Surgeon General's Warning: News is a product just like cigarettes are a product, and just like cigarettes, news isn't very good for you!

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One thing that is important to remember is that news is a product just like cigarettes are a product, and just like cigarettes, it isn't very good for you. It might even be a good idea for the Surgeon General to write up a little warning to be shown in connection with the news. Just as cigarettes calm you down, coffee wakes you up, and alcohol makes you feel jolly and sociable, news gives you a satisfying rush of self-righteous rage, and that make's you feel all good and warm inside.  News has nothing to do with "just reporting the facts." That's boring. No...facts aren't news unless they can somehow be served up on a dish of scandal, unless there is a clearly identified good guy and bad guy in the story and so on. And as cigarettes comes in both regular and menthol, so news is packaged according to our likes and dislikes. As a result when people tune into the news they are literally being served up carefully edited stories from alternate universes, each side hearing only the aspects of any story that confirm them in what they already want to believe.

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