The Media of Mass Deception

By Brian Fisher, Christian Post Guest Columnist Thursday, July 31, 2008

We are being lied to. And much of the time, we believe the lies.

For more than 50 years, the massive media presence in our country has been spewing lie after lie on the American people.

To fully understand the media lies and their effects, we must first comprehend how deeply media influences us. Scripture makes it clear that there is a direct relationship between what we allow into our minds and how we think and behave:

• In Romans 12:2 we're told not to be conformed to this world, but to be "transformed by the renewing of our minds."
• Joshua 1:8 commands us to "meditate on it (the Book of the law or Bible) day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it."
• Proverbs is filled with warnings regarding what we put into our heads and hearts.

To some extent, every one of us is influenced by what we see and hear. And we see and hear media every day, generally for at least several hours. In this tech-savvy culture, we define media as television, radio, Internet activities, video games, and written material. So how much of our time is spent engaged in one or more forms of this media?

• A study by The University of Kansas notes that children spend more time watching TV than any other activity, except sleep.
• Talk radio continues to expand both on-air and on-line.
• Internet availability and usage statistics are exploding.

Just think about it—how many hours a day, on average, (be honest) do you spend participating in one form of media or another? Now just to make us all feel guilty—how does that length of time compare with time spent in Bible reading and prayer?

Ouch.

It's no wonder, then, that even the Church is fairly impotent when attempting to address cultural issues from a biblical standpoint. We're spending more time with lies than with truth.

Some time ago, I coined the phrase "Media of Mass Deception" to describe most of what comes out of major media outlets. Large newspapers, cable channels, network shows, music radio, some social networking sites, most popular books, and the majority of advertising fit into this category. And if we look carefully and critically at these media outlets, we discover that most of the information they broadcast is, at best, half-truths; at worst, maliciously false.

In the coming weeks, we'll take a look at some of the specific tactics the Media of Mass Deception uses to influence American culture and why they have such phenomenal success.