Using the Surveys of Consumers, we probe the effect of news exposure on assessments of economic conditions. The analysis employs a double-track strategy, combining cross-sectional and time-series designs. The findings show the following: (1) close to half of the American public typically admits not getting any economic news; (2) across time the aggregate opinion of "no-news" respondents closely matches the opinion of those respondents exposed to economic news; (3) while there is a more noticeable contrast between those two groups in cross-sectional data, respondents without news share the dominant opinion of those with news; (4) indicators of economic performance closely predict the economic appraisals of the no-news segment of the public. These results indicate that news exposure, as reported by respondents, does not greatly matter for opinions about the economy. We discuss various challenges to those findings, some of which claim a more influential role for media news.