Turn Off CNN [Dennis DeYoung]

Turn Off CNN
Written by Dennis DeYoung
Lead Vocals by Dennis DeYoung

Push

When you wake up in the morning
Do you watch CNN?
Oh, do you close your eyes and hold your breath
Then say an Amen?

'cause there's too much information
Runnin' round in your brain
Do we really need to know the facts
Of everyone's pain?

Still you're searchin' for some reason
At the scene of the crime
With people killing people
Everywhere all the time

But then you go about your merry way
'cause baby you're still alive
Wondering all the time in the back of your mind
How will this world survive?

And nobody knows nothin'
Nobody ever did
Well we can talk real loud and act real smart
But who we tryin' to kid

'cause everybody is an expert
When they're bloggin' the news
Oh, genius after genius
Without any clues

Twenty four hours, seven days a week
Disasters multiply
Staring at the tube, you can barely speak
It makes you wanna cry

Turn off CNN
T-t-turn it off
Turn off CNN
T-t-turn it off
Turn off CNN
T-t-t-turn it off
Turn off CNN

You've got your foreign wars and your global warming
A terror plot or two
Everywhere you look there's a virus forming
By the way your rent is due

Turn off CNN
T-t-turn it off
Turn off CNN
T-t-turn it off
Turn off CNN
T-t-t-turn it off
Turn off CNN
T-t-t-turn it off baby
Gimme that remote

TURN IT OFF! 

Interpretation

In the years since the debut of the Cable News Network (CNN) in 1980, the way people consume news has been transformed. Previously the news was the next day in a newspaper, a brief bit on the radio, or a 30 minute read out on one of the television networks in the early evening or just before bed at night. With CNN news became available 24×7 on TV with in depth analysis of issues and live coverage of breaking news.

Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, people were glued to their TVs as CNN provided thorough coverage of the Gulf War. Ten years later. CNN and other cable news networks provided similar coverage of the events of September 11, 2001, which people tuned into religiously.

As cable news and internet news has become increasingly popular, people are spending too much time and diverting too much attention to all the news and issues being discussed, such that it increases anxiety and steals joy from life.  It is better to turn it off and experience life for yourself, with less stress and more fun.