It's genuinely terrifying to realize just how much power mass media holds over shaping public opinion. Without even lying usually, simply choosing what to report and who to give a platform.

American media isn't even particularly bad in this respect, it looks generally fair and reasonable compared to eg, the British media.

the British print media. Our TV News is pretty sane and sober, although there are current efforts to change that. See: GB News

Yeah, I honestly feel like the BBC might have been the only thing preventing the UK going full-on culture war in the past ten or so years.

(in general, the legal requirement for TV to be impartial and cover both sides is a much bigger contributory factor).

There is an assumption in your comment: that crimes get reported and recorded uniformly.

There is a good reason why international comparison of crime tends to concentrate on murder. Crimes are neither reported not recorded the same way. Murder sorta-kinda comes closest in this regard: it is pretty hard to ignore violent deaths.

Things like endemic petty theft have the potential to make people move to another city, while their official record is pretty low.

Not sure crime is the best choice of example given the statistically low rates of crime in SF combined with firms shutting up shop because there is so much (unreported) crime.

On the east coast I used to buy snacks passed to me through a pulletproof wall. Yes, the entire store was behind plexiglass. Why they don't do this in tweaker central, I don't understand.