The Sydney Morning Herald, like Fox News approaches every story from the same three angles; fear, fear and more fear.

This is the front page for the Sydney Morning Herald website today;

Fear - Airport security a joke, you can be blown up by terrorists. We show you how to be safe.

Fear - Bird flu will kill you, we show you how to escape the killer epidemic.

Fear - Your child is in danger, we keep your children safe.

I have a low opinion of Fox News, not because of its statist cheer-leading, but because it uses fear constantly. The funniest one I saw was the "killer escalators". Apparently escalators maim three hundred or so people a year and "possibly kill more people" that we don't hear about because "they (not us)" hush it up. Thankfully Fox went out of their way to make me safe. Idiots. Their political discussions are couched in the same way, it is all fear, fear and more fear.

The Sydney Morning Herald is no different. Mass media is bankrupt. It does not do journalism, it does fear and titillation. It is not fit to report on news, world affairs or politics.

Part Two

I used to think it was to create a dependency, but now I just think tabloid salesmanship has hit all aspects of the media. I recall when September 11th occurred, one fo the anchors [the Canadian bloke who got cancer] was constantly asking the people he was interviewing whether everyone was panicing and screaming. He repeated the question several times with the same people, who kept replying, "No, everyone just walked out calmly".

It was like the media was trying to claim that human behaviour was not legitimized unless it was framed the way they wanted. The anchor seemed slightly ticked off that he didnt get his confession of complete panic and fear.

It is the same with the way government communicates with the people. It is an attempt to create a dependency through fear. Whether it be "keeping you safe" or interest rates. Without us, you will be screwed. We have seen a creep in the welfare too, it is now encompassing the middle classes, with benefits to buy houses, do childcare etc. The Howard tax regime, which is heavily weighted against low and middle income earners, is creating a new class of people dependent on government.

The answer of the fellow who was in the World Trade Centers on Sept 11th, and kept telling the anchor that people were handling it fine, shows the crowd wisdom. The power of the media and government is pyramidical, and highly concentrated. It is in their interests to keep the people in fear, as it creates a psychological dependency.

FUD. Fear, uncertainty and doubt.

Part Three

I am also reminded of the first time I saw Bowling for Columbine. I was dubious of it, but it was an excellent documentary. Each myth was successively busted. I am not sure why conservatives despise it so much, it comes out pro-gun. Moore discovers it is not gun ownership that is the issue, it is the media creating an environment of fear.

All their stories, headlines etc, are carefully created to gain a reaction from their audience, one that mixes apprehension and anxiety. It is how the media manipulates its audience into continuing to watch.

It works. I despise this method, but when I see it in the adverts for the News, it does grab at your anxieties. The mix of baritone voice, coupled with an anxious soundtrack and the judicous mix of words which don't tell the whole story, which is then finished with, "We show you how ..... to keep safe". Ah thank his noodly appendage, the TV will keep me safe.

My emotions are being manipulated.

It is fine to say avoid it, and I do to an extent, but the barrage is constant from all media outlets. Whether it is the titillation of Jen loves Brad loves Angela at the checkout line, or headlines proudly claiming that the Bird Flu will be an epidemic when it has only claimed two victims, or maybe even that Osama plans to kill me - whatever.

TV marketers have been trying to work out why young men in particular, aged 15-35 have been leaving the TV in droves. The internet and computer games are usually trotted out as the excuse. But it may just be, that this demographic doesn't like the media being pitched at them in this way.

cam

As Jason has already written, we recorded a pilot for a political TV show. Proposals have been sent off to ABC and SBS, Foxtel needs to be contacted as well. It also needs to be edited down so that it can be published as a show, as well as the segments bit-torrented through south sea republic. So either way; it will be published.

We had as panellists; myself, scrymarch, Jason Soon of Catallaxy and Guy Beres of wsacaucus.org. We had a lot of fun doing it. All the camera tape is downloaded onto a harddrive - it needs to be edited up and published now.

