How to report the news

Posted on January 31, 2010 by Sabina Becker

Charlie Brooker explains the TV formula for making you feel “informed” without actually being it:

Actually, even with allowances for comedic exaggeration, this is all too true.

Share this story:
This entry was posted in Crapagandarati, Good to Know. Bookmark the permalink.

9 Responses to How to report the news

  1. Chrystal Ocean says:
    January 31, 2010 at 1:31 PM

    Hilarious. You’re right, it’s also too true.

  2. RickB says:
    January 31, 2010 at 1:59 PM

    Have you seen The Day Today and Brass Eye?

  3. Sabina Becker says:
    January 31, 2010 at 4:16 PM

    Neither of them…but I’ve heard of the latter.

  4. Slave Revolt says:
    January 31, 2010 at 4:30 PM

    Pretty funny, and a bit frightening–when you take into consideration that information dissemination in capitalist societies works to reinforce normative assumptions that are debilitating and oppressive. There is a pro forma, ritualistic quality that lulls one in, that inclines one to give the benefit of the doubt to these propagandists of corporate power.
    Perceptions are managed, and desires are guided toward passive, consumer behavior that reinforce apathy, fear, and human alienation.
    Most people’s beliefs are not formed through research and critical engagement–but the are developed and reinforced by rituals. Behaviors and attitudes become habits.
    Mass society is akin to a mass herding operation.

  5. Sabina Becker says:
    January 31, 2010 at 4:37 PM

    That last line is especially true. And it makes me wish people could be more like cats.

  6. Slave Revolt says:
    January 31, 2010 at 6:15 PM

    No cats don’t play that. Homie can’t herd cats.
    Rodent-type creatures do, however, commit mass suicide on occasion–especially when a dearth of felines creates a rodent population too large for the ecosystem to sustain.

  7. Sabina Becker says:
    January 31, 2010 at 6:22 PM

    Yep…or when they’ve got bubonic plague from hanging out with the fleas. (I’m sure it’s also no coincidence that plague flourished in Europe at a time when people pretended that their own shit didn’t stink while simultaneously burning cats on suspicions of witchcraft.)

  9. Sabina Becker says:
    February 2, 2010 at 6:01 PM

    Oh, that’s sick. Especially the part about the Elvis killer.

Comments are closed.