Stay Awake, America!

An anxious friend wrote yesterday, “I imagine you've heard of the Chinese satellite that's supposed to come crashing down on us.  Then there's the volcano in Yellowstone that's supposed to wipe out the entire planet.  Too much gloom, despair, and agony!”  I knew nothing about either of these so-called pending disasters. I had not heard anything, or seen anything, or read anything about them, and I’m an avid news person. How could  I have missed this kind of “breaking news?”  The Chinese space station story appeared on Fox News on October 16 [“Fears of catastrophe as runaway Chinese space station hurtles toward earth”]. The same story “Kaboom!  China’s runaway Tiangong-1 space station will crash to Earth within months, Harvard University astrophysicist warns…Anyone unlucky enough to be standing beneath the 'out of control' satellite could be in BIG trouble because parts of it might fall to Earth” appeared on October 13 in The Sun (UK) and in the US edition of The Guardian.  (YouTube also provided video input on the subject).  Compare with the Popular Science piece, “Don’t Freak Out About the Chinese Space Station,” written by Mary Beth Griggs (Oct 16).

The Yellowstone supervolcano story was reported on Fox News on October 12.  Compare the Fox News report [“Yellowstone supervolcano could blow faster than thought, destroy all of mankind”] with the report in the NY Times (Oct 10) and the National Geographic and some of the “shock” will wear off.

Another friend shared a link yesterday on Facebook that also caught my attention: “Poll:  Half of Americans Believe Media is fabricating stories about President Trump.”  The poll finds “half the voters surveyed think the media make up stories about President Trump and his administration.”  This poll was conducted after Trump tweeted last week: “Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked.  Not fair to the public!”  I was relieved (somewhat) that a majority of those surveyed (51%) were opposed to the government taking away the broadcast licenses of news organizations.  On the other hand, I was shocked that half of those surveyed believe the “fake news” allegations continuously regurgitated by the president.  I shouldn’t be surprised since Fox News Channel is “the most-watched cable news network—2.2 million viewers during prime time!” Mr. Trump never seems to suggest that Fox News is fake news (maybe he owns stock in the company) and he still can’t bring himself to believe the 17 US Intelligence agencies, all of which report that Russia interfered in the US 2016 election process.  

Are we so gullible?  Have we forgotten Hitler’s modus operandi:  “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.  Make the lie big,” he said, “make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.”

My "Worry Beads" (Komboloi) are getting a workout!