Welcome to The MacGuffin Report

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin:

"A MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin or Maguffin) is a plot device that motivates the characters and/or advances the story, but has little other relevance to the story... The element that distinguishes a MacGuffin from other types of plot devices is that it is not important what the object specifically is. Anything that serves as a motivation will do. "

The term MacGuffin was created by Alfred Hitchcock to describe an object in a work of fiction that drives the plot forward, but it doesn't actually matter what the object is. The object is important not because you, as an audience member should care about it, but because the characters in the work care about it. Consider a popular movie, Pulp Fiction. An important element of the movie centers around a glowing suitcase. The suitcase is intensely important to many characters in the film, and whenever something happens to it, major shit goes down. Now, here's the important part, it didn't have to be a suitcase. It could have been a set of confidential files, jewlery, a car, a girl, ANYTHING, and the plot of the film would have been essentially the same. It is an interchangable issue, but we as viewers care about it, not because of what it is, but because Jules and Vincent care so much about it. Again, it is not what the object is, it is how the film manipulates our emotions that makes it so important to us.

The world as we know it is filled with these MacGuffins. Politicians especially know this, and as such, use it to their advantage, exactly as a film maker like Hitchcock and Tarantino and many others do. Many times, these are not major issues in our own lives. However, the issues are framed in such a way that we care because the politicians seem to. The important thing, as an informed citizen, is to be able to recognize what is happening, and to know what the real issue is.

When the talking heads show you a glowing suitcase, and make you care about it, The MacGuffin Report will tell you what is in that suitcase. Remember, the goal of these people is to get into power, and they will use whatever MacGuffin will work in their favor to do so. The MacGuffin Report is here to show you what the real issues are, and allow you to decide for yourself how to feel about them.