Engendering fear in a community or an individual is a well practised control technique.

The Age regularly prints articles to terrorise young mothers so they do not allow their children to walk to school unsupervised or play in the park - even though statistics show children are vulnerable to family and family friends - "Stranger Danger" sounds good.

Young women are controlled by engendering fear of lurking rapists .

1930s Germany kept the population fearful of being reported to the authorities by their children, fearful of returning to hyperinflation and fearful of the Jewish menace to the extent that they blinkered their vision and common decency and humanity flew out the window. I wasn't alive in the 1930s but I wonder if there aren't parallels when Australia accepts torture of prisoners kidnapped from their homes for ransom, refuses safe haven to refugees fleeing certain death.

Mark Lawson is spot on, as is Billie who recognises that governments beating up fear every now and again keeps them in control and 'needed'.

The swine flu is another fizzer, and even the global recession hasn't stopped people from spending and getting on with their lives. It's true that jobs have been lost, but that's just another turn of the cycle that is part of our financial system.

The media does its share of scare-mongering to sell papers, but there is absolutely no excuse for governments, who are generally trying to hide something else far worse than what they are trying to scare us with.

This is what you get when you allow the media to be owned by too few people. It is all about sensationalism and hype and never about real news. Fear sells so that is what they serve up on all media platforms.
The only way to change it is to destroy the media monopolies and educate people to be more discerning and recognise when they are being taken for a mug. Stop watching commercial television and use places like OLO more.

Ban shock jocks like the parrot and his ilk. Slimey, evil bastards praying on peoples insecurities and making the whole situation much much worse. Demonising people and creating conflict where none existed. A pox on society and like a cancer they only seem to get worse as they strive to be even more rednecked and xenophobic than the previous prat.

Notice how the cycle is shortening. Not long ago it was the fires. Then we had the GFC. Then it was reffoes. Last week it was pig flu. Whats next? It is like they are wishing for the next big disaster so they can show us how compassionate they are while they make squillions. How long before they start causing the disasters so they can get a story? The media - The scum of the earth.

Hey guys, don't blame the media! Mothers worked out the value of fear back when Adam was a lad (well, maybe a bit after). Fear is a very powerful weapon as politicians know. Unfortunately some very intelligent people are not very smart when it comes to fear.

And then we have our national broadcasters who continue to preach their climate change mantras in order to pressure governments into making dumb decisions based on laughable 'science models'. Thankfully this scaremongering is finally being exposed as many scientist once to afraid to speak out can't play the game any longer knowing how foolish they look.

Runner's comment reminds me of a comment I heard early Black Saturday: "The Premier is recommending we don't travel unless necessary! I mean, come on! Its just a hot day!". From exaggeration to accusations of negligence in 4 days!
Swine flu could yet surprise people, but for now it does look like a fizzer. (I certainly hope so!) Climate change however is no fizzer. You don't get oil exploration and national jostling in the Arctic because the oil companies and governments are fooled by hype: Way too expensive for that!
The deniers however are looking very foolish. Rather than admit the evidence, they are just doing a Big Tobacco and hiring talent to spout the ignorant rubbish that they want to believe.
You assume that scientist will behave the same way that financial analysts or priests do: ie. Pour on more BS and hope no one notices how wrong they have been. I guess the dishonest cannot really imagine what an honest person thinks like, so must assume they will act as they do.
Of more concern is the suicide problem. Why is self harm the leading cause of death? What have we done in society lately to make this happen?
International research has shown: Suicide rates proportional to Rich/Poor gap and social cohesion. I'd like to blame the Howard years for at least some of the increase as he did both: He fed the wealthy at the expense of the poor, and flamed culture wars in a particularly nasty way that made people not so proud of their community. When your government is actively working against you, family tragedies can become overwhelming. Some folks just don't have that many support structures.
Reducing corruption and authoritarianism would help too, but that would involve some growing up from most management and "leaders"...