Media Fear Tactics

Headlines are the primary tool used by online media to pull in readers. Unfortunately, this practice paints the picture of doom and gloom. Taken in bits and pieces of daily news, these items are a small part of what is going on in the world. They are not what is happening on the whole. Major shifts need reporting; those are indicators of trends and history being made. Individual stories may be part of that, but alone they are not.

For example, Amazon’s e-commerce invention and growth is having major impact on retail sales throughout America. People are not shopping stores as much as they once did. Instead, they are using the internet to find products and then learn about their competitive features before making a purchase. They may go to a store to feel the goods and find out more about the goods and services. Then they will buy unless they find better pricing on the internet. Many people simply shop online and buy there. Customer traffic to stores and malls has dropped significantly. This is not a harbinger of economic collapse, just a different manner in customer behavior.

Commercial real estate change is happening. That is a major trend but now we can see why that is happening. The Covid shutdown also caused consumer behavior to shift toward the internet with mail deliveries replacing storefront visits. The shutdown also forced many employers to change jobs to home offices. Getting those employees to move back to central offices and commuting is not easy, or automatic. If this trend holds, commercial real estate will take another hit as major office buildings remain more and more empty.

The overall effect of these changes may create a trend that affects the performance of the economy. That needs to be reported along with the reasons why it is happening.

Supply chain operations changed during the Covid shutdown. Whether those changes remain as drivers of a new supply methodology remains to be seen. Those changes could affect economic performance good or bad; those results need to be reported along with data that suggest the why, how and what.

Taking economic bits and pieces and using them to manipulate the public’s perception of what is happening and creating gloom and doom in the public is tantamount to creating fear which changes the course of history. This is wrong.

Openly misstating legislative feelings as indicators of change in major programs like Medicare and Social Security, is yet another means to create public fear. It is news making not news reporting. Shame on those media people doing this. The public needs to better understand what’s happening here.

January 7, 2026

 

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