Well, I have to agree that many newscasters are now insinuating scare words into their work, so as to semi-subliminally influence the viewers. I’m sure most people have enough sense to tell a hawk from a handsaw, but I’d bet there are studies showing that TV-watchers lose a good chunk of that ability to discern. I know I irritate people when I correct the record the newscaster just tried to twist. I should be less negative, they say.
I don’t know what the solution is to that, so I just shut up.
As to Brunner, the only work of his I’ve read is ‘Stand on Zanzibar’, which is so huge and so diverse what you wrote could be in there, but I don’t recall it.
John Brunner was an excellent Sci Fi writer, but the distopian vision he put forth was more dependent upon cultural forces than any advancement in technology.
High level executives living as roommates. People having possession of “their” apartment only for an eight hour shift. Women who would go home with you just to put a roof over their heads. Tobacco illegal and Pot legal because the Gov wants people stoned out not amped up. Birth restrictions of particular genotypes. Societal condemnation of anyone with more than two children. And, the point of this diversion, an “emotional index” to language being used.
What really got me was the concept of “Mr and Mrs Everywhere”. You got your image fed into your TV and then “Mr and Mrs Everywhere” looked like you and the misses. All it took was one “And I think candidate Johns has a sensible policy on Issolla” from the lips of Mr. Everywhere and people thought that HIS opinion was their own (after all didn't they just see themselves say it?).