You would think that the world had imploded, or that another terrible attack had been made on our wonderful troops.

You would think so because that’s what the media said.

This is no Hunger Games dystopian reality, this is just the space that editorial “news” sources has left us. This time they’re calling it “coffeegate” and, since they don’t seem to have any real basis for argument, I thought that this would serve well as a platform for “how to lie, and and have people to like it.”

Step 1 – Politicize something with unrelated terms, likening it to another actually important matter. A good way to do this is to add suffixes or prefixes. E.g. “Blank”-gate is a classic one, thanks Watergate!

Step 2 – Convince other news sources that your truth of questioning the validity of any given thing is the truth. This works best if you just throw out vague terms like “a groundbreaking (read lying/non-scientific) study show that…” or question the authority of well-known sources by dredging up some closeted skeletons. For this you need to be sure that you are using vague terms, so that people are not able to question your sabotage.

Step 3 – Get a decent image to exploit. By decent, I mean meme worthy. If your photo has the potential to become the next “weeping, privileged girl” or “questioning African boy” you have made it to the top of sensationalistic arguments.

Step 4 – Go live with it. Broadcast on Twitter, Facebook, a billion-dollar-TV-Network and more, then watch the plebeians suffer from confusion.

These steps seem to be what was followed by Fox News this week, regarding the photograph of President Barack Obama saluting a troop when exiting Air Force One, while holding a coffee cup.

Wait, you’re probably thinking, is this the end of all we hold dear?

The answer is, of course it is not, it is just a very meme worthy photo.

This hypocrisy was pointed out marvelously by Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show,” when he showed a photo of President George W. Bush saluting a troop, while holding a puppy.

The speculations are trivial about the cause, Bush wanted to snuggle his dog, Obama probably needed a shot of caffeine, as we all do time to time. We shouldn’t want to talk about such trivial things, but that’s what we have in this age of insta-everything.

So why is it that we politicize topics, when all that does is polarize an issue? Because it enables us to avoid the real issues. When Fox News, or MSNBC or any organization with the power of loud, clear voice celebrates politicizing a topic because they have confused the issues, we should object.

Muddying the waters should not be considered beneficial, and yet, marketers consider it so.

“Thank You for Smoking” was a film that made this very clear, big tobacco put doubt into the minds of consumers, and we forget that the fumes of nicotine are the problem.

So here is to saluting the real problems, asking about poverty, education, immigration, hunger, and throwing out the photos of the coffee-cups and dog-lovers.

We don’t need to worry about humanizing our leaders with trivial things, we can humanize them by asking the tough questions and leaving the entertainment to the professionals.

Hollywood, here’s looking to you on addressing serious issues with serious art.

“News” organizations, remember used to be the watchdogs; we need those again.