Not parent, but I agree and can explain my thoughts. If a topic is really new, it's inherently not generally well understood. Therefore the reporting on it is likely to be inaccurate, misleading, and missing some really important bits. Even the choice of what to report on is made without good understanding.

Have you ever read a news article about a subject in your field that you knew a lot about? Think about it. Remember how everything was a little bit off or a little misleading or misinformed or focused on the wrong thing? That's the case with every news article, ever, we just don't think about it most of the time.

For anything really important you'll find out about it quickly enough. Someone you know will tell you or you'll overhear something. Trying to search for important information by reading or watching news reports feels good because it satisfies our instincts to hunt and search and collect. But it's not a good use of our energy 99% of the time.

HN is a bit "meta". Here we search not for useful or important news articles, but for insightful, intelligent comments from people who actually understand what is going on. The 99% rule still applies, but at least when we find a comment like that here it is more likely to be well-informed and something we wouldn't find elsewhere.

"Avoid News" by Rolf Dobelli

http://dobelli.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Avoid_News_Par...

I don't know if I get that right but from where I come, "watch the news" means mostly watch it on TV. So it might not have something to do with reading IT news on HN for example...

I prefer to read the news than to watch--it gives me more control over what I consume and how I interpret it. I don't watch much TV aside from the odd sports game here and there.