Drinking while watching the news

Idle speculation.

The conversation turned to the drinking habits of our parents' generation (born in the 1930s, coming of age in the fifties and sixties). There were the shared memories of Dad getting home and pouring himself a bourbon and coke, or whiskey neat, or some other stiff drink before reading the paper. Based on the recollections, in some families, mom and dad both had a drink before dinner, sometimes while watching the news. Often there was a second or third drink later in the evening after dinner.

Then there were some recollections of Dad's stories about taking clients to lunch and the drinks there.

And to our generation that almost looks like hard drinking. Of course it isn't, and wasn't, but when your base of comparison is an occasional glass of wine, it certainly seems like alcohol played a greater part of the daily routine.

Someone made the connection between drinking and watching the news. They speculated that the sense of partisanship and polarization arising from watching the news is not a function of changed newscasts but of reduced alcohol consumption. Perhaps a couple of early evening stiff drinks before viewing the news would help put things into better perspective.