Not the Headlines - Actually, Literally the Headlines

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The Listening Tube presents not the headlines.

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I'm Bob Woodley from The Listening Tube. I follow a lot of news. Every day, I immerse myself in it. I've always been a news junkie. As a kid, I would write my own fictitious newscasts and record them on cassette tapes and play them for my mom. I've been in the media business my whole life. I'm old now. I've seen the transformation of news. Don't get me wrong, it's all still news. But the way it's presented to us has changed dramatically, and unless you remember how it was, you have nothing with which to compare how it is now. Let me tell you The news has changed considerably, and it's all meant to influence you rather than inform you. It's really just another form of bait and switch. Lure you in with one thing and then sell you something else. It's the same as using entertainment to lure you into watching the commercials, or as we did in Armed Forces Radio, play popular music and interspersed it with messages we wanted the troops to hear. But news is supposed to be different. News isn't supposed to be a part of the bait and switch charade. There was a time when the line between information and entertainment was easily recognized. Today, the news is presented to many of us as a part of the entertainment we expect from our handheld devices. Instead of the news telling us what we need to know, they tell us what they want us to know. They do that more effectively if they present the content they wish us to consume with a flashy headline. Something that gets you to click on the story. Not the kind of clickbait you'd expect from some shady sales pitch, but a legitimate looking headline by a reputable sounding news organization. And if you follow the news closely over a long period of time, you can recognize patterns in the way the news is presented. I'm speaking of online news specifically, but the same stories and headlines are also presented through other forms of media as well, such as television broadcasts and radio newscasts. They always quote each other to make it seem like a legitimate story. But the story pales to the headline. The actual facts of the story are reserved for those who take the time to read beyond the headline. An election cycle is a great time to observe the shift in the way stories are presented to the casual observer, aka the typical American. As I noted earlier, I follow the news. Not just conservative news, not just liberal news, but all kinds of news. One of the sources that compiles news and shares it with others is Yahoo News. Yahoo News probably uses algorithms similar to other sources, keeping track of what you've looked at before and make an educated guess as to what type of content you'd like to see now. So it's probably no surprise that in addition to pictures of scantily clad women, I also get a lot of news stories. I would like to point out that I'm a registered independent. I consider myself somewhat conservative, but sometimes I have very liberal views depending upon the subject matter. For some reason, my mom thinks I'm a Republican, but she also thinks her Democrats are the same as they were during Kennedy and Johnson. Anyway, the headlines I see less than two weeks ahead of the midterm elections have certainly shifted in a way that demonstrates the media's intent. Mind you, it's not an obvious way. The media has learned that they can gently push us in any direction they please if they do it the right way. The trick is to suggest things in the headline, regardless of what the story is. The media has recognized that our attention spans have become slightly longer than that of a goldfish. We have so many influences coming at us at such a high rate every day that the media will gladly tell you the truth if you read the story, but the headline is about as far as most people get. So they can say whatever they want you to believe in the headline, while the following paragraphs may tell a different story.

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Send email to thelistening tube at outlook.com.

