TexasCHLforum.com

Dave2 wrote:Off topic... Why people print stuff like this? It just gives the publication as a whole a bad reputation.

Not really. They print it precisely because it's what their audience wants to hear. They don't care what people like us think. This unrelenting propaganda slowly takes its toll and advances the authoritarian agenda.

VMI77 wrote:

Dave2 wrote:Off topic... Why people print stuff like this? It just gives the publication as a whole a bad reputation.

Not really. They print it precisely because it's what their audience wants to hear. They don't care what people like us think. This unrelenting propaganda slowly takes its toll and advances the authoritarian agenda.

I think that it has more to do with just selling newspapers. The print newspaper business is dying. One of the ploys that they use to sell more papers is to print "sensational" or "controversial" headlines and stories. The same strategy has been used, with some success, for decades.

VMI77 wrote:

Dave2 wrote:Off topic... Why people print stuff like this? It just gives the publication as a whole a bad reputation.

They print it precisely because it's what their audience wants to hear. They don't care what people like us think.

Their audience wants to hear ill-conceived, illogical arguments based on incorrect information? Just so we're on the same page here, I'm complaining about the guy's means, not his ends (though I disagree with those, too).

Dave2 wrote:

VMI77 wrote:

Dave2 wrote:Off topic... Why people print stuff like this? It just gives the publication as a whole a bad reputation.

They print it precisely because it's what their audience wants to hear. They don't care what people like us think.

Their audience wants to hear ill-conceived, illogical arguments based on incorrect information? Just so we're on the same page here, I'm complaining about the guy's means, not his ends (though I disagree with those, too).

I would argue, yes, it does. Of course, I'm over-simplifying, and really talking about their core audience, as no doubt, there are people like you who are troubled by illogic and falsehoods (though I believe you're in a minority). In my experience, most people seek to have their beliefs confirmed, not to learn the truth --and that is especially true when the truth is discomforting. For an in-depth analysis of the subject I'd refer you to "The True Believer," by Eric Hoffer. Here are a couple quotes from H.L. Mencken on the subject:

"The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth."

“The truth that survives is simply the lie that is pleasantest to believe.”

"Another is the fact that the same safe majority, far from having any natural yearning to acquire this undescribed body of truth, has a natural and apparently incurable distrust of it … A third (and it is more important than either of the other two) is that there exists no body of teachers in Christendom capable of teaching the truth, even supposing it to be known … The inevitable tendency of pedagogy … is to preserve and propagate the lies that happen to be currently respectable, which is to say, that happen to be salubrious to the current masters of the mob." [S.S., “Demagoguery as Art and Science”, April, 1922, pp. 138-139.]

"This curious notion turns the glittering wheels of Rotary, and is the motive power of the political New Thoughters called Liberals. … The man who hopes absurdly, it appears, is in some fantastic and gaseous manner a better citizen than the man who detects and exposes the truth. Bear this sweet democratic axiom clearly in mind. It is, fundamentally, what is the matter with the United States."

WildBill wrote:

VMI77 wrote:

Dave2 wrote:Off topic... Why people print stuff like this? It just gives the publication as a whole a bad reputation.

Not really. They print it precisely because it's what their audience wants to hear. They don't care what people like us think. This unrelenting propaganda slowly takes its toll and advances the authoritarian agenda.

I think that it has more to do with just selling newspapers. The print newspaper business is dying. One of the ploys that they use to sell more papers is to print "sensational" or "controversial" headlines and stories. The same strategy has been used, with some success, for decades.

It seems to be dying and I certainly hope it is. I didn't intend to suggest our media is driven by a single motive. I agree that sensationalism is a factor and it may even be the predominant factor. However, there are also consistent, repeating, and long running "messages" promoted in our media, by people who are largely of like mind, and who revel in the belief that they are the self-appointed agents of social change.

VMI77 wrote:It seems to be dying and I certainly hope it is. I didn't intend to suggest our media is driven by a single motive. I agree that sensationalism is a factor and it may even be the predominant factor. However, there are also consistent, repeating, and long running "messages" promoted in our media, by people who are largely of like mind, and who revel in the belief that they are the self-appointed agents of social change.

I agree with your conclusion, but I can't explain how it continues to perpetuate.

Cars kill way more people then guns do...can I sue car makers, car dealers, oil/gas companies, the state (they register and inspect them), etc....stupid article sadly to be beleived by many naive readers.