“Scary scenarios” (abetted by “advocacy” or “crusader” “journalism”), indeed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_oper…
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Psychological Operations (PSYOP, PSYOPS) are techniques used by military and police forces to influence a target audience's value systems, belief systems, emotions, motives, reasoning, and behavior. Target audiences can be governments, organizations, groups, and individuals, and are used in order to induce confessions, or reinforce attitudes and behaviors favorable to the originator's objectives. These are sometimes combined with black operations or false flag tactics.

This concept has been used by military institutions throughout history, but it is only since the twentieth century that it has been accorded the organizational and professional status it enjoys now.

The word is commonly used by governments, such as the government of the United States, who do not wish to use the term propaganda or brainwashing to refer to their own work. The word propaganda has very negative connotations, and by calling it psychological operations instead, more sophisticated methods of psychological manipulation are accurately incorporated by the terminology. This euphemism for mind control is ironically an example of psychological operations — i.e. using psychological techniques to persuade [manipulate] a large number of people to support something that they wouldn't normally support.[1]
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While it is only supposed to be used on foreign populaces, I guarantee you it isn't limited to that venue. Something worth considering. It is the GOPs favorite tool BTW..

Very hard to bring change into a person, to make them alter their routine behaviour. It can only occur if something within the person effects change.

There is a pretty good book by Farhad Manjoo called “True Enough” that sheds some light on the effects of media on our collective thinking, and several others such as “Don't believe everything you think” by Thomas Kida that explain the psychology of our belief systems, and how we come to incorporate them through very human lives.

All the more reason to have at least an attempt at a level discussion, but also methods of verifying data or “sayings” or analysis that at least allows us opportunity to learn if we keep some academic curiosity, don't celebrate a situation where “we create our own reality,” don't politicize science or the scientific method, at least, and keep reading blogs like “Moderate Voice” that, in its better days, represents several angles.

And I applaud, when a bad idea is a bad idea, the writers here that recognize it regardless of party line.