If that's true, it's a frightening concept. I need to read some reason.com links...

Hey, it does work!

/they almost had me

Gee, thanks, we would have never figured that out ourselves.

See:

Global Warming
SARS
Bird Flu
Swine Flu
Terrorism after 9/11

anyone else want to add anything to that list?

I learned about how the media uses scare tactics while watching Bowling from Columbine. That movie was pretty mind opening for an 18 yo. kid.

Here's how I know I'm turning into an old man... I read this and had only one thought: 'this world is going to hell in a hand basket'.

phartnocker: Here's how I know I'm turning into an old man... I read this and had only one thought: 'this world is going to hell in a hand basket'.

Perhaps you should be on your front porch making sure there are no kids on your lawn.

'Next, on the 11 o'clock news:

'SWINE BIRD DINO FLU!'

'But first, the weather. Chip?

'Well Bill, its going to rain tomorrow and we are all GOING TO DIE!!'

I remember Arnie threatening to cut the budget for seasonal firefighters if the props didn't pass. Essentially he'd let the state burn if he didn't get what he wanted. What a farking child.

I love that when they're finally forced to cut something they go after the more vulnerable folks, kids and low income people, rather than look at any of the numerous wasteful pet projects each state legislator has for their district. It's like a giant middle finger to all of us.

God damn aristocrats.

Saddam's nooklear bomb? Non existant terrorist plots? Heavily biased inflammatory commentary that incites racial hatred, misunderstanding, and promotes corporate interests?
Bullshiat about "radical leftists", Madrassas, Socialist plots, Acorn voting scandals, non-existant terrorist connections, lies about taxing the American dream into submission, gay militant groups, secret Muslim motives, fabricated gun grabbing agendas, the war on Christmas, supposed white hysteria?

God damn it Reason I was looking for a term to describe this but the "political-media industrial complex" sounds dandy.
Thanks

Goldeneye007: See:

Global Warming
SARS
Bird Flu
Swine Flu
Terrorism after 9/11

anyone else want to add anything to that list?

Since it's a Reason article I'll throw in:

Taxes
Socialism
and
The Constitution as a living document

Oh! And how could I forget gun grabbing! That's the scariest thing out there, the media telling us how somebody is gonna take our guns away so we can't protect ourselves from the Gay SARS Terrorists planning to blow up Christmas.

xalres: I remember Arnie threatening to cut the budget for seasonal firefighters if the props didn't pass. Essentially he'd let the state burn if he didn't get what he wanted. What a farking child.

I love that when they're finally forced to cut something they go after the more vulnerable folks, kids and low income people, rather than look at any of the numerous wasteful pet projects each state legislator has for their district. It's like a giant middle finger to all of us.

God damn aristocrats.


Dude you are a sucker. Firefighters are wildly overpaid and Arnold was talking mostly about cutting administrators, not the guys in the stations.

And there are SO MANY farking benefits programs for the "vulnerable" that some should be cut. FirstFive, HealthFamilies, Medi-Cal, all are free and give free health care to poor people.

Ok, I'm reading the headline, and "political-media industrial complex" is bothering me. I assume it's a play off of the military-industrial complex, but those 2 words are hyphenated because of the relationship between the military and industry. Here, the political establishment and the media are in the relationship, so they're hyphenated, but why is "industrial" in there? It seems clunky and unnecessary.

I think I'm thinking about this too much.

Oh, and on topic, here's a nice warm, fuzzy message from Newt Gingrich (new window):

"I think people should be afraid. I think the lesson of 1993, the first time they bombed the World Trade Center was fear is probably appropriate. I think the lesson of Khobar Towers where American servicemen were killed in Saudi Arabia was fear is probably appropriate. And the lesson of the two embassy bombings in East Africa was fear is probably appropriate. I think the lesson of The Cole being bombed in Yemen was fear is probably appropriate, and I'll tell you, if you aren't a little bit afraid after 9/11 and 3,100 Americans killed inside the United States by an effort, if you aren't worried about the second wave attack that was designed to take out the biggest building in Los Angeles, I think that you're out of touch with reality."

