Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - The Propaganda Playbook: Fear Machine (Only 28% of Americans Trust the News. Ebola and Hantavirus Headlines Prove Why) - #Marketing - Ep. 131

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

In 2020, something got installed in your brain — a switch. And every time the media needs a click, they flip it, because they know it still works. This week it’s Ebola. Three weeks ago it was hantavirus. The CDC says the risk to Americans is extremely low. The WHO went on camera and said this is not the next Covid. But that’s not what the headlines say… because calm doesn’t get clicks. Fear does. In this episode I show you the machine behind the fear — the funnel, the business model, the exact script. I teach a framework called Hook, Story, Offer, and when I looked at how the media covers these virus stories, I realized they’re running the same three steps I teach marketers… except they’re not selling a product, they’re selling fear. Then I bring in two books — a 1962 warning from French philosopher Jacques Ellul, and my friend Ryan Holiday’s confessions of a media manipulator — to explain not just how they do it, but why. And as a dad, the part that keeps me up at night is who’s paying the price. Key Highlights: ◼️The “Fear Funnel” — how the media runs the same Hook, Story, Offer I teach, except the hook is a scary headline, the story buries the CDC’s “extremely low risk” at the bottom, and the offer is a subscription to your own anxiety ◼️”Pre-propaganda” — Jacques Ellul’s 1962 idea that the most powerful conditioning happens before the message ever arrives… and why Covid installed the switch the word “virus” still flips today ◼️What Ryan Holiday’s “Trust Me, I’m Lying” exposes — the media doesn’t sell information, it sells attention, and the cheapest attention is fear and outrage that bypass rational thought (your amygdala clicks before you do) ◼️The numbers behind a dying industry — media trust falling from 72% in the 1970s to 28% today (just 8% among Republicans), and fear as the last lever that still works ◼️The “Disclosure Test” — the one question to run on your own urgency: if your audience knew exactly how and why you created it, would they still respect you? Here’s the uncomfortable part: urgency itself isn’t the enemy. Deadlines work, scarcity drives action, and I use urgency in my business every single day. The line is whether it’s real. A cart that’s actually closing is real. “The next pandemic” when the CDC says the risk is extremely low — when fear just happens to pay the bills — is manufactured. Ellul predicted this in 1962, Holiday exposed it in 2012, and we’re watching it run in real time in 2026, with the most anxious generation in recorded history footing the bill. So the real question isn’t whether the next virus is dangerous. It’s this: which is more dangerous right now — the virus, or the coverage… and which side of that line is your own marketing on? ◼️DOTCOM SECRETS: The media stole Hook, Story, Offer and turned it into a fear machine — Russell wrote the book on how to use it the RIGHT way. DotCom Secrets breaks down exactly how funnels really work, so you can build a real business that helps people instead of being manipulated by one. Grab a free copy → https://www.DotComSecrets.com ◼️If you’ve got a product, offer, service… or idea… I’ll show you how to sell it (the RIGHT way) Register for my next event → https://sellingonline.com/podcast ◼️Still don’t have a funnel? ClickFunnels gives you the exact tools (and templates) to launch TODAY → https://clickfunnels.com/podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you have a funnel, but it's not converting? The problem 99.9% of the time is that your funnel is good, but you suck at selling. If you want to learn how to sell so your funnels will actually convert, then get a ticket to my next selling online event by going to sellingonline.com slash podcast. That's selling online.com slash podcast. This is the Russell Brunson show. In 2020, something got put into your brain, a switch. And every time the media can, they flip the switch because they know that it still works. This week is Ebola.

Three weeks ago, it was a hanta virus. The CDC said the risk to Americans is extremely low. The WHO said on the camera, This is not the next COVID. But the headlines don't say that, because calm does not get clicks. Fear does. And today I'm going to show you exactly how they do it.

The machine, the funnel, the business model behind the fear. I'm going to use a book that was written in 2012 to predicted all of it. This is the propaganda playbook, where I take the biggest stories in the news and decode the propaganda techniques that are hidden inside of them. And then I show you how to use the ethical version of those same techniques to grow your business.

