We live in a time when they even lie about the weather on TV to make money. It's no secret. Popular media is a power tool. Television and other forms of mass communication have progressively replaced reality for much of the modern world. Many of us have been conditioned since early childhood to adopt a conceptual reality rather than the reality we directly experience.
Concepts are easy to manipulate.
It's not advisable to stay glued to your television on August 13, 1999. Be a part of what's happening instead. Any project performs much better when it's under a deadline. We've been acting like there's an infinite amount of time to get ourselves together here on planet Earth. It may seem like an impossible, or at least highly improbable task.