Follow the Leader, Any Leader.

Sheep are skittish, but once they're reassured, they'll follow their leader anywhere without hesitation.  It works pretty well for sheep, but not for citizens of a democracy.  We need people to dare to think for themselves, as they were more likely to do before (and perhaps through the early years of) TV.  (Ok, maybe up to the point of Gilligan's Island.)

We're told lots of stories on the news, about the economy, about candidates' polling results and other issues.  It's likely that at one time or another in the past, we could actually trust the messenger - the newsroom of any major network.  Why? Because they were not viewed as a revenue source but almost a type of public service.  Money's deeply involved now and it's high stakes - in fact, there may be none higher.

The news is the news because it's unusual stuff in our everyday lives.  If it wasn't peculiar, titillating or statistically small, it wouldn't be broadcast.  It's good to remember that, just because a story is repeated often, it's not more prevalent in actual occurrence - only more apparent its perceived impact.  If a media consumer is Sheep-like, this makes all the difference.

It can be justifiably assumed these days that just about any significant media message we hear has a big money push behind it and that someone will profit handsomely if we believe the story.  A message that will have the effect of concentrating wealth upward will more likely find airtime these days (than those that don't, or than it might have had in earlier years).

A reminder now of the concept of triangulation:  two (or more) reference points offer enough information to (interpret, infer, compute, calculate, etc.) a third place that's closer to the goal, in this case - a truthier place.  "The Truth" itself is a whole 'nother blog.

Sheep do not triangulate, they ruminate.  And then they blurt out something profound, like "Baaaaaa".

A term closely related  to triangulation is "successive approximation", this is what scientists and artists and all other humans do all the time.  Any perception can make its way to the point in the brain where it needs to be interpreted in comparison with other perceptions and then moves onto judgment of its significance in relation to the whole.  Each repetition of this loop with new information gets one a little closer to goal of making sense out of all this - for one's self.  This is each citizen's responsibility.  Either we take this on, or we get out of the way and move to the back of the flock.