The television news was playing in the background during most my childhood. PBS news hour for the most part and a few roundtable discussion shows on the weekends. I think it was a great way to for me to become familiar with politics and current events. It started hundreds of conversations. I've meant to start watching news hour in the evenings with my kid around. I'm not really worried about her becoming terrified at it, I think she inherited a slice of ruthless monster from her old man. As to your question, each kid is different. My kid seems pretty interested in the world, and I plan on filling her up with as much factual information as I can and I will try and be wary about pushing too many opinions. Telling kids what to think about difficult issues prevents them from learning to think about things critically. Right now she is only four. We concentrate on things like geography but I'm sure things will ramp up in the years to come.