David Burton is the editor in chief at Blackie McDonald’s sister company, For Pity Sake Publishing. He’s also an author and playwright of some note, including his debut young adult memoir How to be Happy.
So Dave Burton knows a thing or two about writing and he’s been an avid consumer of news media for the better part of his working life. Like many people in this ever-changing world of the relentless 24-hour news cycle, Dave became disenchanted with the whole shebang, to the point of considering disengagement and ignorance over being informed and engaged.
In David’s own words:
“I think there’s a lot that the news doesn’t do particularly well. This was clear to me during the last federal election. Many people in my community – smart, educated, well-intentioned people – had switched off completely from the news and vital political issues that would directly affect them. The 24 hours news cycle was too much. It was overwhelming and depressing. They couldn’t be bothered keeping up. They consciously disconnected to save themselves.”
In order to redress this situation for himself and others, David started a weekly news roundup blog, very appropriately entitled ‘Slow News Weekly’ with the tagline, ‘the news you actually want at a pace you can stand’.
While journalism isn’t among Dave’s many writing credits he’s been able to produce a balanced, informative and entertaining review of the issues of the week.
Here at Blackie McDonald, we agree with Dave’s notion that disconnection from the news leads to a poorly informed citizenry which doesn’t bode well for democratic society.
That’s why we’ve decided to republish, with Dave’s permission, Slow News Weekly’s Friday updates on the BMcD blog.
These posts are David’s words and, while they may not always reflect the views of those of us working at Blackie McDonald, we believe Slow News Weekly provides an important service in the quest to stay informed.
I hope you enjoy this week’s update from Slow News Weekly.
Best regards,
Tony Blackie
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