From time to time OH and I decide only to watch our local and regional news and switch off or change side everytime the national news comes on... Océane stabbed to death by a father of two last weekend, Agnès' found dead and burnt today and a classmate in custody, a 50 year old who killed his sister (they lived in the same house) mid week because she kept waking him up in the night. It's getting to the stage where not a day goes past without a horrific headline. I know it must be the same in the UK and elsewhere but do you keep watching as part of your duty to keep yourself "informed" or have you too started turning over/off when it gets too much?
Not meant to be a negative comment but OH and I were discusing it again this moring whilst BFM TV were going into too much detail... :-O
and apart from the policeman shot in the head in Vitrolles last night, a father killed his 3 year old by putting him in the washing machine... as a father it makes me feel sick and confirms my thoughts - the world's going completely mad!
Quite agree Ben, great fan of local TV - had two presenters from France 3 Quercy Rouergue as stagiaires when I was teaching at the CCI, in fact we tended to watch France 3 most of the time but now with the tnt we often just want to know what's going on at any time of the day and BFM's there for that (but you can't keep it on for more than 15-30 min as it does your head in!) Yes it's that time of year too but isn't it always, I'm not saying France is any worse than the UK or anywhere else but it does make me laugh when I see people saying "and it's so safe hear, nothing ever happens, there's no crime..."
First of all, quit watching BFM; they're recycling the news every 10 minutes or so. You might get depressed just watching that for an hour. And then again it's that dark, moody season of autumn, getting into winter which leads people to do the most horrific things to their once-loved ones....
For the rest I'll watch the 12-13 edition of the news on FR3, local and (inter)national news plus the weather for your region. What can one ask for more?
Agree what you say about the violence and effects in films but you can choose to watch or not watch a film. the news is something that is part of daily life (for me at least) and I was just voicing the thought that it's a mad bad old world out there... since writing this morning I've heard about the 13 year old who raped a 6 year old... and I haven't sat down to watch the news properly yet!
sorry wrote too much and my computer can't count characters only words!!
The scary stuff on TV was Quatermass and even my Granny used to grab Grandpa's hand - the sort of thing she would NEVER d in public - so it must have been something reay scary this grey blobby stuff. Dixon of Dock Green used to solve all sorts of crimes with only a bike with a weak headlight and his truncheon which he rarely used; the latter I mean. Never was there need for ketchup dousing. He expained and we visualized.
My theory is that in the same way as ports people can run twice as fast now as they did in 1920, people also need to be shocked twice as much before they can "enjoy" the kind of films and series we are having shoved down our throats by the powers that be on TV netwrks. The difference between the honor element of greeks and romans fighting with swords just doesn't do it for todays viewer.
My year of news abstinence in fact became 3 , then having found a marvellous bi-lingual job in NATO in Paris I was horrified to find out we were going to up-stumps 3 months later thrown out by De Gaulle and sent to Belgium to shock the (then) quiet market town and demoralize the Belgians with our short Biba skirts, sports cars, Naffi rations and Parisian moral code! Thinking about it I think we caused more rapes than car crashes.
I think I'm off at a tangent - apologies!
Before considering these ugly films, I think it's worth thinking about the difference between the story related on the radio, shown in papers and viewed on TV.
Didn't most adolescents awkwardness encompass refusing to read the parents' bourgeois crap papers or watch the (state-controlled propaganda). I am talking about the days when TV and radio were more or less at war. You can talk about the most gruesome events on the radio but nothing beats weeping fathers struggling through the crowds with grievously injured children or Dr House's lot doing another Black and Decker cranium op.
I gave up all "news" for a year aged around 16. I was of course wearing my CND medallion under my vest just in case there was anyne worth impressing outside the pub. I thin the big deal was closing Suez Canal and the 1960's Bin Laden was called Nasser and looked just like the hunky singers like Frankie Vaughan on the 6.5 special. ( I know I'm dating myself here but can anyone else remember the era. )
Hi Ruth, yes there's very little international news unless it's about the french abroad, although I've been institutionalised and didn't even think about that :-O as for the gory details, since starting the discussion another youngster has been shot dead in Toulouse and yesterday a jeweller in Cannes was "executed" shot in the head and these are just two of the various stories of the week - it's a mad world out there!
bong dimanche et à +
I do the same thing, Andrew copaing. National news (on all chanels) has become very much like Paris Match, or France Dimanche.
Who needs any gory details, when one is already mourning the death of a young girl, boy, old man/woman by some sick person (who was not followed medically the way he/she should have been)?
Also, I'm getting sick of getting mainly French news and on the sideline some international news. France is NOT the centre of the world, even though many French do think so :)
Thanks ladies, we turned the news off while having lunch today sick of hearing about the latest rape and murder and didn't want the kids to hear any more either, my OH is a teacher in a similar school and has some pretty dodgy "cas sociaux" - makes her/us start asking ourselves some serious questions!
The Plague Dogs was a great book, about time for a re-read, hope its on Kindle.
As for the grim information, we don't have a working TV at the moment so it's great to miss out on all of it. When we do have TV - we simply don't watch the news, it is too depressing. Bit ostrich like I know but if something important comes up I can always catch up on 'tinternet'.
SFN keeps me up to date on most stuff that's relevant in my life (plus APCE and Twitter)anyway.
Yes I know what you mean Andrew; it's got to the point where I have to ask our 6yr old to leave the room when the news comes on. Am reading 'The Plague dogs' by Richard Adams at the moment- one of the characters is a press journalist - all his paper was interested in was what sells ie sensation and I think much of the media is like this. anyway, have a good, 'news' free day!
Just as London sees itself as the centre of the World and so on and so forth: USA, China, India, etc et etc ad infinitum. It’s called nationalism or racism depending which side of the fence you’re sitting on!
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@ROUSSELOT_Joyce_Ann “just as London sees itself as the centre…”? 
Time to ponder the age-old metaphor of Indra’s Net, an infinite net on which, at the point of intersection of every strand, is strung a mirror, each mirror reflecting all the other numberless mirrors on the net. Each mirror is thus at the centre of the net: the centre being everywhere at the same time, and ‘nowhere’ .
Look at this… 
https://pin.it/5vssDgL
Whoa Peter…way too deep…but,
you should broadcast to the nation.
Perhaps we’d talk about something over than C-19