We don't call out the Daily Express enough for truly trashy journalism! By now it's kind of priced in, but we shouldn't be so complacent. Here's a story about a series of California quakes, copiously illustrated by photos of massive damage. express.co.uk/news/science/1…

Look at the composite they've chosen to illustrate the article with, for instance. And the whole piece reeks of fear, fear, fear, with apocalyptic predictions and embedded links to other lurid tales, from Russian super volcanoes to more earthquakes (of course), even supernovas!

Now contrast that with Fox News in the US. Yes, they also go with the "Swarmageddon" wording in the title. But as soon as you hit the body text, rationalism prevails. And this is Fox News, folks!
foxnews.com/science/swarma…

So we really should be concerned, not just by media bias, but also by volume. When the tabloids dial a story up to 11 (or 27!) it ceases to be news, and becomes a tool of fear. Whether that's of earthquakes, or volcanos or... immigrants. And that's propaganda, plain and simple.

And we should be under no illusions. This doesn't happen by accident. It's not some reporter getting the "wrong end" of a story. This is cynical manipulation. Someone has deliberately taken a kernel of fact, and constructed an assembly of lies, piffle and nonsense around it.

But that's not news, not any more. We should stop thinking of outlets that make this approach their bread and butter as newspapers at all. Call them entertainmentpapers, or fluffpapers, or whatever. But they shouldn't be accorded the same access and deference as real newspapers.

If you run an entertainment website, you don't expect to get frequent access to politicians, for instance. So why should the tabloid fluffpapers? If they're making no attempt to report news as news, why are they accorded the privileges of newspapers?

If someone ground up caffeine and slipped it into all your food, so that you couldn't sleep, you're twitchy, and your heart is constantly hammering, you wouldn't just shrug it off as a jolly jape. They would be making your life hell, and it could even end up killing you.

The tabloid approach is the same. The caffeine of fear is laced through every article, impairing your judgement and making you incapable of looking at the world around you in an analytical way. Whether it's earthquake earthquake earthquake, or immigration immigration immigration.

That's a mental health hazard, and should be treated as such. We shouldn't just sigh and shake our heads because "they're tabloids and therefore what do we expect?" We should recognise the danger and address it, just like we would tackle other dangerous environmental factors.

The world may be in a grim state, but if you rely on your eyes, your ears and your brain rather than on some fear-monger's newsstand megaphone, you'll see it's not that bad really.

Hope you have a splendid, entirely fear-free Sunday.

Is it time for a health warning on tabloids, like the one on cigarettes:

"Danger: this product may affect your mental health. Repeated exposure can cause mood swings, anxiety and paranoia, and impair cognitive reasoning and judgement. Should not be relied on for information."