Now that the Global Warming lies are more thoroughly discredited than ever, it’s time for some new Imaginary Problems to surface. People are working harder than ever on them. Imaginary Problems used to be easy. “Dioxin, Killing Millions!” used to appear on state-run newspapers and news channels. Soon, places like Times Beach, Missouri and New York’s Love Canal were bulldozed into oblivion.
“Ozone Hole Blinding Penguins!” was all it took to put America’s cooling systems at risk. Soon, cans of freon that were once sold at K-Mart for 99 cents cost twenty dollars. Only licensed professionals could put it in. Keeping machines and people cool had become a government function. Even then, people didn’t believe their lies, but there was no other source of information. Our innate and trusting natures kept us from saying “Liar!” We just forked over.
“Apples Sprayed With Alar Kill Children!” was more of an exercise in testing the profitability of alarmism. It worked. It was very profitable, and widely believed. Similar alarms, “Cancer From Cell Phones!” haven’t caught on. Neither have the organic food lies. Plastic bag lies are quiescent.
With the Internet providing immediate de-bunking, the bunco artists are having a harder time gaining traction. The first time one of their lies is run up a flagpole, it’s quickly shot down by the blogging equivalent of a heat-seeking missile fired from an unknown, far-off launch site.
And, More Expensive.
We see financial meltdowns in media outlets that lie the most. The endless frauds, Imaginary Problems, scares, exaggerations, and panics embraced by the professional liars in the state-run media are wearing thin. More consumers are asking, “Why should I buy magazines and newspapers, or watch TV shows, that lie to me and try to make me worry about a lot of nonsense?”
Increasingly, that question is answered, “I shouldn’t.” As a result, the sectors of the media that lie the most find themselves in the greatest financial difficulty. Many are operating at a loss. Few have any ideas about what to do about it. Readers and viewers might suggest “Start telling the truth”, but that’s an impossibility for those whose only abilities are exaggerating and lying.
It may be that the greatest liars and exaggerators are those who teach in the various “journalism” schools. It’s unconscionable that they continue separating journalism students from vast amounts of tuition to prepare them for jobs that simply won’t exist.
