"Fifty years ago, a film called Network predicted that America would crack. When people started believing lies, their lives would become an illusion and only the lies would become real. The film documents a newsroom that has become a reality show, after an anchorman has a psychotic breakdown live on prime time TV. The ratings are so good that the anchor, Howard Beale, gets his own nightly show where he rages against the TV machine: “You're never going to get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you want to hear; we lie like hell… We'll tell you any shit you want to hear. We deal in illusions, man! None of it is true! But you people sit there, day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds... We're all you know. You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here. You're beginning to think that the tube is reality, and that your own lives are unreal… This is mass madness, you maniacs! In God's name, you people are the real thing! We are the illusion!” He pleads with the audience to turn off the TV." Made-for-TV Fascism: My Latest Hot Type Column in Byline Probes ‘Fascism Through A Lens’ bettedangerous.com/p/made-fo…