I. Identify Enemies & Problems.
As discussed above, news has content for each of its two purposes. The first use of the news is to tell people who their enemies are. Sometimes, domestic enemies are “union bosses”. Other times, “greedy executives”. “Unscrupulous developers” have been popular for so long that “developers” stand alone.
Foreign enemies change with great rapidity. “The Compassionate Shah of Iran” was quickly replaced with “concerned Moslem clergy.” Hitler and Stalin were near war, at peace, then at war, within a couple of years.
Illegal immigrants go from “Destroyers of our culture.” to “doing the jobs we won’t do.” depending who’s deciding what the news is.
“Problems” must be endlessly invented to provide justifications both for maintaining and increasing taxation and regulations.
II. Provide distractions.
Celebrities are an ever-handy way to provide distractions. Amazingly, a man who’s lost his job and looking for work will be distracted from his very real problems by watching a bubble-headed teen-aged girl sharing what purport to be her own thoughts about global warming. Amazingly, over 40% of English speaking people will actually change their opinions to match with those of celebrities whom they frequently see.
People are also distracted by short shots about animals. Animals can be falling through the ice, stuck in trees, or beached along the ocean. For some reason, people will sit spellbound several times a month watching animals in odd places, always giving a sigh of relief when the poor thing is rescued.
It’s always popular to distract people with crime. Crime must be maintained at high levels to provide excuses for Public Safety. Drugs are kept illegal to generate high profit margins that fuel endless “turf wars” between “drug gangs” and “warlords”.
Histories of how celebrities went from modest beginnings to fabulous opulence are proven distractions. Celebrities will repeat the same stories over and over again. For over half a century, Pat Boone has never gotten tired of repeating, thousands of times, “Yes, it’s true. I am descended from Daniel Boone”.
Weather is an important TV distraction. In many cities, several “meterologists” tell people what a map on the computer screen could tell them for free, if it were allowed to have temperatures superimposed on moving cloud masses.
Weather is so popular that it can easily be graduated from “Distraction” to “Problem”, at great profit to entire industries. People tend to believe anything they are told about the weather. Many are so gullible that they can live smack in the middle of months with freakishly cold weather, like this month and the one before it, and still be made to worry about “global warming”.
