It was the days before 24/7 news channels, ignorance was bliss.
If something bad happened a thousand miles away, it would only be on the local news. Now, it’s on CNN and people react as if it happened in their own town.
I'm extremely cut off from TV news. Once in a great while I catch a few minutes of it -- and it's just rapes, murders, arsons, home invasions, and botched surgical procedures. About 500 tragedies a day, I reckon. I live in a small, rural town, with a population that is 98% white. But when I watch the News, I start thinking that some teenage gang is going to jump me on my way to the shed.
Exposure to that melodrama does make one fearful. So I avoid it.