The art of distraction

[rambone]

What do the following names have in common?

George Zimmerman
Casey Anthony
Natalee Holloway
Scott Peterson
O.J. Simpson
JonBenét Ramsey

The answer is that they are all examples of how the media can captivate the public's attention for months on stories that truly have no national significance whatsoever. Utter distractions, while the world burns all around us.

People go missing every day. People get murdered every day. These stories were mildly interesting at best, and hardly unique, and have no societal or political impact. Why were these cases projected to the forefront of national news, endlessly chewing up thousands of hours of valuable news time?

The Powers That Be depend on keeping you distracted. Most people willingly distract themselves on moronic reality TV shows, sports, and what have you. But for the minority of the population who are actually seeking out the "news," this tactic comes into play. The Establishment controlled media picks a mildly-interesting, emotionally compelling story and gives viewers a daily play-by-play of it for months (or years) on end.

Meanwhile there are laws being debated & passed, wars looming on the horizon, Supreme Court decisions happening, all kinds of things that are exponentially more important, nationally, than these stories.

You think it was an accident that the president name-dropped Trayvon Martin in a speech? Hardly. It just gives the country a reinforced opportunity to feed on their latest media circus. Another day of useless headlines.

You might as well be reading gossip tabloids and critiquing celebrity outfits.

 

[88GT]

Wouldn't happen if the populace didn't take the bait. My kids try to distract me too. Is it my fault or their fault if I let them?

I'd say this is just one small part of the bigger picture of control: government education and entitlement programs have a far larger impact IMO.

 

[rambone]

I happen to believe that this phenomenon is a little more dubious than children wanting attention. Particularly when the talking heads know full well the state of the county, and still devote hours to this kind of pseudo-news. I'll pick on Sean Hannity because he's been giving daily updates on Zimmerman.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Both of you have a point. They put this stuff up because people eat it up. The public has always had an appetite for salacious cases. Just look at the various threads on this site. Many of the folks that are above average in keeping up with current events get distracted by these cases. I don't think there's any conspiracy involved. But more likely reflects the public's apathy towards the destruction of our Constitution.

 

[rockhopper46038]

I was going to say that each contains the letter "n".

 

[Mgderf]

See my right hand? Watch it now, watch, keep watching...

Never mind about the left.

I get your point, but I blame the populous at large more than the media.

The general population needs to wake up.

 

[rambone]

If everyone was awake then people wouldn't be distracted. Very interesting.

I feel like we are debating which came first, the chicken or the egg.

So which came first? Does the media promote bull***t because people are asleep? Or are people asleep because they have never heard any real news?

I want people to acknowledge that there are media people who are fully awake to the trouble this country is in, yet still regularly focus on distractions. This isn't accidental. Again, I'll point to Sean Hannity. Is he asleep? Is that why he leads his audience toward this stuff?

 

[netsecurity]

I agree 100% with OP. the Zimmerman case was the most contrived of all though. We still have 60% of the pundits claiming Zimmerman is absolutely guilty, even though the legs have been kicked out of all their (weak) theories. And worse yet, all the MSM hosts, who you'd expect to be objective, chose sides long ago. If I see another "news" host wave a bag of Skittles in the air I'm going to puke!

Now the media has learned that they can take any case, seed some lies about racism to foment seething of the down trodden, and make it worthy of 24/7 news domination.

I sincerely believe the MSM will quadruple their efforts to repeat this, because it has people watching the news instead of regular programming. Court rooms in particular are the new reality TV. Shows like Survivor just don't have high enough stakes. So we are literally heading towards a "Running Man" type future.

 

[KLB]

If everyone was awake then people wouldn't be distracted. Very interesting.

I feel like we are debating which came first, the chicken or the egg.

So which came first? Does the media promote bull***t because people are asleep? Or are people asleep because they have never heard any real news?

I want people to acknowledge that there are media people who are fully awake to the trouble this country is in, yet still regularly focus on distractions. This isn't accidental. Again, I'll point to Sean Hannity. Is he asleep? Is that why he leads his audience toward this stuff?

It isn't like Hannity gets to pick all of his talking points. Those networks pick story lines and all of their shows feed them to the public. It is all about ratings and money.

ESPN works the same way with sports. All of their shows talk about the same stories each day, rehashing the same

Sadly it seems that the days of talking about actual news is behind us.

 

[Rhoadmar]

If everyone was awake then people wouldn't be distracted. Very interesting.

I feel like we are debating which came first, the chicken or the egg.

So which came first? Does the media promote bull***t because people are asleep? Or are people asleep because they have never heard any real news?

I want people to acknowledge that there are media people who are fully awake to the trouble this country is in, yet still regularly focus on distractions. This isn't accidental. Again, I'll point to Sean Hannity. Is he asleep? Is that why he leads his audience toward this stuff?

If your knee deep in long enough the smell becomes less noticeable as time passes.

 

[rambone]

A point I want to introduce here is the idea of "controlled opposition." Let's say there are forces seeking a totalitarian agenda (far fetched, I know). What could be more effective to accomplish their goals than for the Establishment standing up their own operatives to act as leaders of the opposition? Their very own talking heads can keep the well-meaning activists endlessly distracted and inhibited from ever doing anything useful.

FYI, this is how you wind up with Romney as your nominee.

