Creativity Quote by Justin Sane

A punk musician admitting, almost casually, that the media can be played is the kind of candor that makes publicists sweat and organizers nod. Justin Sane’s line isn’t a conspiracy rant; it’s a tactical confession. The key word is “corporate”: not just “the media,” but a profit-driven attention machine with predictable reflexes. If you understand its incentives - conflict, novelty, a clean narrative arc - you can “manipulate” it the way a band manipulates a setlist: build tension, land the chorus, keep the crowd looking.

The intent reads as empowerment. Instead of treating mainstream coverage as a gatekeeping oracle, he frames it as an arena you can enter with strategy. That’s punk pragmatism: don’t wait to be invited; learn the rules well enough to bend them. “Issues that we care about” signals something else, too: this is not manipulation for ego or clicks, but for agenda-setting. The aim isn’t truth versus lies; it’s visibility versus silence.

Subtext: corporate outlets don’t lead moral conversations so much as chase momentum. Activists and artists can manufacture that momentum - through spectacle, timing, sharable visuals, controversy, or sheer persistence - and force topics onto the docket. It’s an uneasy bargain. You gain reach, but you risk your cause being flattened into a headline-shaped commodity.

Context matters: coming from a musician, it reflects a long tradition of culture workers using tours, interviews, and viral moments to smuggle politics into entertainment pipelines. It’s also a reminder that “authenticity” and “media strategy” aren’t opposites anymore; they’re co-dependent tools in a landscape where attention is the scarce resource.