“Oh My God, I’m Watching Too Much News”

By Chris Ariens 



These days you may feel like Yana Collins Lehman. The Brooklyn film production accountant and mother of 5-year-old Beckett was surprised when one day Beckett said to no one in particular, “I’m John McCain, and I approved this statement.” And this is New York, where there’s scant political advertising compared to states like Ohio, Florida and Wisconsin.

Collins Lehman was one of several news junkies featured this weekend in a New York Times Sunday Styles story by Alex Williams. Collins Lehman is watching so much news these days, she scaled back her Netflix account to two movies a month.

Ray Roker has also become an information addict. He sets his DVR to record more than 10 political shows every day. Then he spends four to five hours a night watching them. “If that’s not addiction, I don’t know what is,” Roker tells Williams in an email message.

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A presidential contest and a faltering economy are driving Americans to cable TV and the internet like never before. We’ve seen ratings records for CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News and ABC. So we want to know:

Are you watching more, less or the same amount of cable news than you did in 2004?
( polls)

(Photo: Kelly Shimoda for The New York Times)

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