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Here are some examples of headlines I pulled from the Yahoo compilation of various stories it fed to me. The increasingly brazen alleged corruption within the Trump administration. This headline comes from CNN. Using the words increasingly brazen implies that there has been lesser corruption already happening. So without reading the story, the reader of the headline assumes there is already corruption going on and it's getting worse. But the third word in the headline, alleged, is really all we need to know. There have been no corruption charges or convictions related to any of the examples in the story. Some of the accusations, weak as they may be, are attributed to former administration members, not current ones, as the headline would suggest. The CNN's story may justify the increasingly brazen label by adding the recent $50 million deal former Trump attorney Alina Haba made with a Venezuelan company that may have led to a presidential pardon. But to call it corruption is a stretch. Quid pro quo, maybe, but a lot of people in Venezuela have turned over a new leaf since the fall of socialism there. President Trump has demonstrated many times his willingness to forgive and forget. Well, maybe just forgive. But he does. Another headline Trump merchandise stores are closing. He has peaked. That one from National Public Radio. It's true that President Trump's approval ratings are at an all time low due to the war in Iran and the high fuel prices. But really, when was the last time anyone went to a Trump store? My wife and I actually talked about pretending to be diehard Trump fans by pretending to have visited a Trump store multiple times. For example, if we were talking to someone who was an insufferable progressive and we just wanted to make their head explode, we could say something like The last time we were at the Trump store wait, was it the last time or the time before that? That seems like it would be so much fun. Neither of us have ever been to a Trump store. There was one where we live, but I think it closed a long time ago. But NPR made sure to point out that Trump stores are closing, a week or so before an election that doesn't include the name Trump anywhere on the ballot. The only reason to publish a non story like this is to make the reader believe that President Trump is already something to disregard as a part of the past. Like a one-hit wonder on the radio that rose to the top of the charts only to be heard on occasion from here on out. Well, that's not likely. Another headline Churches strike blow to Trump admin in fight over ice raids. That one from Newsweek. This headline would want you to believe that religious people are opponents of President Trump. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most conservative people are religious and promote morals, virtue, and law and order. There are, however, religious organizations, also called nongovernmental organizations or NGOs, that rely on illegal immigrants as fundraising tools to maintain their existence. You should ask what churches, how many churches, what denomination or religion are these churches? But even if you choose to not ask any of those questions, the headline wants you to assume that whatever churches it was, they won. They struck a blow to the Trump administration over ice raids. That's all you need to know. Religious people are in favor of illegal immigration. So what exactly was the blow the churches struck against the Trump administration? Nothing, really. Two out of three judges said that the churches had shown enough evidence to show a credible threat of enforcement likely to cause imminent harm. But the dissenting judge pointed out that the ruling has no effect on the federal government's administration of immigration laws. That doesn't sound like striking a blow to me. But the actual facts of the story are irrelevant. If all you read is the headline, churches strike blow to Trump admin in fight over ice raids, then you've already been subject to the slow brainwashing today's media has perfected.

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And if that wasn't enough.

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And yes, she is a Fox News reporter. But the statement she made was not on behalf of Fox News, but as the president of the White House Press Corps, or the White House Correspondence Association. Elected to the position by other White House reporters. The story that follows the headline tells about how President Trump was rude to a reporter and then subsequently excluded said reporter from a trip to Iowa. It's Jackie Heinrich's job to represent White House reporters as president of the White House Correspondents Association. The fact that she's also a Fox News reporter is irrelevant in this context. But by including Ms. Heinrich's affiliation with Fox News in the headline, you're led to believe that even the reporters at Fox News are turning against the president. They didn't say too much when Maria Barteromo was let go from Fox News for sharing internal Fox News communications with the Trump administration. The fact is, more people watch Fox News than any other cable news channel, and often beats network channels during prime time. They can't all be Republicans. Fox News brings more people together on a weekly basis than any other single form of media. Perhaps trying to use an affiliation with Fox News isn't a good way to demonize anyone. MediaEit should consider that most of their readers are also viewers of Fox News. But Mediaite doesn't care if you read the whole story, they only want you to read the headline anyway.

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And you can hang your hat on that.

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It's not our fault. We've been conditioned to accept this form of media by the very media that feed us the information. And therein lies the conundrum. The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of the press and the freedom of speech. There are no laws governing lies or misleading storytelling by the media. Any attempts to make any are struck down. People are free to say whatever they want in the United States of America, and that has led to an industry designed to say what it wants to get you to believe what they want you to believe. While technology progresses at speeds with which average people are unable to keep up, it might behoove us to resort to the instinct of self-preservation when it comes to today's media. It's every man for himself when deciphering the overwhelming volume of information shot at us on a daily basis. That's the whole reason I started the listening tube. To give you the tools to recognize these things on your own. Now seems like a good time to point out some of the tactics the media uses to influence you more than inform you. Follow the listening tube at thelisteningtube.com where you'll also find this week in history and interviews with interesting people. Check the green subscriber button or join the email list. You may also donate to the program by clicking the Buy Me a Coffee link on the homepage. Thank you for putting your ear to the listening tube. I'm your host, Bob Woodley, for Thou Ad Infinitum.