Shades of Things to Come?

One of my rituals in the morning is to check the news from several sources on TV while I'm eating breakfast. I happened to click on Good Morning America and listened to two stories that caught my attention, as I'm sure it did for everyone else watching. Now, before I talk about the two stories and comment on them you need to understand that I have been teaching and preaching lately from Matthew 24. This Sunday I will be preaching on verses 9 - 14, which depicts outright persecution that is coming to Christians. It is through this filter of understanding that I offer these stories and my comments.
The first news story was an interview with one of the sons of Warren Jeffs, the breakaway Mormon polygamist sect. He alleged sexual abuse of both he and his brother (who later committed suicide) at the hands of their father. This rightfully should elicit disdain and disgust by everyone who saw the interview.
The second news item was about certain African "pastors" who were said to be casting out witches out of children for a fee. This too should anger us. But what I am concerned about is that people isolate these and other reports concerning religious groups and leaders while missing the larger picture.
Let me also say at this point that I understand the major secular news medias, both television and print, are owner by just a few large conglomerates. It is also my opinion that they serve the interests of their owners, which is a humanist, material-energy, Godless worldview. So when I hear and read news items from these enterprises I filter everything through a Christian/God worldview.
That being said, we must be able to see the forest from the trees. Could there be a larger agenda at work in reporting these news stories? After all, in today's world, there are certainly more newsworthy stories to report.
If Scripture is absolutely true, and this is my stance; and if what Jesus spoke about in Matthew 24 are the signs to watch for that indicate the beginning of the end, then should we not expect hatred and persecution of Christians to escalate? I believe this to be the case.
Taken as individual news stories we can all agree that these events are despicable. But taken as subsets of a much larger agenda, and taking the angle that the news media is in actuality serving a much larger agenda, could these, as well as future stories of church and pastor abuses, serve to bring about a growing disdain for Christians and the Christian church? Just something to think about.