&gt; Maybe you believe in the media distilling knowledge to us...<p>What makes you say that? I literally just described their output with the word &quot;barf&quot;. Granted, human vomit is definitely food on its way to being chemically simplified, but I don&#x27;t think that&#x27;s the connotation you had in mind.<p>&gt;  I believe in the people fortifying and defending themselves with competence.<p>Competence is good, but it does <i>NOT</i> come from a breathless 24&#x2F;7 media obsession over a big scary &quot;SHOOTERMAGEDDON&quot; animated title and constant loops of gruesome footage, nor from the interspersed speculation over &quot;hints&quot; in facebook and twitter feeds.<p>In fact, forget the advertising, novelty-appeal, or emotional-appeal, it does something evne worse: It instills a <i>FALSE</i> sense of competence in the viewers. (Seriously, there are studies, look &#x27;em up.)