I watched a little bit of Fox News tonight (Hannity and then a little of Ingraham), and I realized they use a very simple formula: Everything presented on TV news is systematically intended to piss off the demographic that watches it.

On Fox, the formula is to develop content that is disturbing to conservatives. For example, each night Fox will show various news clips that feature Democrat politicians (e.g., Nancy Pelosi) saying stupid things, which isn't hard to do. But the point is to makes Fox News viewers angry–about anything and everything. The key here is that conservative viewers in their daily routines might not be exposed to what Democrats are saying to one another. This might be due, in part, to the fact that conservatives just might not want to hear such garbage. Yet, because Fox is considered an ideological ally, they will allow themselves to "listen in" just to learn what the "enemy" has been scheming. Though this exposure produces anger, the Fox viewer feels comforted that the "news" host can commiserate with them, and some manner appreciates that the host in in agreement and their anger over Democrat idiocy is justified and affirmed.

Another practice on "news" programs is to show TV clips from rival "news" networks where the progressive host or guest says stupid things, which again makes Fox News viewers angry. This goes on and on for each show, stacking one emotional manipulation on another, and then another. There are a few "facts" and morsels of information sprinkled in, but most of the content is emotional in nature and is intended to provoke an emotional response in viewers.

Of course, CNN, MSNBC, etc. use the same exact formula, but target a different demographic and use different material to achieve their ends.

The magic lies in orchestrating a series of well-timed adrenaline rushes, resulting from periodic bursts of anger, indignation and outrage in their viewers. Over time, these stimuli produce an emotional feedback loop in viewers, which becomes addictive by design and serves many objectivesto produce and maintain higher ratings, and thus maximize advertising revenuesbut more darkly, they are useful in molding the thought processes, and in turn subsequent behaviors, in millions upon millions of people.

You will also find this structure when you browse internet "news" aggregators, where you can pick stories that satisfy your own personal emotional cravings and/or political bias–like picking items from a menu. The "information war" isn't really about information at all. It's about emotion. There IS information out there. It's just very difficult to find the signal in the noise. And it's exhausting to verify that if the information you are receiving is actually valid information. The other difficulty is that the analytical part of the brain tends to shut down with emotional stress inherent with these "news" operations. And that's a potential stumbling block for any human being.