The Media’s Manufactured Fear
One rule to follow when evaluating the news stories being pushed onto us by the media: If it's spectacular, world-shaking, and has the capacity to significantly alter the course of your life even though you live thousands of miles away from where it happened, then it's probably bullshit. Whenever you hear about some really big, truly world-changing phenomenon, then it is usually speculation, bullshit speculation meant to get you to stick around through the commercial break.
The only event in my lifetime that has not fit exactly within this rule has been 9/11 and by the time I heard of it, most of the drama was already over.
If the media tells you that something big is going to happen, it probably won't. If they say that something dramatic scary is coming your way it probably isn't, or it won't be all that scary.
So, Tupac is dead, along with Elvis. Pig Flu won't kill you. There will be no nuclear apocalypse. You will probably die without seeing again anything nearly as dramatic as 9/11.
Understand this, people: The news is not about informing you. It's a business. McDonald's is not about feeding you, it's about getting your money. The media does not make money with unforeseen disasters in progress. These things are hard to plan for, the timing is wrong, the coverage is spotty because it was unforeseen, and it's complicated by the logistics of getting reporters on the ground, creating awesome graphics, and not being beaten by some other news-team. Better to create a scare over some relatively trivial thing so that you are in control of the action and how everything unfolds. You can plan out what trivial thing you are going to make scary and look for relevant advertising long before you start to frighten the populace. You can get your graphics team working weeks ahead of time, and make sure your reporters know more about it than anybody else's.
The media has calculated that people are dumb and easily tricked. Push the right buttons and you have yourself a loyal audience. Missing little kid, serial killer, robbery on video, live police chase, natural disaster, cute animal story, big panic story. Over and over again. People never get tired of it. Sell them something big to panic about and you will insert urgency in their lives, something to do, something to buy, some excuse to call or email their kids. None of it has to make sense providing it summons up the right emotions.