Irritated By Bitter Nothings

The popular press
has always had to pay for itself,
and has never done better
than goading the reader
to keep on reading for more irritation.

The more the reader reads
the more they pay more to read,
the better to make them more annoyed...

Thus the papers meet
their real reason for being-
raising revenue from advertising.

Given a choice of untruths
to amuse the populous with
the press have to care
about which lies to tell,
that they are not seen to irritate
whilst doing exactly that.

This is one of many examples
of the counter-intuitive logic
through which modern capital
keeps it's grip
amid our 'freedom of choice'.