 

[IndyDave1776]

I would argue that the chicken or egg issue may be interesting as an item of study but irrelevant to the problem at hand. People have been fixated on such distractions at least since Seutonius wrote his book The Twelve Caesars which, essentially, it the National Enquirer version of early imperial history. My guess is that it, like the above-mentioned heart-tugging but nationally irrelevant news stories did much to prevent people from seeing the truth about what was around them.

The net result is that too many of our people want bread and circuses, and the media are happy to supply the circuses with the assistance of the government and its trend of picking favorites in the marketplace as the government benefits from the distraction while most people are happy so long as someone yells 'There goes a rabbit!' on cue just before their minds return to dealing with harsh reality.

OK, that probably could have used some punctuation, but nevertheless, the truth is as it is:

1. The government doesn't want people watching it (as it makes spying on us one of its principal activities).

2. Most people want to adopt 'don't worry, be happy' as a way of life which shields them from having to deal with unpleasant truth.

3. The media are happy to enrich themselves and establish themselves as .gov-preferred enterprises by simultaneously filling both of the above desires.

4. The small remainder of us are frustrated to no end as not a shred of relevant truth gets reported anywhere including and especially by the 'conservative' media outlets which will kick leftists in the shins for the sake of keeping up their end of the circus but won't address the most critical of issues facing the nation.

5. Stand by for swirling and sucking as the finger poised above the chrome lever moves to depress it.

 

[rambone]

As I type this, the current headline on CNN with former CIA agent Anderson Cooper:

"Trayvon Martin's Stepmom: I exist!"

 

[IndyDave1776]

As I type this, the current headline on CNN with former CIA agent Anderson Cooper:

[B[ "Trayvon Martin's Stepmom: I exist!" [/b]

Goodness, we can be assured that the sky will remain above us, the postal service will continue functioning, and people will continue ignoring the federal government as tyranny marches on! The world as we know it would have ended had T's stepmom not existed!

 

[hornadylnl]

Like the guy at work complaining about the the Snowden scandal. He wasn't bothered by the spying but he was spitting mad about the media bias regarding Bush's spying and Obama's spying. I'd say the media is accomplishing their goal quite well.

 

[netsecurity]

No one in the media seems to believe Trayvon attacked Zimmerman brutally, despite overwhelming evidence. They keep saying that Zimmerman was the aggressor, the one with MMA training even. But there was not a single mark on Trayvon's face or Zimmerman's knuckles. I can understand Trayvon's step mother being blind to those facts, but not the media and their pundits. I feel strongly that Trayvon's poor family is being propped up by them and given a false sense of confidence that will hurt them even more when the truth can no longer be covered up. It very well may even cause riots, but the media would LOVE that even more...

 

[IndyDave1776]

No one in the media seems to believe Trayvon attacked Zimmerman brutally, despite overwhelming evidence. They keep saying that Zimmerman was the aggressor, the one with MMA training even. But there was not a single mark on Trayvon's face or Zimmerman's knuckles. I can understand Trayvon's step mother being blind to those facts, but not the media and their pundits. I feel strongly that Trayvon's poor family is being propped up by them and given a false sense of confidence that will hurt them even more when the truth can no longer be covered up. It very well may even cause riots, but the media would LOVE that even more...

It's all about the narrative. The truth cannot be allowed to interfere with the narrative.

 

[rambone]

Don't fault Caesar for the bread and circuses. He just wants to please the people. There is no ulterior motive.

 

[traderdan]

I do not CARE what celebrities name their babies...who is playing in the Superbowl, I do not watch popular Hollywood films, do not own a Television set... If Miley Cyrus walked through a room where I was I would probably notice her short shorts, but would not be interested for long. MUCH news is not really news,and I am very suspicious of the large entities that produce political reports. The sad reality is that sometimes I listen to NPR programming,the BBC, out of sheer boredom with American radio programs...

 

[88GT]

I happen to believe that this phenomenon is a little more dubious than children wanting attention. Particularly when the talking heads know full well the state of the county, and still devote hours to this kind of pseudo-news. I'll pick on Sean Hannity because he's been giving daily updates on Zimmerman.

I didn't say that the reason for it wasn't suspect. My kids have very nefarious reasons for distracting me as well. It doesn't change the fact that an aware and educated populace isn't going to be as easily distracted.

If everyone was awake then people wouldn't be distracted. Very interesting.

I feel like we are debating which came first, the chicken or the egg.

So which came first? Does the media promote bull***t because people are asleep? Or are people asleep because they have never heard any real news?

You of all people should know this to be true. How many times do you post an article with a claim in the title that has nothing to do with the content of the article? And how many times does it get pointed out? INGO people are generally aware. And you don't get away with making ludicrous claims because of it.

The media will always try it. But the effect and the scope will be determined by the population's willingness to accept it.

I want people to acknowledge that there are media people who are fully awake to the trouble this country is in, yet still regularly focus on distractions. This isn't accidental. Again, I'll point to Sean Hannity. Is he asleep? Is that why he leads his audience toward this stuff?

Are you whining?

This is elementary. Content is chosen to maximize profit. Media know their audience. You won't find fluff on outlets where the audience wants hard-core news. Are you just upset that we aren't as upset at the way capitalism works as you?