So what's the takeaway from this?

So what's the takeaway from this?  Friend, reader, and mogul of Idaho Doug S. sends along this story.  Bottom line: watching bad news can make you unhappy all day.  So ... is the idea that we should insist on seeing only good news?  If the world is going to hell in a hand-basket, we should pretend it's not and just be happy happy happy?

It seems to me that allowing good or bad news to affect your own mood is a choice that each of us gets to make.  I went on a cheerful drive last night to see the fall color, and I was happy as I was doing it – even though I knew that the Republican presidential debates were about to start (bad news if ever I saw it!).  I could have chosen to be grumpy about it, but I didn't.  I can easily imagine that some people would choose to react otherwise.  It wouldn't surprise me a bit to discover that there were fights, divorces, and maybe even suicides provoked by the mere thought of Trump actually having control over the football (the nuclear weapons trigger).  But those are all choices that people made in reaction to the bad news, not something directly caused by the bad news.

I want my news straight, with full knowledge of the reporter's biases.  If there's good news, like Bernie being up in the polls, I want to hear it.  If there's bad news, like Iran diverting money freed under the nuke deal to Hamas, I want to hear it.  And I sure as hell don't want some bozo bureaucrat “adjusting” the mix of good and bad to meet somebody's idea of the “right” balance...