Falcc: Oh! And how could I forget gun grabbing! That's the scariest thing out there, the media telling us how somebody is gonna take our guns away so we can't protect ourselves from the Gay SARS Terrorists planning to blow up Christmas.

I hear they use aborted fetuses as ammo.

Car_Ramrod Falcc: Oh! And how could I forget gun grabbing! That's the scariest thing out there, the media telling us how somebody is gonna take our guns away so we can't protect ourselves from the Gay SARS Terrorists planning to blow up Christmas.

I hear they use aborted fetuses as ammo

I hear they use aborted fetuses as ammo to blow up our braindead women on life support.

I have met people who like to play the "fear game" during the evening newscast. If a story comes up that is designed to instill fear into the viewer, they have to take a chug of beer. It even applies to commercials that play during the newscast. Whoever has consumed the fewest beers has to cook dinner.

Car_Ramrod: Here, the political establishment and the media are in the relationship, so they're hyphenated, but why is "industrial" in there? It seems clunky and unnecessary.

GE owns NBC, for starters

If it bleeds it leads.

AnotherDisillusionedCollegeStudent: Car_Ramrod: Here, the political establishment and the media are in the relationship, so they're hyphenated, but why is "industrial" in there? It seems clunky and unnecessary.

GE owns NBC, for starters

Well then shouldn't it be "political-media-corporate complex"?

Speaking of OBVIOUS tag, here's another way the media operates: by stating the OBVIOUS.

Goldeneye007: See:

Global Warming
SARS
Bird Flu
Swine Flu
Terrorism after 9/11

anyone else want to add anything to that list?

The Taliban are going to take over Pakistan and nuke Baby Jesus

This "political-media industrial complex" term is one of my pet peeves. Adding on "industrial" just to make it sound like "military industrial complex is annoying." Why not just call it the "political-media industrialaholic complexgate"?

We know.

Dying of a heart attack
dying of breast cancer
dying of a Japanese nuclear bomb.

Car_Ramrod: I think people should be afraid. I think the lesson of 1993, the first time they bombed the World Trade Center was fear is probably appropriate.

More people die every day in the United States due to auto accidents than have ever died due to attacks on the WTC. The direct repercussions of those attacks on my life were minimal. The indirect repercussions (because people have overreacted) have been annoying and financially costly.

Humans, as a species, have a very poor judgment of risk. We tend to focus in on the extravagant, ignoring the more likely but mundane scenarios.

Take for example the scenario of your daughter walking from the house to the beach a few blocks over. More scare worthy people might be afraid that your daughter will be kidnapped or that there will be a shark attack. Perhaps it is because these scenarios have been hyped by the media.

In reality, the greater danger, the more mundane danger, is that she'll drown because she got caught in the riptide, or hit by a car because somebody wasn't paying attention.

I've gotten some evil stares at the local HOA meeting because we have a couple of brain dead house wives who show up and attempt to push measures that are completely based on fear. I tend to show how unlikely they are and/or how incorrect they are. I then invite them to bring data to the next HOA meeting to refute my claim. They never do.

I blame the media for taking advantage of the stupid.

Contrabulous Flabtraption: Dude you are a sucker. Firefighters are wildly overpaid and Arnold was talking mostly about cutting administrators, not the guys in the stations.

I know that, but I specifically remember him saying something to the effect of my paraphrase. Basically "If I don't get my way, I'll cut the guys who fight the seasonal wildfires." Implying he'd let the fires burn themselves out rather than contain them. It was a scare tactic, nothing more.

And there are SO MANY farking benefits programs for the "vulnerable" that some should be cut. FirstFive, HealthFamilies, Medi-Cal, all are free and give free health care to poor people.

Definitely. I wasn't implying that there wasn't waste there, there's waste everywhere. I was just pointing out that the poor and kids are the de-facto first thing they look at when it comes time to make cuts. This is mostly because kids and the poor don't have anywhere near the political representation as other interest groups do.

Eliminating welfare is a Republican's wet dream so I guess we'll get to see what that's like soon. Personally, I think having an entire segment of the population sick and starving is dangerous.

