Ponder, we always enjoy a good laugh at that too a.

Back on topic, studies in the US and Canada have found that people who are actually interested in the news (as opposed to people who just watch it out of habit) are going to the internet to find out what's really going on. If you depend entirely on one source of news it's a fair bet you're only getting one side of the story. The same item from a few different sources often gets you a lot closer to the whole truth, which is what a well-informed person is ideally after.

Commercial news media is more of a misnomer every day. Why they bother to keep calling it news is a mystery a.

I couldn't agree with you more! The amount of coverage given to a ship lodged in the sand off a Newcastle beach was ridiculous! I find it is best to only watch the "real" news on either SBS or the ABC. Don't get me started on the so called current affairs shows and even 60 minutes is in the business of sensationalising most of their stories. Generally though, the news coverage is so depressing, it is barely worth watching it at all. Let's have some good news coverage for a change!

"Current Affairs" programmes were perfectly represented by that long-gone satire "Frontline", with the commercial news broadcasts not far behind.

I remember one of the observations during that show where it was said that current affairs is not about news - it is about emotions. We want to cheer for the battler, depise the child molester and so on. The use of existing social prejudices was also well illustrated on several occasions.

Nowadays, there will usually be story about somebody being ripped off, something about rampant bureaucracy, something uplifting, the latest fad diet, and always - something to fear.

Generally, there is little real information provided - just entertainment and the illusion that we have been well-informed about what is happening in the real world.

I don’t think media employees have the faintest idea what interests the public. They whip themselves into a frenzy about what they think is interesting, while the rest of us put ourselves into a coma until their screeching ceases and something we do want to hear or see comes along.

Alison Sweeney is so right!

One, brief, radio news bulletin in the morning is enough for anyone. And, we don’t need to hear guesses about the weather – we already know what it’s like.

Television news is crap: more writing on the screen than in a book, plus the stupid, distracting and irritating channel logos. Not to mention the dogs reading the news believing that they are-so-attractive instead of brushing up on pronunciation

If you really, really want to see dreadful news you have to go outside the cities and watch any episode of WIN News, in any region of Australia, any weekday.

The Canberra WIN News, which runs 6 till 6.30, is enough to make the 9 News broadcast from Sydney look intellectual. there is approximately 30 seconds of anything which may actually be "news" then the rest of the bulletin is whatever drivel they could knock together about how the Red Hill knitting circle's Dulcie has just knitted her two hundredth scarf for a local footy team.

I recently realised, to my great surprise, that I hadn't turned on my TV for a week. I'm not anti-television, I think TV as a technology is great. But there was just nothing on during that week which enticed me to have a look. The news is better online, and Big Brother can't compete with a decent book and a glass of red.

You've basically got 2 choices, SBS TV or ABC radio. And for current affairs, ABC Radio's AM or PM programmes.

What's most interesting is listening to the coverage of a news story that you are actually personally involved in. They (every channel) almost always misquote or misrepresent the details.

I quit my job in commercial television over 10 years ago when they told me they had to increase the lingerie stories in the current affairs programmes because that's what the viewers wanted to see!

The Journalists at the commercial station I worked at often hadn't completed their jounralism degree and so could only be titled 'reporter'. These 'only just 20-somethings' (because the younger they are the better they look on camera) had no education in history, politics, finance or philosophy. All unnecessary for the job apparently. They can only handle what they understand, hence: Pasha Bulka.

The biggest joke was the retired sports stars becoming sports reporters. Everybody wanted to know when Let's Elope was going to start doing the racing news.

You can just do like my family and throw out the tv. You're really not missing anything. And all the rest you can buy on DVD before it hits the tv screens.