Does America's Television News Deliberately Exploit Our Fears?

In Bowling For Columbine, filmaker Michael Moore set off on a quest to try and uncover the reason why America has consistently more violent crime (particularly gun killings) than other countries. He began by raising various hypotheses. Do Americans watch more violent movies? Are they playing more video games? Is it because guns are more readily available? But each of these possibilities were eventually discarded when, in the course of his research, he discovered that other countries (such as Britain, France and Canada) are scarcely different. The one crucial factor that Moore found to distinguish America is its predominantly fear-based media - particularly the nightly news.

Some of the people who he interviewed remarked about how the crime rates in their respective communities had actually gone down - while media coverage of crime had skyrocketed. The news has a way of convincing Americans that they are never safe. No, it does not invent the gruesome stories that it reports; it simply doesn't acknowledge that anything else of interest is happening in America.

All of this begs a question: Do the powers that be in America want average people to be afraid? And, if so, why? Many people feel that, yes, fear propoganda is very real, and it is motivated by money interests. "Keep them afraid - keep them consuming." The approach is psychological. People who aren't secure don't believe that they're complete and O.K. as they are; hence, they're vulnerable when advertising comes along and says, "Your problems will be solved once you have this product." It's a game that seems to have worked, as millions of Americans each year invest a ton of money in things they either don't need or that will be made redundant when the newer technology comes along.

Bowling For Columbine explores the aftermath of September 11 and, taking a cue from the "economics of fear" idea, takes stock of those who profitted after the terrorist attacks. Guns and security systems sold like crazy - much like the way stores had been stripped of staple foods, generators, and candles during the Y2K scare. But, of course, the biggest profits were (and are) to be made by the so-called "War on Terror", which continues to expend billions of dollars on a struggle that has failed to make anyone safer but which has lined the already-stuffed pockets of the big business execs whose companies make the jets, bombs, guns and other killing technology that deal death in foreign countries.

Such campaigns cannot be waged without popular support at home, and people do not support costly wars (in terms of both money and human life) unless they are scared enough to believe that it's the only answer. Hence, the same tactics are employed to sell wars as to sell "The Club" or a handgun. That is fear-based economics at work, and probably the real reason why the nightly news is reluctant to report to us all the beautiful things that happen in the world on any given day. That would put us at ease; and we'd be less likely to spend - and give our leaders blank checks to spend - if our fears were allayed.