Many decades ago, the state owned media in Holland decided to launch a special news-bulletin for minors. The general idea was that the regular news-bulletin was too 'unfiltered' and rude in its depiction of real events, while the language spoken was difficult to understand for non-adults. Today the difference is negligible. The images shown in the bulletin for the children is similar to that provided to adults to scare them into action, and adults are addressed as if they were infants, barely capable of spelling their own name.
Moreover, the adult-bulletin now features plenty of 'fun' items, merely 'touching' on horrendous events, which are 'framed' so as to set them apart from what our 'fun world' is all about, as if these events take place on another planet. For instance, Zelensky's 'Victory Plan' is not mentioned by name, nor do they refer to his condition that NATO has to admit Ukraine today for his plan to work, which boils down to NATO declaring war on Russia. And towards the end of the bulletin, before the 'Climate Panic' about 'exceptionally' warm, cold, wet or dry weather, they will present the 'cows' in the media-meadow with a lengthy 'report' about an indoor soccer match, attracting only family as supporters. Sleepwalking the cattle towards Armageddon.
Meanwhile parliament in Holland is up in arms over the use of electric pulse generators to 'prod' pigs. A majority of the people's representatives feel strongly that these instruments ought to be outlawed, because animals deserve to be treated like human beings, just as we treat wolves with respect in this animal friendly country, as demanded by 'Brussels', closing entire nature reserves to the public because these animals have a habit of attacking pets and children (sic). Even as a professional argues that these electric pulse generators, used correctly, save lives among the pigs, the members of parliament won't listen. Now I'm no expert on this, and few, if any of the members of parliament are to be considered insiders on this debate, but I feel strongly this should not even be on the roster. There are far more important things, like war or peace. Leave it to the experts.
Likewise with another popular topic at the moment, the so called 'Phat Bikes', which are highly popular amongst youngsters. They are delivered with a maximum possible speed of thirty kilometers an hour using electric support, in accordance with the law. But they are easy to 'upgrade' to much higher speeds. Which causes more frequent accidents, and instead of moving to enforce the speed limit, and test these bikes on illegal modifications, while telling parents to watch what their kids are doing and keep their eyes peeled, our representatives are ready to impose a legal age limit, and put in place a law to wear a helmet whenever you drive one. Mind you, you may still drive any other bike with an electric powertrain in support without age limit, or a helmet, and you may rush past everyone on your racing bike doing eighty kilometers an hour downhill on extremely narrow tires, not wearing any protective gear, but these 'Phat Bikes' from China are struck with silly additional rules. Only those members of parliament and lobbyists think that this is for our own good, and that they are acting to help us, since we are no longer capable of thinking for ourselves, let alone control our children. Could it be that this uproar is caused by 'Warparty'-minded individuals seeking to curtail the import of 'Phat Bikes' from China? Well, how could you even think that, you dumb 'Conspiracy Theorist'!
The bulletin for the real kids is generally more 'focussed' on items which are 'actionable'. Not in any sense to relieve a problematic situation, as a rule, but providing ammo for an 'activist' approach, helping them to formulate 'demands' and identify causes.
Multiple programs around the news-bulletins drag in 'important people' to explain in detail what these extremely simplified bulletins brought to our attention, which generated 'work' for truckloads of people pretending to be 'journalists', apparently selected to be much dumber than average, unable to think of one critical question during the entire 'show', merely feeding their guests prepared 'talking points', to which everybody with a functioning brain, and awareness of what the authorities like to tell us, already knows the answer. Answers usually far removed from the truth, consisting of 'spin', half-truths, stuff made-up completely from scratch, and 'indications' of who or what we need to 'hate' today. Any guest cracking open this echo-chamber of lies and wishful thinking, will not be invited again. As a rule, every guest is treated as being an 'expert' on all the topics presented, and asked for their opinion, after the 'expert' has spoken, careful not to say anything that might go against the already proclaimed opinion of the invited 'expert'. Thus enhancing the reach of the message promoted through repetition. From the line-up you can pick the individual you consider most sympathetic, but the message itself is the same. Echo-chamber.
Never, ever, is any of the 'experts' confronted with grave mistakes, blunders and misjudgement in previous programs, since it would not merely expose this individual as a 'poser', a total nitwit full of *BS*, but the entire line-up back then would go down with him or her, including the 'journalists' posing questions. Same where some fool is invited merely to make fun of him or her, so as to pretend the 'show' is 'balanced'. This individual may be proven correct afterwards, but not in a million years will anyone ever admit that they were utterly stupid, and that fool was actually 'spot on'.
Though many lies and half-truths are deliberate, to influence public opinion, other expressions of glaring stupidity are not intentional, but the result of 'connecting the dots'. If the 'dots' you start from are not factual accurate, you end up somewhere in outer space as you apply 'logic' from there on. I once was at a meteorological briefing, where the weatherman told the audience that it would be a bright, sunny day, with blue skies, while behind him everybody was looking at thick fog through the huge window, which stayed for the rest of the day. I've got the same feeling regularly as I'm watching the news-bulletin, and the 'news-shows' around it. The truth is 'out there', clearly visible without glasses, but somehow these people refuse to see it. Hoping, against their better judgment, one would think, that by magic it will change to fall in line with their narrative.
This lack of quality in reporting is a weakness, and a danger to our entire society eventually, as people do act on the information they receive, not aware of where it is leading them, until they reach the end of the line, where everything falls apart. Which reminds me of that joke which emerged from the Soviet-Union: 'They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work'. 'They pretend to tell us the news……..'. A rapidly increasing number of people pretend to pay attention, while ignoring the news-bulletins, and those 'talk-shows' around it altogether. They either switch off completely, and tune out, improvising as they seek their way forward in a thick fog, or they tune in to alternative sources, much like I do. Both choices are treacherous and lead down slippery slopes with mainstream-guided projectiles crossing left to right, right to left, or crashing everywhere around you at odd intervals. These are 'interesting times', as the saying goes. Not a Chinese curse, as one well known CNN pundit claimed it was, as if to underline the point I'm trying to make.