'C' - first question: are you FROM Munich and if not, from where? I ask because of the name Betts (from your profile, of course) and the fact that I grew up knowing a Betts family who were/are good friends of my family and quite an interesting group!
In reply to:
Nobody makes you watch it! One way round it, is to avoid television completely. The mind-numbing repetiton of 'breaking-news' is not worth it, nor is television on the whole.
About TV - here in Israel, we have only two non-cable Israeli channels (1 & 2 - very creative names, don't ya think?). They are different only in that Channel 1 is without adverts and Channel 2 is supported by adverts (so they overwhelm each program, of course). But the programming is very similar - lots of talk shows (Israelis love to talk and debate and scream and rant and carry on - especially about politics...), cooking shows, children's programming, and English-language sitcoms and dramas (from the US, Australia, UK). Channel 2 also buys from HBO, so we get, for instance, "Sex & the City" on the regular channel - but only late at night... not that that really means anything since Israelis are very open about sex and related issues.
Late at night, after Channel 1 goes off the air (around midnight), I can sometimes receive Palestinian TV - which is interesting, since most of its programming consists of Arabic-language talk shows in which the participants rant on about evil Israel and how important it is for them to just kill us all and get it over with.... in the daytime, they show their own version of Sesame Street (in Arabic) in which little children are shown sitting around learning from their adult teachers to songs about killing themselves while they kill Jews to become martyrs - by the way, this program is supported by American tax dollars!
I don't like cable, so I'm reduced to those two choices and occasionally, on a clear day, Jordan's TV channel (used to be a separate foreign language channel - mostly English but also French and now they've consolidated into one 24-hour/day 'superchannel' which, unfortunately, is mostly in Arabic...). Jordan TV is interesting as they also show American sitcoms and dramas - but they edit out any male-female contact, such as kissing and even, in some cases, handholding and so forth!
So - the answer for me is to watch the schedule and turn it on a bit before the program I intend to watch - otherwise, I keep it off and enjoy either music on the radio (I prefer jazz, swing, oldies rock & roll and such) or just listen to the quiet (when I can't hear the shooting and shelling and resulting ambulance sirens these days).
Shoshannah