So with that said, let's get right into today. I teach a framework called Hook Story Offer and it's the backbone of every sales funnel that I've ever built. When I looked at how the media covers these virus stories, I realized they're using the exact same script, except they're not selling a product, they're selling fear.

Here's how it works. Step one, the hook. That headline, that's the hook. It's designed to do one thing. Trigger the part of your brain that kept your ancestors alive, the fear response. Your heart rate goes up, your palms get sweaty,

and you have to click. Not because you want to, but because your brain will let you scroll past a survival threat. That's the same thing I teach marketers to do with the sales page, except I teach them to use curiosity and desire. And the media uses raw fear. Step number two is the story. The article itself, and this is where it gets sneaky.

Read any of these virus articles top to bottom. The scary stuff is at the top. The context, the part of the CDC says it's an extremely low risk, is buried at the bottom or it's not there at all. And this is not an accident. That's a structure. The story is built to keep your anxiety going paragraph by paragraph,

every line adding a new what if. What if it spreads? What if it mutates? What if we're not ready? By the time you get to the context, you've already been scared for three minutes. Step number three is the offer. And here's the part that nobody talks about.

The offer isn't a product. The offer is to stay tuned. Follow more for updates. Sign up for alerts. Turn on your notifications. They're not selling you a cure. They're selling you a subscription to fear. And the price is your attention.

your mental health, and your ad impressions. Because every time you click, they get paid. Every time you refresh, they get paid. Every time you share with a friend and say, did you see this? They just got paid. And that's the fear funnel. Hook you with the scary headline,

keep you with the scary story, and then sell you ongoing anxiety as a subscription. And the machine runs itself. My question for you is, would you ever wear a mask again? I want to know. Drop it down the comments and let me know where you stand. All right, so let me show you what the actual science says, not the headlines, but the science.

Hanta virus. Cruiship outbreak in April. in April, 11 cases, three deaths, all in one ship. The CDC says, and this is a direct quote, the risk to the American public is extremely low. Harvard says the hent virus pandemic is nearly impossible. It spread through rodent contact, not through the air. Then we got Ebola, the new outbreak in the Congo and Uganda,

246 suspected cases. This is serious for that region. The WHO declared health emergency on May 17. But the CD said that the risk to the United States is low. Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids, not through the air, not through casual contact. So scientists are saying low risk, extremely low risk, no COVID, not airborne, not pandemic.

And then the headlines are saying, is this the next pandemic? This is not the next COVID. But it is a serious infectious disease. You know, it's an infectious disease that if people get infected and infections are uncommon, they can die. And that gap between what science says and what the headlines say, that gap is where the money is. That's the business model and it works because of something that was instilled in all of us, six years ago.

In 1962, a French philosopher named Jacques Ewell wrote a book called propaganda. And he described something that most people have never heard of. He called it pre-propaganda. Pre-propaganda isn't a campaign. It's not a message. It's the condition that happens before a message. It's the thing that makes you ready to believe

with the propaganda when it comes. And COVID was the most effective pre-propaganda event in modern history. Think about what happened in 2020. For two years, you were told that viruses can shut down the world. Your life can be taken away overnight. Trust the experts, follow the rules, and stay afraid. Whether that was justified or not, I'm not debating that today, although we could. What I am telling you is that that experience installed something, a switch, a reflex. And now,

every time the word virus appears in a headline, that switch gets flipped. Your body remembers 2020 before your brain can process the facts. And the media knows it. They don't have to convince you to be afraid of hanta virus. They don't even have to prove that Ebola is a threat. They just have to say the words, next pandemic, and your body does the rest for them. That's the old pre-propaganda, the conditioning that makes future propaganda automatic. Now, there's a second book that explains why the media does this, not just how, but why. It's written by one of my friends named Ryan Holiday. In Ryan's past, he was a media manipulator. Back in the day, he worked for American Apparel, and his job was to plant fake stories in blogs and then watch them get traded up

the chain, from small blog to a bigger site to cable news until they became real stories. And in 2012, he wrote this book right here, Trust me, I'm lying, Confessions of a Media Manipulator to show you exactly how the system works. And his core insight was simple. The media doesn't sell information, it sells attention. And the cheapest way to get attention is fear and outrage because those emotions bypass rational thought.

