mounted or aided and abetted by the US; national and worldwide poverty caused by the corporate capitalist system and the “Washington consensus;” and uplifting news about the good things many people in the US and around the world are doing. These kinds of stories would stimulate needed discussion about national and world problems and provide a positive example for the children and teenagers exposed, even tangentially, to the mass media.

If you want a proper emphasis on what’s happening, including a lot more actual facts, you have to go a bit out of your way. I hope you will. Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now,” available on public radio, cable TV, and online at democracynow.org is one of my favorites, and her show will point you in the direction of other good sources of news and information. Stop polluting your mind and soul with ad-saturated mass media “news,” catering to the lowest common denominator because all these outlets care about is selling us their products, and get adult viewpoints featuring real potential solutions to the all-too-serious problems facing us (with no ads).

Capitalism is killing us, sending us and the rest of the natural world we depend on down the tubes, and TV news is one of its major tools. Expose yourself to alternative thinking for the good of all of us.