We are pursuing this as we believe we are not getting the media we deserve. This is probably why a lot of us write on blogs, websites, and other internet sites which publish the written word. Bloggers contain many of the political specialists in the wider citizenry, so it is a natural path for bloggers to explore other media forms on the subject of politics. This is what we were doing yesterday when we chatted on subjects in front of the camera.

The final product should be published soon. As Jason said, watch this space ...

cam

Some pranksters in Prague inserted with a laptop this video image into a news broadcast last June.

From this article:

State attorney Dusan Ondracek told CTK Wednesday that he has brought charges against six members of the Ztohoven group of Czech artists on suspicion of hoaxing by penetrating television broadcasts and simulating an atomic bomb blast

There are enough laws in the modern state that if the state disapproves of a citizens actions, not because they are illegal, simply because they embarrass the state, charges can be brought for anything. We live in a world of state over-reach where there are far, far too many laws and restrictions on liberty. It effectively makes enforcement arbitrary.

This isn't the first time this thing has happened. There was the issue of the Mooninites in Boston which were suspected of being terrorist devices, and when it obviously wasn't, the Governor continued to go after the two marketers as if they were terrorists. Other states had seen the displays and just had DMV workers pull them down. Not the idiocy that prevailed in Boston.

The state continues to grow in size and complexity. It has done so to the point now that it can punish citizens through any number of laws for embarrassing the state or anyone else that the state thinks should not be embarrassed - such as a TV station. Through economic liberalism aspects of the states control of the economy are decreasing, this is a good thing, but the over-sized aspect of the state from the command and control days is not being dismantled. The entropy is toward increasing legal disorder through more and more laws. This makes enforcement effectively arbitrary and enables tyranny.

I don't have a TV so I don't watch shows that appear on HBO and people asking me about "Flight of the Concorde" is often lost on me. The Creative Class argues that most people under 30 watch TV via their computer rather than through cable or free to air. Rather they watch video on their schedules, not the broadcasters. Alex Tapscott writes:

Most, however, choose to tailor their TV schedule around their lives, not the other way around. That means using the Internet

Not having a TV has meant I have fallen entirely out of modern mass broadcasting media. I don't know what the 'hot' shows are nor the major movies. Advertising literally does not reach me. Tonight my partner and I were looking for a movie to watch through iTunes; I had no idea what as cool, hot, happening, new or what. In the end we rented Ricky Gervias' Ghost Town. But not having a TV means you probably don't watch TV through NBC or vieo anyway simply because the advertising has no mechanism to visit your eyeballs or ears. You fall off the mass media's plane entirely.

During the Spartacus War in southern Italy where the Romans took nearly a decade to put down the slave revolt under Spartacus, there were three generals that led the rebels; Spartacus, Crixus and Oenomaus. The Starz fantasy show, Spartacus Blood and Sand, was open on Spartacus and Crixus as they were the two main antagonists; but the identity of Oenomaus was hidden until the last show when it was revealed he was doctori - the gladiator trainer. I doubt he was in history, but it has been interesting how the TV series has wound drama and violence around the known historical happenings.

I am confused as to why they made Spartacus, Crixus and Oenomaus gain their legitimacy to kill the house of Batiatus through dominus' immorality and treachery. Ancient morality was different to modern rationality and morality, but even so slave revolts were common and the desire for freedom is pretty consistent through out history. That would be enough.

Prior to the Spartacus War there had been two other slave revolts that the Romans had to raise armies to put down. The Spartans - who state sponsored agoge and professional army and police force - was predicated on the helots being enslaved. Their organization as a form of secret police was because of the constant threat of helot revolt. Romans were also constantly under the threat of slave violence. I think it is safe to say that slavery is not a natural condition for the human psyche and is one that is maintained by force and violence.

It would have been believable enough for me that the gladiators in the ludus wanted their freedom for the sake of it.

More

The real Spartacus

Roman Names

The Roman Kings

The Roman Constitution and Violence

Roman and Gaelic Legal Systems

Greece and Rome

Spartacus and Glaber

Spartacus Blood and Sand on Netflix