You don't choose to click on a scary headline. Your amygdala clicks it for you. And here's where it gets real. Look at these numbers. In the 1970s, 72% of Americans trusted the media. Today, it's only 28%. It's an all-time low. Among Republicans, it's only 8%.

And among people under 30, under 28%. Even among Democrats, only 51%, the lowest ever for that group. The media is in free fall. Viewers are leaving for podcasts, YouTube, independent creators, and revenue is collapsing and fear is the last lever that still works. Outrage fatigue has set in for political content.

But pandemic fear, this still triggers the switch that was installed in 2020. These virus headlines aren't journalism. There are a dying industry pointing the last lever that still works. And the price isn't measured in dollars. It's measured in anxiety disorders, broken trust, and a generation of young people who are conditioned to be afraid during the most important years of their development. What was the moment that you stopped trusting the news? Was there a story that broke that did it for you? Was it something else? Let me know in the comments down

below. I'm curious what it was for you. Now, this is the part that really gets me because I have kids. And the generation grown up right now, the kids who went through COVID lockdowns during their most important developmental years, they're the most anxious generations in recorded history. The WHO reported a 25% spike in anxiety and depression worldwide during the first year of COVID alone. These kids lost school, they lost friendships, they lost milestones, and then they got handed phones with news apps that kept feeding them the same fear because scared kids clicked just like scared adults. And now every time a virus makes the news, these kids relive 2020, not because the virus is dangerous because the coverage triggers the conditioning. The media is hijacking

the trauma of an entire generation for ad revenue. Now I teach people how to use Hook Story offer to build businesses that help people, that change people's lives and to create real value. The media uses the same framework to create anxiety for profit. Same tools, same structure, one builds, and the other destroys. If you're seeing this right now, type awake

in the comments down below if you can see what the machine is doing. So what do you do with this? Because urgency is real, deadlines work, scarcity drives action, and I use urgency in my marketing every day. And that's not wrong, but there is a line. I talked about this in my last episode about the AI do machine.

I call it the disclosure test. Before you use urgency, in your business, ask yourself one question. If my audience knew exactly how and why I was creating this urgency, would they still respect me? Are you closing a cart because the cart's actually closing? That's real. If you're saying there's limited spots because the room holds 500 people, that's real.

If you're raising price Monday because you made a business decision to raise it, that's real. But if you're saying, this is the next pandemic when the CDC says, this is extremely low risk. Just because fear gets more clicks, that fails the test. That's manufactured urgency. And the 28% trust number is what happens when an entire industry fills the disclosure test for 20 straight years. Here's what I want you to take away from this. The media learned during COVID that fear is the most profitable content that they can produce. And now every time a new virus makes the news, henta virus, Ebola, whatever comes next, they flip the switch that was installed in 2020.

Not because the science says you should be afraid, but because your fear pays their bills. You all predicted this in 1962. Holiday exposes in 2012. and in 2026, we're watching it happen in real time. The same fear funnel, the same hook story offer, all weaponized. And the same generation of young people paying the highest price. The question isn't whether the next virus is dangerous. The question is who benefits when you're afraid? Follow the money every single time.

Which is more dangerous right now? The virus or the coverage? And what should I decode next? Let me know, drop it down below. Everything I just showed you, the hook story offer that was weaponized by the media, these are the same frameworks I teach inside of my book called dot-com, except I show you how to use them to build something not to scare people, not to manufacture anxiety, to create real businesses that actually help people.

Hook Story offer, that's a framework that the media stole and then turned into a fear machine. But when you use it the way that I teach it with a real product, a real story, and real offer that changes someone's lives, it's the most powerful business building tool on the planet. If this episode opened your eyes to how funnels work, even when they're being used against you, then dot com Secrets is where you want to learn how to build your own. Go grab a free copy at dot comsecrets.com or hit the link down in the description. because here's the truth the media is using your attention to fund their dying business model the best thing you can do is to stop consuming their fear and start building something of your own

go to dot comsecrets.com and i'll see you on the inside