No CNN for my babies

I have concretely made the decision to not allow my children to watch the news. Primarily the local news and CNN type programs. I began considering this decision around the one year anniversary of Operation Iraqi freedom. Reason? The news provides a really fucked up perception of the world. I would rather my children watch some rated R programming than watch the news. I can keep them updated on things going on in the world. In 24 years I know little actual facts about why certain things are occurring in the world as a result of news programming.

Let me state for the record that I am disgusted at the United States recent field day over Prince Harry serving on the front lines in Afghanistan. I feel that the news would successfully sabotage much of the top secret materials of this country if given the opportunity for the sake of ratings.

I randomly state that I believe children are innocent and develop evil thoughts and prejudices as a result of exposure to these ideologies. Quite frankly I do not see the moral benefit of my children knowing that an officer was shot across town, or that mother drowned her kids her kids and then killed herself. I remember being scared to walk to my bus stop because I saw on the morning news that a bank robber was on the loose. And while I was 17 when September 11th happened I will never forget the image of that second plane crashing into the building during the live broadcasting. If I was a child I probably would have been scared of sky-scrapers and planes.

I know I wont be able to protect them from all the evils of the world and I don't want to shelter them "pleasant ville" style. But I do want them to have a purer, self created perception of the world. Because its really not that bad.