Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for January 10, 2025

I’ll take the kind of news we need, thank you very much!

I miss daily newspapers, they were a far cry better than the current TV and online alternatives.

Democracy is at risk! Russians are running the election!

Even truer today than when Mr. Watterson penned it.

Either he stopped watching the news or he’s reading the newspaper because he wants to see the same news story twice.

Have you seen the fires in LA?…It’s horrible and it’s very similar to the strip.

One of the only episodes not involving Calvin!

I luv Watterson’s approach to illustrating televisions when they’re switched on.

They have a life of their own.

ln the UK we had a show called ‘Crimewatch’ which re-enacted crimes to jog witness’s memories. (The days before everyone was distracted by Smartphones) Violent assaults and brutal murders were the order of the day and every week the patronising presenters would sign off by telling the viewers not to have nightmares!

The last time I saw my mother was in about 1992. She had become a devotee of talk radio (Limbaugh etc). I asked her one day, “Is it me, or are they just trying to frighten people now?” She agreed that was so, but continued to listen to the radio pundits. At first she laughed at Limbaugh, then she began to agree, and became angrier and angrier. The last time we talked on the phone she was like a total stranger. I felt like I was trying to hold a conversation through thick protective glass like you see in some banks and stores.

I thought Dad hated TV; why is he watching it? And the newspaper just reports the same sordid events.

Sensualism sells newspapers. News programs have to compete. I watch/read very little these days. Too depressing.

It’s called “yellow journalism”: using sensationalized news stories, unverified claims, and partisan agendas in order increase readership (or viewership) by making people afraid or angry. And to sway elections.

We’ll ask sensitive questions to get you to sob in front of the smoking remains.

today i was watching a very low key live streaming webcam they had trained on Carter’s hometown church.. waiting for the family and friends and the casket to arrive from DC.. and i got bored and searched around and found another ‘station’ where they had the exact same feed only there was an announcer standing stage front, talking.. i switched back and forth and saw it was the same time stream.. so the announcers from different stations just paste themselves into these live feed backgrounds lol ..and so what i thought might be “real” actually wasn’t and you know.. tolerance levels for that nowadays are getting really really thin lol

Oh looks. The paper is full of same theeng too.

Come on daddy. Watching that show is build character see.

My TV is off, just reading the comics.

Stopped watching the TV news years ago. Pretty sure I’m not missing anything. Unless the weather person is hot, then, maybe…

It sounded like something Calvin would be saying behind the television

And paperboys are gone. One of my first jobs was delivering the Sunday papers each week.

TV news hasn’t changed. Has it?

Looks like Dad is reading a redacted newspaper.

I still read two newspapers every day. Online now, but they look the same. I enjoy the local news, the puzzles, and a bunch of comics beyond what I read here.

He’s going to see more of the same in the newspaper; he should have picked up a good book.

Sadly, the modern newspaper is often just as sensationalistic

“If it doesn’t bleed, it doesn’t lead”-Principle of TV news.

Sounds like Calvin’s favorite show.

Want ads or comic strips????

It doesn’t get any better in print…just less graphic.

This is why they call it the “Idiot Box” or “Rubbish Bin”.

The more things stay the same, the worse things get.

That’s why I stick with Netflix. No need to watch reports

I make my livin’ off the evenin’ news

Just give me somethin’, somethin’ I can use

People love it when you lose

They love dirty laundry

Well, I coulda’ been an actor, but I wound up here

I just have to look good, I don’t have to be clear

Come and whisper in my ear

Give us dirty laundry

[Chorus]

Kick ‘em when they’re up

Kick ‘em when they’re down

Kick ‘em when they’re up

Kick ’em all around

We got the bubble-headed bleached-blonde, comes on at five

She can tell you ’bout the plane crash with a gleam in her eye

It’s interesting when people die

Give us dirty laundry

Can we film the operation? Is the head dead yet?

You know, the boys in the newsroom got a running bet

Get the widow on the set!

We need dirty laundry

You don’t really need to find out what’s goin’ on

You don’t really wanna know just how far it’s gone

Just leave well enough alone

Eat your dirty laundry

[Chorus]

Dirty little secrets, dirty little lies

We got our dirty little fingers in everybody’s pie

We love to cut you down to size

We love dirty laundry

We can do “The Innuendo”, we can dance and sing

When it’s said and done, we haven’t told you a thing

We all know that crap is king

Give us dirty laundry!

- Don Henley, Dirty Laundry

I’m surprised dad isn’t reading one of Calvin’s comic books. This is the first site I start with in the morning and then I read about the blood stained sidewalks.

April 1975. I am participating in the evacuation of Saigon. My wife is three month’s pregnant. She is playing bridge with the wives of the rest of my squadron which is deployed.

On the TV comes a news alert. “Cargo plane blown up on the ramp at Saigon. Details at 11.”

My wife dials up the squadron, and the wives get on the phone. They can account for the whereabouts of everyone except me. I happened to be airborne at the time. My wife got the call at 2 AM that I was safe.

It was, in fact, a C-130 that was hit by a motor round. Nobody was in it or near it and nobody was injured. It was an issue for the accountants and not the mortuary officer. But the TV station needed the ratings apparently.

Replace the TV with internet streams, and it is still relevant.

TV news ceased being news about the time Walter Cronkite retired. Since then it has been entertainment and sensationalism.

I seldom watch it unless there is a newsworthy event. I’ve tuned in recently to see how bad the fires in LA are. I did get SOME news on that but the other half was about the network’s obsession about Trump. He has an iron grip on their attention. They have OCD when it comes to covering his every word. It doesn’t matter if the words they report are good or bad or their opinion is favorable or not, the man gets billions of dollars publicity for free every month.

I still get much more news online, but even that takes digging.

less newspapers – less paper. the mills near me are closing

When clients start a conversation with ‘i saw on the news…’ i try to point out that the TV news is never going to come on the air and declare ‘today nothing happened, good night’ -though I’m told the BBC did just that one day in the early 1960’s

Pretty accurate. Sigh.

“Welcome to another edition of Blood, Devastation, Death, War and Horror!

“And later on we’ll be talking to a man who does gardening.”

Accurate

Can’t say I blame Dad, the newspaper is probably slightly less depressing.

Heck, no one on the “news” speaks that coherently anymore, not even the fear-mongers making the sweeps week promos.

You’re better off with the newspaper, Dad.

Oh my gosh, this is exactly what the TV stations and streaming news media show every. single. day. !

but I don’t want to hear it. :L

The TV jumps for Dad too.

Sums up the media during the Pandemic. First the body count, followed by news. Fear sells.

Yeah. Sure. That will help… (eyes roll)

Thoughts to the victims of the Southern California wildfires. They were right to be fearful when TV news informed them of the approaching disaster.

Before social media took over the world people were a lot better informed with the news coming from news papers with a knowledgeable editiorial boards