Dave Bonta's "News junkie" is a short, bleak look at what daily news does to a household. The speaker opens the morning paper and finds it "bled," a striking image that makes the news feel like a wound, as though every page carries violence. Yet the paper brings "no wonders." Nothing surprising or uplifting arrives, only the familiar run of bad reports.
The middle lines turn to a "dull and melancholy / god of the house." The paper seems to have become a kind of household deity, something we bow to each morning even though it leaves us low. The title suggests the speaker is hooked and keeps returning anyway.
The ending is the quietest and perhaps the saddest. Both "peace and unquiet" become "burdens," so even calm feels heavy once the news has soaked in. The mood is weary, resigned, and gently critical, as if the speaker sees the habit clearly but can't quite break it.