The Propaganda Machine

I'm not usually prone to thinking that the major media is a propaganda machine of the state, but today reading and watching news reports, it's hard to not think that.

Example 1:
The TSA Opt-Out Story
If you read the headlines or watch the Today show, etc., the message is the Opt-Out didn't happen. People don't really mind giving up their liberties to keep us safe. 

If you search Twitter though and see what people who were participating in the Opt-Out protests had to say about yesterday, at most security checkpoints, they went back to the old TSA security check: metal detector, back of hand pat-down instead of the more thorough custody search.

the TSA no longer inflicts "pat-downs" but something far worse: "A ‘pat-down' search by definition is ‘a frisk or external feeling of the outer garments of an individual for weapons only. ... anyone who watches cop shows knows what a pat-down search is. The words are part of the American lexicon, and the public's image of a pat-down search by police is something that isn't all that bad." Shame on us that we didn't consider it "all that bad" for the TSA to defy the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on "unreasonable," warrantless searches, though previously with the "backs of their hands." The cop continues: "... In police work, [the TSA's current method is] called a custody search [and] includes everything short of a cavity search. The TSA needs to be honest about what they're doing. It's not nice to lie to the American people."

Standing Up to the TSA by Becky Akers

Example 2:
North Korea vs. South Korea
First off, North Korea is one of the worst countries on earth. They seem to live in another dimension. One day, their people will be free, and it will be a shock to its people when they realize that most of what they have been taught their entire lives is a lie.

The Korean War was never really settled, it just was put on hold with a cease fire. Neither side won any sort of victory. The US still sits there on the border with the South Koreans facing down the North Koreans in the world's dumbest face-off.

Given all of this, why would you even risk provoking them?

“The attack on Yeonpyeong Island occurred after South Korean forces on exercises fired test shots into waters near the North Korean coast. ”

You mean to tell me that the South Korean military fired test shots near the North Korean coast before the North Koreans shelled that island from which the South Korean shots were made?

Yep.

According to this news report posted on Brahmand.com Defence and Aerospace News, the South Korean test shots into waters near the North Korean coast were part of a military exercise involving 70,000 South Korean troops designed to “enhance combat capabilities against North Korea.”

Madison Was Right about Korea by Jacob G. Hornberger

A disproportional response by the North, to be sure. If you read deep into some articles in the major media, you'll find that tidbit, but the headlines and TV reports don't mention it.