The grim faces of the board members said it all. The big car company was in serious trouble. More and more of its cars were failing safety tests and being involved in fatal accidents.
Huge headlines in the media warned of the dangers of driving in the company's vehicles. It was clear that the company was on the verge of bankruptcy.
The managers' eyes were drawn to the crisis specialist, who had been summoned to the meeting.
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A mischievous smile appeared on his lips and he said: "We need to talk about the air conditioner.".
""Our problem is the engine and the steering system, not the air conditioning," responded one of those present.
""That's right," the expert replied, his smile never leaving his face, "and therefore we need to make sure that the public talks about the air conditioner and not about the failures in the engine and steering system. We need to launch an extensive advertising campaign that will highlight the advantages of the air conditioner installed in the company's cars, so that the topic of discussion will be the air conditioner and not the safety failures.".
Reporting or creating?
If this description sounds like a joke to you, you are wrong.
This is precisely one of the strategies employed in situations of this kind – to divert the discussion from the main and important issue to trivial matters. If this is done with the appropriate sophistication and means, the public falls into the trap and begins to engage in air conditioning.
The same tactic is also used in election campaigns. When a party discovers that the public rejects its positions on key issues, it tries with all its might to direct the public agenda toward issues where it can win over voters.
More than the battle is fought over the vote itself, it is about setting the public agenda.
As long as this war is waged between party strategists, it is legitimate, and the public can also identify the motives behind the propaganda. The situation worsens when major media outlets join the effort to change the agenda, with the aim of helping one side or the other in the political system.
It must be understood that one of the elements of the media's power is in setting the agenda.
A headline in a major newspaper sparks discussion of the issue on current affairs programs in electronic media, invites responses from politicians and other public figures, and suddenly the entire public is talking and discussing a particular issue.
However, unlike partisan propaganda signs, when the media shifts the agenda, with a clear motive to help a particular side in the political system, the public has difficulty noticing the manipulation being done behind their backs.
He believes that the press only reports on events, and he does not understand that it creates them.
This is life.
Of course, economic issues are important to all of us, but they are marginal compared to questions of life and death.
How does every family behave when one of their children finds themselves in a life-threatening situation? They break savings, sell assets, postpone dreams, and do everything to save the life of their family member.
This is an accurate description of our situation at this time.
Our enemies, backed by the world, are besieging us with the aim of establishing a terrorist state in the heart of the Land of Israel. We have seen how much Jewish blood has been shed as a result of all the retreats and concessions. The most important challenge now is to withstand the pressures and not allow the establishment of this state.
The public understands this, so they try to confuse them, distract them, and make them talk about the air conditioner. But it's not the air conditioner, it's our lives.
