by Thomas Howard Elliot

Created on: March 26, 2008

Simply turning on the television or picking up a national magazine will answer this question unequivocally for you. Sex and fear sell the best in today's society, and throughout history. Trauma is more interesting to us than positive, because it makes us feel better about where we are in our lives. "At least my house didn't get torn up by a tornado" and other similar sentiments is the idea that is trying to be portrayed by covering these types of stories that should otherwise be left to local news distribution.

Violence is probably the most common overly media covered item on television. Not only from news sources, but now there is a myriad of programs that devote themselves to various extreme videos, amateur film of violent crimes, car chases, storms, accidents and what ever else is sensational in its presentation. We as a society are drawn to these images for a vicarious thrill. There is nothing particularly wrong with this alone, being excited by these images, or enthralled by the stories, but when the "spin" or presentation of these supposed news stories is intended to effect your opinions and actions, these go from being news stories to being propaganda.

Take violence for instance. If you were to watch the television and follow their nightly watches for kidnappings, school shootings, murders and every other form of violence they show, you would think that the country is becoming increasingly violent, and at an alarming rate. The truth is, murder rates are down nation wide, except in some urban epicenters, mainly Washington DC, and gun crimes are down as well. Fact checking does not seem to be that important of a task to these shows, when they have a clip of someone getting chased by the police, or when they have court room footage of a distraught family member lashing out at their loved one's killer.

Perhaps the worst part is, that while it is commonly accepted that media sources are biased, usually liberal leaning, and that they don't bother to check facts anymore, people still rely on them for their news. They still quote them as fact, nearly as gospel in some cases. No one wants to check for themselves anymore. This is especially true in this decades biggest fear inducing campaign, global warming.

The problem is, the facts that are quoted are usually wrong, and those quoting them will tell you that. Al Gore, after accepting his Nobel prize for his part in "An Inconvenient Truth" was confronted by one observer that some of the figures they used in the

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