What’s Wrong with This Picture?
by Jared Rosen and David Rippe

The 24-hour news cycle has created a culture of fast-paced headlines without substance and context.
Viewers are fed rapid streams of concurrent data—news, stock market scroll, weather, sports updates, and subhead stories all at the same time—with little opportunity to process it all. Turn on CNN, Fox News or MSNBC and see for yourself. This barrage of the senses leaves us no ability to validate what was presented, forcing us to accept that the news is true. This is purposeful on the part of the news operations, who function as little more than flacks for corporate and government interests.

Sound radical? Ladies and gentlemen, we present Exhibit 1: The Florida Second District Court of Appeals on February 14, 2003 unanimously agreed that there is no rule against distorting or falsifying news in the United States. In an article by Liane Casten of Chicago Media Watch, FOX News “asserted that there are no written rules against distorting the news in the media. They argued that, under the First Amendment, broadcasters have the right to lie or deliberately distort news on public airwaves.” The Florida Appeals Court agreed.

Additional studies reveal that the more televised news one watches, the less informed one becomes. The owners of networks are multi-billion dollar conglomerates with a vested interest in satisfying their corporate advertisers. They have an active interest in compliant citizen-consumers. As such, important issues and news on the environment, corporate malfeasance, and political shenanigans are given short shrift, purposely skewed, ignored or outright censored. For a great perennial book on the topic pick up the latest Project Censored published by Sonoma State University (www.projectcensored.com), which details the major news stories the mainstream media did not report in any given year. Prepare to be shocked.

Primarily, television stimulates the limbic system, which sits between the reptilian brain and the neo-cortex, by stimulating fear responses with a smorgasbord of over-hyped news coupled with violent programming. The limbic system controls the emotions, feelings and moods of the brain. Fear-based television stimulates the reptilian response of “fight or flight,” in turn creating a mental state wherein we may overestimate the threat of fear. According to Rocky Mountain Media Watch, a non-profit organization that has analyzed local U.S. TV newscasts for five years, “Forty to fifty percent of news airtime is devoted to violent topics, irrespective of actual rates of crime. As a result, viewers develop an exaggerated sense of the world as a violent and dangerous place.”

Thus the mind begins to believe that the upside-down world is full of murderers on every corner, rapists leering in every alley, and burglars near every window. Parents feel they can’t take their eyes off their
children for a second for fear of their kid being abducted. This is a form of media-induced paranoia. Not surprisingly, children have an increased level of anxiety relative to the amount of television they watch, as indicated by a survey by the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry. Similarly, a survey of parents of children in kindergarten through fourth grade revealed that the amount of television their kids watched was linked to the frequency of sleep disturbances.

Of course, everything on TV is punctuated and paid for by commercial sponsors schlepping automobiles, pharmaceuticals, alcohol, food, snacks, cell phones, offers to join the military, and the latest “can’t miss” sales by the major retailers. Sixteen minutes of every hour is spent trying to convince you to buy something. Except for public television, the medium of TV was not designed and cannot support itself without advertisers. True, some cable networks don’t have ads, but you are paying a fee for the “right” not to see commercials. We’re not averse to advertising. We simply feel that citizen-consumers ought to be aware of the real goals of the media. That is—to sell us stuff. The shows only exist to sell ads. The ads exist to sell us.

So, armed with that information, one can now make an informed decision when it comes to the forces trying to influence us. Knowing, for instance, that by the television industry’s own estimates, food manufacturers spend $12 billion annually marketing sugary cereals, candy, soda pop, and a grocery aisle full of unhealthy processed foods to children, may provide the incentive to turn off Saturday morning cartoon shows and find a soul-enriching activity to enjoy instead.

Our Constant Companion
The medium of broadcast radio has become our traveling companion in our cars. On the AM dial the stations tend to fall into four general categories: right-wing talk radio featuring insulting hosts spewing words designed to incite discord; religious programming; news; and sports. The fact is AM radio is dominated by zealous opinions from the right side of the political spectrum. Speaking the truth about issues and events is not part of their business model.

The FM stations offer a plethora of musical fare. National Public Radio (NPR) has historically offered a good intellectual slate, although there has been criticism that the Bush administration has attempted to move this medium rightward.

Amazingly, a hundred years ago, no one in the world was influenced by this much chatter; these media vehicles simply didn’t exist. Today, people can’t seem to unplug from the TV or radio. Many of us are simply uncomfortable being alone with our thoughts. This is a result of generations of conditioning that can be easily corrected. All one needs is the desire to turn it off and the will to do so. Try this: drive in your car for an entire week without turning on the radio. No music, no news, no screaming bloviators. Only silence. One person we know tried it and didn’t turn the radio on for a year!

Excerpted with permission of Hampton Roads Publishing Company. www.theflip.net or 513-253-4854. The Flip is available at local bookstores or online at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Joseph-Beth, and Borders.

Jared Rosen is the coauthor of Inner Security and Infinite Wealth, and the founder of Dreamsculpt, an organization dedicated to catalyzing authentic and soulful expression in the entertainment industry.

David Rippe is founder and president of Celestia International, a strategic marketing communications and creative services firm. Rippe is also the author of The Journals trilogy under the pseudonym R. T. Stone.