And this approach should work for just about all of the behaviors and freedoms that fall within the gray area of negotiation between parent and child, which is just about everything. We can obviously make exceptions for news coverage of important historical events, like the election of a president and space shuttle takeoffs. It's not that we want to keep preschoolers away from TV at all costs. It's just that we do not want to bring attention to it. One of the reasons is that TV has become very sensationalized, and they prey on emotions, like fear.
Children can easily become fearful when hearing stories about kidnappings, school shootings, etc.
Elementary school-age children should start to be oriented to getting their news from newspapers and magazines, particularly those that are geared to their ages. The reason for this is that we know from research that adults who get their news from print media are better informed than those who only get their news from radio. Orienting kids to print news outlets early will pay dividends in terms of literacy and in terms of developing a lifelong habit of reading to keep informed. This does not mean that elementary school children should not be allowed to watch TV news. It just means that they should not get all their news there.