On an average payday in Flint, Michigan,
a hundred and seventy thousand workers
have a paycheck coming in.
And seven hundred thousand people,
living well in San Francisco,
have a home to go home to.

While eight million New Yorkers
made it through another year,
somehow avoiding being victims
of all those shootings we all hear about.
And Cleveland keeps bragging
about the Cuyahoga River:
it’s not burning anymore.
But, you know, no one wants to hear it.

Because the sponsors pay
by the market share and ratings,
and the networks know that fear is fascinating,
so the news may be bad,
but it’s never as bad
as the newsman wants you to think.
It’s never as bad as it seems.

On an average work day on Capitol Hill,
they stoke that paranoia with another knee-jerk bill.
But today, two hundred thousand were not killed
in South Central L.A.
Like most days, it was a good day.

And last year, in spite of lawyers
dragging quibbles into court,
a hundred million married couples did not get divorced.
That’s a hundred times the number that they tell you,
but of course, you know statistics always lie
beneath the perfect hair and the power tie.

We go live onto the scene;
it’s like we’re warmed by the ashes
of the American Dream.
Ever wonder why you see the same old stories
every channel that you turn to,
hoping for an escape?

Now, we all know bad things happen.
And life is full of dangers.
I just thought you’d want to know
before you lock that fallout shelter
that a hundred million dollars
in the past twenty-four hours
have been spent to make you think
you should be terrified of strangers.