If knowing the reality of what happens in the world leads to fear and aggression then perhaps we should be angry and afraid? We can't just shut reality out if we don't like the emotional state it puts us in.
The reality of what happens is all around me - I observe it directly. What is on mass media is information that other people want to promote to further their own agenda. Whether it is for ratings, to get us to buy their product or to further political aims it does not matter (we all have our own motivations) but it is clearly NOT reality. The fact that you confuse the two is sad and frightening.
There are parts of reality that you can't possibly witness directly because you are located at a single geographic point. For example, someone suffering on the other side of the world because they've been gassed by a dictator or a terrorist group, or wrongly imprisoned, or they are dying of some easily curable disease. You would usually only ever hear of such a thing through the news media, and yet it is real
Things are not all one way or the other. The media is very imperfect, but it is not worthless.
The mainstream media is a tool for controlling us. As a random example, a tragic school shooting happens, and the media will be chock-full of people demanding more gun control, with maybe a couple of voices of moderation in between.
It only takes a moment's thought to realize that guns don't actually kill people - people do, so why are they whipping people into a gun control frenzy? I believe there was something about a militia in the Constitution..
The issue is the news is usually out of context. Last week a video of a BASE jumper smashing into a cliff got a lot of airplay. The same week 100 jumpers were jumping 4 times a day without incident in the same area. There were some obvious takeaways from the incident and causes. The news always reports as har, har isn't that nuts?
They do the same with war reporting and airplane crashes. See the knockout game reports for further reports of garbage.
If there's something one may usefully do, and which one would not have otherwise recognized, about whatever it is that's producing those emotions, then sure, you've got a point. But I don't think what's under discussion here would be such a universally recognized experience, were that the case. And if you're already doing whatever you can, or if there's nothing you can do, then why keep abusing yourself with constant exposure?
