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It’s not just the manipulation of facts to make it more sensational or entertaining, it’s the deliberate misdirection, distraction and manipulation of public opinion.
They distract us with fluff about the latest fashion trends and the size of Kim Kardashian’s buttocks so we won’t focus on the serious issues, like poverty and human rights.
They misdirect us with sensational stories about car accidents and house fires which, when you really think about it, are completely irrelevant except to those directly involved. It can be helpful to have these reports at times, when a family is really having a hard time and need some help for example, but for the most part, we really don’t need to know.
And they manipulate public opinion by focusing on certain stories, or not focusing on them, use of certain phrases, even by the way they combine stories.
Like, for example, the “Ground Zero Mosque” back awhile ago, which was actually a building several blocks away from the “ground zero” site where an ordinary Imam wanted to start an ordinary Mosque for ordinary Muslims. But by labelling it the “Ground Zero Mosque”, and following every single report on it with one about a completely unrelated violent act somewhere else in the world, they manipulated the public into associating something that posed no threat to anyone, that is so commonplace they would normally not even notice it, with terrorism and war. And I watched them do this on 5 different news casts on 3 different networks.
This example sticks in my mind because it happened not too long after I watched Russel Peters “Black, White and Brown” on TV. I’m not really a fan, but I remembered his bit about the media, and specifically the reference to how they show you a picture of a Muslim, then show you a bomb going off.
“Hmmm, what do you think?”
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