Conspiracy Theories and Sensationalism

Network and The Parallax View look to be completely unrelated. One is about a corrupt network who kill a man for lousy ratings instead of getting him help, because he is quite obviously insane. The other is about an American senator's assassination at the hands of a very large and organized secret assassin's company. The ridiculousness of that last statement is a testament to America's love of a good conspiracy. But how are these things related? In the beginning of this year Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot by a crazed gunman. Fortunately for her and 13 other people, the wounds were not fatal. 6 more were not so lucky. The assailant, Jared Loughner, was quite obviously insane and showed numerous signs of mental illness. It was obvious that he acted alone and carried out the deed in broad daylight in front of numerous witnesses. That didn't stop conspiracy theorists from trying to claim the whole thing didn't happen. What drives people to this edge? When 99% of America believes this is an event that happened, why do 1% hold to a falsehood? Sensationalism is the answer. The greatest of all sensationalists today (and thankfully, recently fired) is Glenn Beck. Dana Milbank, of The Washington Post, explains why Beck lost his job even though he is one of the most popular TV personalities on Fox. The entire time I was watching Howard Beale lose it in Network I kept thinking of Glenn Beck. They both have wildly popular shows and they both cater to an audience that is mad as hell. Like Beale, Beck encourages his audience to do something about it, but Beck caters to conspiracy theories and I believe in many cases, can inadvertently promote them. Beck uses a blackboard to connect all of the crazy ideas he has in his mind, and it worked for a while. He rode the fear wave that comes out of a post 9/11 and post economic-collapse world. But like Howard Beale he eventually became a liability for the controversial things he was saying. I'm just glad Fox didn't take the route that UBS did in Network. Sensationalism can easily lead to conspiracy theories, but that just might be a conspiracy theory of my own.