Chapter 4

Chapter 4 titled Monster Moms: On the Art of Misdirection focuses on how the media can use fear mongering on a topic like monster moms or more specifically killer moms and teen moms to direct or misdirect the public from topics of relevance and studies that may disprove a certain topic that they are exaggerating. If I didn't have a word count limit I could sum up the chapter with what I've said and the use of an example or two, but since that's, not the case this will cover a lot of examples and studies used in chapter 4. The first topic is teen moms, and the example comes from a confusing news report on a Cindy Garcia, whose actual name is Adella Quintana and the original reports says Cindy was "only 10" and "8 1/2 months pregnant" now the confusion comes from the fact that Cindy or Adella was actually 14 years old and the "neighbors had told reporters that Cindy was a pregnant teenager, or that social workers said her reading and math skills were those of a ninth or tenth grader."(pg 87) This example showcases a few of the key points Glassner likes to throw around, being inaccurate information or misleading information. Glassner states that the "Cindy-Addela likewise misdirected, focusing public attention away from real and enduring struggles of women trying to care for their children in an uncaring world."(pg 88) Another example comes from an interview on National Public Radio's Morning Edition in 1995 with Gary Bauer. Bauer made a claim that "It was not many years ago in this country when it was not common for thirteen-year-olds and fourteen-year-olds to be having children out of wedlock."(pg 89) The Interviewer Bob Edward never corrected the statement. He did not note that, until recently, most thirteen-and fourteen-years-olds were not able to have children. Glassner brings up this point because in most other topics journalist "overemphasize studies that show biochemical causes for a range of other social problems, such as hyperactivity in children,"(pg 89).  Glassner makes reference to how media and journalist have reversed the "causal order."(pg 91)  when talking about a declining economy and teen mothers. After the teen mother part of the chapter, Glassner moves on to point out another way the media misdirects the public. When faced with reliable information refuting the facts that they strive to relay they step back and push another topic in the way this topic being illegitimate children, which is a stem off from teen moms just the unmarried kind.  The idea was that children born to unmarried women were more likely to be put in jail. This is not that simple, however when studies were done that compared men raised by single mother and married mothers with similar incomes and education levels. One thing this does do is cause people like teachers or cops for example to generalize people born to single mothers, thus explaining why more end up in jail. Another topic that was brought up in the chapter was the other half of the population which is ignored by media, for the most part, the father. Even when fathers are brought up it is in an attempt to attack mothers since it is the absence of a father figure that causes so many of our social problems. The chapter starts to rap up with killer moms and how even when outside parties were apart of the problem leading up to the mother killing her child then are neatly swept aside. This happens in most cases whether it be a problem with a crazy mom or a domestic murder, the whole of the problem is not looked at and the viewer is misdirected to only see the person who committed said crime.

The Article that Relates to Chapter:

So the article I picked does focus on the examples like they have in the past. So that means I'm not focusing on killer moms, teen moms, or fatherless children what I'm focusing on is the media and journalist use of misdirection. The Article is titled "Drowning In a Sea of Misdirection" and comes from Freedom Magazine and was written by Jon Sinton. Something I should say before jumping into the article is that Freedom Magzine doesn't write about politics but they comment on media. I say this because it helps eliminate some bias. The article itself is about 6 pages long and the majority of the first part is used to talk about what media use to do right. This was interesting and brought up a lot of history but doesn't really relate to our topic in the chapter. The second half focused more on what media is doing today. One thing that Sinton states that I'd hope most people know already is that "fake news is not a new phenomenon." he continues to say "A century ago it was called "Yellow Journalism" and was wielded by big mainstream media purveyors." Sinton then goes on to talk about how the internet was ahead of its time and that it helped spread misleading, lies and just false information. He then jumps into false equivalence, epistemic closure, and active measures.  Epistemic closure is the worst of the three and this is when a journalist or a hardcore partisan only publish information that helps their own cause and supports their own argument and they ignore any information that goes against their worldview. False equivalence has also plagued journalism and this happens when a journalist makes what is clearly an absurd statement that is easy to disprove but continues to press the information do to lack of knowledge or because they think it creates journalistic balance. Now, this next quote is pretty straight to the point argument, " This whole business of fashioning our personal, impenetrable media silos that protect us from truths we'd rather not see, combined with the always-popular kill the messenger, has left us in uncharted waters in the Digital Age."(Jon Sinton) This quote very accurately sums up the topic of the article and relates to the Culture of Fear due to how Glassner himself depicts journalism. Active measures are simply measures taken to actively demoralize and destabilize your opponents. Something very common in today's society.