April 27th, 2007 By Justin Williams
Fear Mongering: Tonight at 5
While I was sitting at home yesterday trying to recover from this nasty flu bug going around town, I was watching a lot of Daytime TV. For about two hours of my day I watched Regis’ return from his bypass surgery followed by The View. During both of these shows there were several spots run previewing a story on the ABC25 news at 5 about lock bumping. For the uninformed, lock bumping is when a criminal has a special key made that he can just jam into a lock to open it. It should be noted that there have been absolutely no lock bumping cases reported in the tri-state area. Let’s see how many are reported in the next few months.
There’s nothing wrong with reporting on this type of story. My problem was with the teasers that ABC25 kept putting on the air with the ominous music and fear mongering dialog. In my opinion, the spots were preying on the fear of the viewer: if you don’t tune into our news, you might be a victim. What’s worse, there have been no reports of bumping in town, but the teases didn’t offer that up. They played out as if it was something that was happening frequently in the area.
This isn’t just a local thing. It has been happening with local news outlets all over the country. Opie & Anthony have a recurring bit on their morning radio show that highlights some of the worst of these news teases. Previous show favorites include teases that warn viewers that frequent hiccups could be a sign of cancer, how a law could _shut down religion, or city officials wanting to pack all it’s sex offenders into a single city block (it could be in your neighborhood!). If I had a VCR, I would have recorded this clip and sent it in. This is fear mongering at its greatest.
Am I the only one that is frustrated with what mainstream news has become in the past 10 years?
photo courtesy of dewitt
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I couldn’t agree more. The media, in general, has a habit of intentionally using fear for numerous benefits. Without diving in to all the details, I CAN recommend the book “The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things.”
No! You are not the only one!
What you say is what I have thought thousands of times. With that said, however, I am not sure which party aggravates me more: the media that feeds on the paranoia of ignorant viewers or the ignorant viewers themselves. That may be a bit harsh, but the media wouldn’t use such tactics if they didn’t work. So as long as there are people believing this stuff, the media will keep using it. Although I don’t agree with it, I can’t necessarily blame them either . . . after all billions of businesses, enterprises, and institutions all across the country prey on the weak minded to increase profits or further causes. What reason does the media actually have to not join in?
Grrrrr! This angers me, I have heard the same thing is made for cars. They have one key that will open most non foreign cars. I guess I am in the clear but still… how are they getting ahold of stuff like this?
The reason why these tactics work is because we have been conditioned since the inception of mass media to allow ourselves to be programmed. From propaganda on old transistor radios promoting WWI to all the fake 9/11 brouhaha. We are being systematically conditioned to feel weak and vulnerable at all times, and the only people that can “protect” us are those in the employ of our most benevolent government. (RIGHT.) Fear mongering happens every single day, via every major media agency within the U.S. People need to learn that the things we need to fear the most are big business, the military industrial complex, and our own government.
I don’t know about anyone else but I find it extremely annoying when tv stations,one more than others, use past broadcasts of severe weather alerts to get my attention. I think “Tornado Watch/Warning! YIKES! Hide!” Then I realize it’s a trick! ARGGGGGGHHHHH!!
Although some media outlets may use ‘fear tactics’ to drive ratings, the fact remains that there are over 1 million sites on YouTube that show how a bump key is made. The good “news” is that there is an affordable solution found. I also say some news station airing newscast on new ways to prevent this.