I've been a follower of the news for a long time. When I was in elementary school, it was called current events. Later, in high school, a really great history teacher named Jim Pizzani encouraged us to read the New York Times on a daily basis.

Today, however, the news seems increasingly sensationalist and confrontive. What was tabloid fodder 20 years ago is now headline CNN (or Fox News). I just saw something on CNN that made me cringe. It would be child abuse to require adolescents to read some of today's top stories.

In particular, I miss thoughtful and balanced reporting, where by balanced I mean in the sense that balanced is the opposite of putting two rapid dog partisans in a box in front of a TV camera and urging them to duke it out, where balanced means keeping ones composure and treating ones' guests with respect and dignity even if one does not approve of their point of view.