HAVE YOU GOT THE NEWS BLUES?

Molly Gunn, Editor - 23 Feb 23

I won’t list things which have glummed me out in the news recently, because my aim is not to glum you out. You probably know what they are already, if – like me – you catch news, albeit accidentally; glimpsing newspaper front pages as you pass a shop, or listening to a bulletin on the radio, or through Instagram posts, or general chit-chat. We absorb news without searching for it. When I was a child I was drip-fed news daily as the BBC 6 ‘O’Clock news was a fixture in our house, plus Radio 4 was often on: global happenings beamed into our suburban 4-bed in Guildford. There was The Independent laying around at weekends, of which I ignored the main paper, devouring Annalisa Barbieri’s column in the lifestyle section, instead. My sister Chloe, found news so compelling that she would role-play TV news-reading as a child. Straight out of university she became a graduate news producer for ITN. We got first jobs at the same time in Clerkenwell: I wrote about catwalk trends, like stripes or polkadots for The Guardian, while she doorstepped disgraced MPs, buzzed about general elections and dived into murder trials. I once accompanied Chloe to a high profile murder case at the Old Bailey. It was before I had kids, and she was going, so out of intrigue I tagged along. The experience gave me the shivers, the public gallery was full of – I don’t use this word lightly – weirdos. I couldn’t stop staring at the (guilty) man in the docks. I stayed until lunchtime and since tried to wipe it from memory. It feels that some people feed off ‘bad news’ like a habit, and the media fuels this. At home I might be blasting out 6 Music with something like Raspberry Beret playing one minute, only to be injected with a dark news bulletin the next. Someone died, somewhere. I refer to it as ‘death news.’ I once asked my sister why the news was so depressing. She said, it just highlights events that are rare or unusual, and added that news often makes her feel fortunate that those events are rare. For me, a bad news story can get me down, so I understand completely why there is a ‘happy news’ movement as an antidote. Sometimes, I give bad news my focus out of guilt, so as not to diminish the value of what someone has gone through. I become hyper empathetic, and try to imagine how and why something happened; the final moments of a murder victim, for instance. Especially if it is a woman. Likewise, I sit and shed a tear for war victims and refugees, from my position of safety in the bubble of Bruton, Somerset. Futile though it is. Other times, I purposefully zone it out: I stop scrolling Instagram, to do something less ‘real’ like scrapbooking, watch Lego Masters with my kids, or focus on cooking a delicious meal. Savouring the taste, because I’m lucky to be here, eating nice food in my nice house. Other times I escape the harsh nature of the real world by absorbing myself in stories, frequent trips to the cinema, trying to read books instead of picking up my phone again, and losing myself in writing, which transports me to a place of my making. I’ve noticed that if I bump into people I much prefer an inane chat about the weather than deep-diving into world events. It’s tricky getting the balance of not sleep-walking through life while also keeping abreast of news, without being consumed by it. I salute people who get so absorbed they DO something, who start charities such as Choose Love, or who fight to change the rules; thank you Suffragettes! Much as I want to put my hands on my ears and pretend it’s not there, I feel keeping a sense of the news is a good thing. Sometimes it propels me to do ‘good stuff’ too, like raising money for charities, donating to a crisis appeal, spreading the word, or just pulling my children in closer, and raising them to be good humans who don’t create bad news.

Molly Gunn, Editor

Molly Gunn is the founder and editor of Selfish Mother, a site she created for like-minded women in 2013. Molly has been a journalist for over 15 years, starting out working on fashion desks at The Guardian, The Telegraph & ES Magazine before going freelance in 2006 to write for quality publications. She now edits Selfish Mother, sells #GoodTees to raise funds for charity, & writes freelance for Red Magazine and The Sunday Telegraph's Stella. Molly is mother to Rafferty, 6, Fox, 4, and baby Liberty. She is married to Tom aka music producer Tee Mango and founder of Millionhands. They live in Bruton, Somerset.

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