Some perspective: Years back, people who reported the news weren't newsmakers. They were just conduits to tell the story. Today - they are not just reporting news but become news themselves. Every stupidity out of Hucker Marlson's mouth is heard by tens of millions of people and dissected and analyzed on countless shows and podcasts.
This is what gets people [like him] rich and famous.
If he would just report the news and say regular things and interview normal, regular people he would be lost in the large mass of people who already do this and we have never heard of. End of career. So he interviews Nazi supporters, Holocaust deniers, murderers [like Putin and the Iranian leader], white supremacists and loves to insinuate old anti-semitic tropes [not to be confused with the *trope* we chant when we read the Torah] and the world can't get enough of him.
Mendacity Owens would just be another black girl working in Macy's [with all the respect we have for cashiers of all colors at Macy's. I, too, am a man of color. My color is white] but her opinions made her rich and famous. So to keep the spotlight she gets more and more radical. If it would be good for business to say other things then she would. It could be she really believes what she says but she has a reason to say and believe it. Moolah.
That is also why the language today everywhere in the non-Torah world is completely filthy and vulgar. Curses are uttered with no limits and are totally acceptable even in "polite company". That is just the way people speak [and write]. This includes people on the highest levels such as the President and VP. Both have foul-they-need-some-soap-to-wash-it-out-mouths. Profanity has shock value and gets more attention so people use it. Videos and articles are also given super sensationalist titles in order to catch your attention but are almost always boring and run of the mill. ["Ben Shapiro DESTROYS Kamala Harris". "Matt Walsh PULVERIZES a rude leftist professor" "Jordan Peterson reveals the REAL reason we were put on earth" "How I came out of the closet at my Bar Mitzva" "Jesus appeared to me and told me THIS". Or for the frum media "I was addicted to --- until I met my bashert" "Why we can't live on 350k a year - a stormy debate" "Child abuse in the Chasidic community" "New York’s Elderly Jews Torn Between Man Who Would Kill Them For Being Jewish And Man Who Would Kill Them For Being Elderly"].
My point is that today people are incentivized to say wacky-wacky things in vulgar-vulgar ways [this includes even people with kippot וד"ל] and interview wacky-wacky people people because that will put them in the spotlight and thus help them become rich and famous. Others who want to become relevant are also incentivized to talk about these famous people [who are really nobodies and their opinions have no more validity than the average minimally intelligent person - often less] in order that they too will get attention and become rich and famous. But if one just gives a straight report of what is going on [often next to nothing so they are compelled to endlessly analyze what was and speculate about what will be] and doesn't express any personal views or expresses mainstream views in a dignified manner the clicks won't come.
No clicks - no bucks.
No bucks - you *lost* the game of life which is [in our spiritually ill culture] having the most toys possible when dying.
Nobdy wants to be a *loser*. [Our president's whole campaign was basically that he is going to make America the winner on the world stage and beat everyone - especially China].
So as I have written in the past - If these wackos would just be ignored they would disappear. But they purposely [I speculate] say extreme things and interview extreme people in order to keep the spotlight on themselves. And the world doesn't catch on that it is all a ruse so they play into it.
It is like how Donald J. won the elections in 2016. He said the wackiest and most insulting things, which got him all of the press [mostly negative], the spotlight was obsessively on him and PRESTO - meet your new president. Had he been dignified and just said regular things with the usual politician rhetoric - nobody would have paid much attention to him since he had exactly zero days of experience in politics. So what made him qualified to be the commander in chief of the armed forces [he never served in the army and knows nothing about running one] and the most powerful person in the world?? The fact that he made some money in real estate [and also lost a ton]?? No. His wackiness.
Welcome to 2025 למנינם.
Mussar Haskel: Time is your most valuable asset. Use it well. Your ears and eyes can be כלים to behold קדושה or the opposite. Be mindful of that.
