fear-mongers

the discovery channel's shark week this year could have more accurately been called "fear week." between segments and shows, they had "fear facts" not shark facts, but fear facts. the music, the shtick of the whole week played into legendary Jaws fears.

i'm tired of it. i'm tired of being sold everythign from the christian gospel to clorox bleach based on fear. stop trying to scare me, just tell me why your product is better than the one i'm using and you'll probably win a customer. if you try to scare me, forget it. i'll go elsewhere.

i just caught a recent clorox commercial and it talked about body scum or something of that nature, and in an alien fashion showed the scum climbing up the clothes and attacking the wearer. yawn. next.

on MSNBC there is a series called "nature's nightmares." this particular episode was about "hornets from hell."

On Sunday, October 27, 2002, the world premier of "Hornets From Hell" had television viewers across North America on the edge of their seats. Presented as part of National Geographic Television & Film's popular Explorer series, the show was billed as "the bone-chilling tale of the Japanese giant hornet, a real-life monster." Given the dramatic and terrifying footage it contained, it was a film documentary that more than lived up to its advance billing.

while they are terrible creatures, and people have died from their stings and swarming, it didn't warrant the godzilla music in the background, and the screams laid in. literally, i kid you not, when the hornet would step down, a large drum would sound, step, bum, step, bum, step, bum---i think the film was made in some asian country, but still, come on! why the fear-based presentation?

i grow weary of everyone trying to scare me. i had a dear cousin marketing some au natural product, and the literature she gave me was frightening. i told her, if you want to sell me something, promote it logically, reasonably, and maybe, if you product is good, i'll give it a try. but try to scare me and i won't even consider your product. she didn't bother with me. i guess there are many others out there who respond to fear.

i mentioned christian gospels being peddled by fear, and i say that because i am reviewing a stack of books, among them, one which draws parallels between biblical end-time prophecy and america's stance on israel and the middle east. i would like to read a reasonable account presented in an objective manner, the author is a journalist so it doesn't seem unreasonable to want that. but i think journalism has gone the way of editorial pages. the news is slanted by the author's opinion and it makes for lowsy journalism, and even worse reading.

i won't comment on the book for now, i'm only half way through the first chapter, but it took twelve pages to get to the author's premise, the opening material was opinion upon unverifyable fact, upon more opinion and hype. no wonder christians are viewed as irrational and illogical. this book is under the new warner-faith label. are they really out to print quality christian literature, or just to make a sale? this book makes me think the latter. the acknowledgements are mostly a who's who at warner faith. it's sad really.

moral: write objectively unless your piece is clearly subjective.