The Media Likes Scaring Us, and We Like It

Town Hall by John Stossel | Mar. 21, 2007 (Opinion)

I'm embarrassed by my profession.

We consumer reporters should warn you about life's important risks, but instead, we mislead you about dubious risks.
I first started thinking about this when interviewing Ralph Nader years ago, before he stopped speaking to me. Nader worried about almost everything: Food? "It can spoil in your own refrigerator," Chicken? "[It's] contaminated with pesticides, herbicides, fungicides." Flying? "Inadequate ... Full Story »

Posted by Bill B May

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by Fabrice Florin - Oct. 1, 2008

John Stossel makes a valid point that the media tends to favor sensational scare stories over reasonable analysis. There definitely seems to be a trend in news coverage to give people what they 'want' to hear, rather than what they 'need' to hear. That said, we depend on the media to report on issues of public concern, and expect them to continue to cover "life's important risks" - then fairly and reasonably, without the sensational exagerations - and let the public be the final judge of how to apply that information.

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