Coming up at 11: the disease that could destroy your family and comes from your baby that you or your neighbors could already have and may not even know about!

.
.
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
Post partem depression!

True story on a local news station a couple years back. fark the news.

That article had too many highlighted words linking to other articles. It made reading it kind of distracting.

Kazuya: God damn it Reason I was looking for a term to describe this but the "political-media industrial complex" sounds dandy.
Thanks

This might be the only time you should thank Michael Savage for coining the term "Government Media Complex" a decade ago.

sickofchoosing: This "political-media industrial complex" term is one of my pet peeves. Adding on "industrial" just to make it sound like "military industrial complex is annoying." Why not just call it the "political-media industrialaholic complexgate crisis 2009 _{not a depression}"?

Dinjiin: Car_Ramrod: I think people should be afraid. I think the lesson of 1993, the first time they bombed the World Trade Center was fear is probably appropriate.

More people die every day in the United States due to auto accidents than have ever died due to attacks on the WTC...

Not. Even. Close.

Goldeneye007: See:

Global Warming
SARS
Bird Flu
Swine Flu
Terrorism after 9/11

anyone else want to add anything to that list?

Child predators. They are everywhere.

oldass31: Dinjiin: Car_Ramrod: I think people should be afraid. I think the lesson of 1993, the first time they bombed the World Trade Center was fear is probably appropriate.

More people die every day in the United States due to auto accidents than have ever died due to attacks on the WTC...

Not. Even. Close.

Maybe not everyday but every year they do I'm sure.

oldass31: Not. Even. Close.

I stand corrected. That's a fairly correct statement for worldwide daily deaths, but for domestic, it would take about 4 weeks.

Dinjiin: More people die every day in the United States due to auto accidents than have ever died due to attacks on the WTC. The direct repercussions of those attacks on my life were minimal. The indirect repercussions (because people have overreacted) have been annoying and financially costly.


"You know... You know what I've noticed? Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all "part of the plan." But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!"

Remove all Republicans: How is it possible to blame a spending-based budget crisis on the spending-averse minority party in an increasingly monolithic Democratic state?

1. It's not spending-based. Keep on calling it that if you want but revenues are DOWN. Period. We need to increase revenues.

2. The "minority" still has 1/3 control and we require 2/3s to pass. That's why it's the minority party's fault.

3. The governor is a Republican. It's not the Democrat's fault that we are in a crisis. Governor Davis never had these kinds of problems.

Is any bad thing the dems fault?

RemyDuron: But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!

Hah. I finally saw that movie for the first time last week. That line was an especially good part.

I guess that in my mind, it call comes down to statistics. Even if this country lost an additional 2800 people per day (the same as lost in the WTC), this country has over 300 million people. That's an incredibly tiny percentage.

So unless somebody did something that affected hundreds of thousands of people, if not more, then I'm not really going to worry about it. And if it does happen to me, then most likely, there's not a whole darn lot I can do to prevent it.

Kittypie070: hypeFEARscareterrifyPARANOIAhypervigilancestressFEAR HYPEhypeFEARscareterrifyPARANOIAhypervigilancestress
hypeFEARHYPE
scareterrifySCARE
FEARHYPEhypeTERRORscareterrifyPARANOIAhypervigilancestressde pression

Hope... a change?
/To be continued.

Remove all Republicans: globalwarmingpraiser: Is any bad thing the dems fault?

Have the Democrats done anything bad?

See: US history

Synaesthesia 2009-05-29 09:04:57 PM
Kittypie070: hypeFEARscareterrifyPARANOIA.....

Hope... a change?
/To be continued.

I refused to hook up to cable TV when I moved in 2003.

The only time I watch cable is at a friend's house, and
the Hannity/O'Reilly/LouDobbs punditocracy has not let
up in NATALIE HOLLOWAY SCARE SCARE FEAR FEAR FEAR
BE AFRAID OF EVERYTHING WE TELL YOU TO BE AFRAID OF
SWINEFLU WHARRGARBL even ONCE.

Except maybe for the recent Hubble repair mission.

I miss John Holliman :(