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Why the media are fear mongers - ask me how! |
Tiki_Bong
Deleted
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 0 |  Posted: 2004-10-19 10:04 pm Permalink
Has anyone noticed that West Nile virus has dropped off the media radar now that there's a shortage of flu vacines?
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"I'm ashamed to be here, but not too ashamed to leave..."
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donhonyc
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 13, 2003
Posts: 1173
From: The Quiet EAST Village
| Posted: 2004-10-19 10:53 pm Permalink
Please....they are fear mongers in more ways than one. I would LOVE to discuss what they are disscussing these days that is SO bent and phoney, but to adhere to the rules of Tiki Central, I'll kindly refrain from that. Makes me ill.
But, Bong...as far as the media on the medical front, I hear ya dude! Remember that super-threatening virus called SARS that was gonna kill us all? 'Member that oldie but goodie? Don't hear much about that these days do ya? Stones did a whole concert up in Cananda about that one.
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Geeky Tiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Oct 15, 2002
Posts: 533
From: Las vegas
| Posted: 2004-10-19 11:36 pm Permalink
Best way to make people demand flu shots is to tell 'em they can't have 'em.
Brilliant.
The viruses follow a network TV schedule.
I think West Nile was only used as a summer replacement fear mongering item, and the new flu fall season of fear mongering has started.
If things get really slow, they'll start with reruns of Flesh-Eating Strep or Ebola outbreaks.
SARS will return late winter if flu ratings are down.
________________________________
One of the more interesting things to check out is how flu strains get whipped up.
Turns out that people and pigs can get the same flu, but not ducks.
Pigs and ducks can get the same type of flu, but not people.
Where you have pigs, humans, ducks, and poor sanitation, the flu viruses can meet in the pig and then do virus humping to make a brand new genetic strain that then can gets transmitted to people.
Et viola! A new flu!
That's why they always have flu names from Hong Kong and China and other third worldish places, 'cause that's where those conditions exist to create the strains.
If ya like that, check out parasite life cycles!
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DawnTiki
Grand Member (first year) 
Joined: Sep 01, 2002
Posts: 1673
From: next stop Hulaville!
| Posted: 2004-10-19 11:47 pm Permalink
If they (you know who "they" are don't cha?) can keep EVERYONE afraid of something, everything, "they'll" always have a job. News at ten...
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donhonyc
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 13, 2003
Posts: 1173
From: The Quiet EAST Village
| Posted: 2004-10-20 12:22 am Permalink
Hey Dawn....
And at this point it looks like "they" are doing a great job a scaring the hell out of people. It looks like "they" still might have a job, but I sure hope "they" don't.
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tikifish
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 2720
From: Toronto,Canada
| Posted: 2004-10-20 05:51 am Permalink
Not only was SARS a fake fear mongering story, the fake fear mongering cost Toronto millions of dollars in lost tourist revenue, and screwed the city for an entire year. I think about 17 people died of SARS here, hell, more people probabaly died of slipping in the bathtub, and yet people were showing up at Pearson sirport in face masks like we were all ebola monkeys here. Arrrgh dont get me started....
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Trader Woody
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 2301
From: Tiki Manor, Forest of Bowland,UK
| Posted: 2004-10-20 06:01 am Permalink
Quote:
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On 2004-10-20 05:51, tikifish wrote:
Not only was SARS a fake fear mongering story, the fake fear mongering cost Toronto millions of dollars in lost tourist revenue, and screwed the city for an entire year. I think about 17 people died of SARS here, hell, more people probabaly died of slipping in the bathtub, and yet people were showing up at Pearson sirport in face masks like we were all ebola monkeys here. Arrrgh dont get me started....
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As someone who had their sandwiches taken off them and had to walk over a special sticky mat at Madrid airport at the peak of the Foot & Mouth scare, I feel your pain.
I also noticed that when it came out that lots of US cattle were infected with BSE (mad cow disease), the media suddenly started a scare about farmed salmon from Scotland and Canada. The BSE story just vanished into thin air. Same goes for France - many many infected cattle, but you still can't buy British beef there, despite incredibly stringent regulations over here.
A good scare story about another country can do wonders for your own economy.
Trader Woody
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docwoods
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Feb 29, 2004
Posts: 595
From: outside the windy city
| Posted: 2004-10-20 06:18 am Permalink
Well,fear is a great motivator for getting people to think like "THEY" do-I'm with you DonhoNYC-just makes you sicker than the flu would-hopefully,there will be a "cure"in a couple of weeks.
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dangergirl299
Grand Member (first year)
Joined: Feb 18, 2003
Posts: 893
From: Bay Area
| Posted: 2004-10-20 10:56 am Permalink
don't get me started on the damn media. I used to hear people complaining about the media and think "blah blah blah" until ken fowler showed up at my law firm one day and claimed to be interviewing my partner on "changes in the law" - and then several weeks later we were the target of a 2-part SMEAR CAMPAIGN on channel 2!!
damn that lying bastard ken fowler and his innocent-looking santa clause face!
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Johnny Dollar
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Oct 01, 2003
Posts: 2916
From: Baltimore, Maryland, PNG
| Posted: 2004-10-20 11:05 am Permalink
all the more reason to escape to the dimly-lighted environs of a tiki bar and consume an exotic south sea potion to the lilting strains of birdcalls and vibraphones. it worked for atom bomb scares and the red menace 
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woofmutt
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 26, 2002
Posts: 2584
From: Seattilite Telstar
| Posted: 2004-10-20 1:31 pm Permalink
They are us. The stories in the paper or on radio/TV news are just bigger louder versions of the average conversation at lunch, on the bus, in a checkout line.
The majority of people talk about the negative and irritating things in life. "I went to Trader Joe's and the line was fast because everyone had cash and exact change!" is a rarely related tale, even when it happens. More typical: "I got in the shortest line and the guy in front of me got in a fight/had 5 credit cards declined/payed in pennies" etc.
Even with beloved sports a win is briefly celebrated with some shouting, beer drinking, or rioting but a defeat is fondly remembered and gone over sometimes for years.
People love to talk of illness, problems, spats, slights, bad drinks at bars, and so on. Plus sports, weather, and celebrities...We're just like the news. Surprise.
Despite everyone seeming to have issues with the "media" we're still consuming it as fast as they can pump it out. The wise person would stop marvelling at the horror of the "media" and figure out a way to get in on the take. The masses are waiting with spoon in hand and open mouths, get yourself a slop bucket and fill it with something.
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dangergirl299
Grand Member (first year)
Joined: Feb 18, 2003
Posts: 893
From: Bay Area
| Posted: 2004-10-20 1:50 pm Permalink
according to Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" one of the factors (and I think this theory was initially posited by Marilyn Manson) of America having so much violent crime is because people are jumpy/scared due to the nature of the media egging on such fear (if it bleeds, it leads).
And then he compared Canada, where the news media does *not* present news in such a scare tactic, and there is much less violent crime.
I don't know if you can establish a correlation on those facts alone, but it is sure is an interesting theory.
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docwoods
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Feb 29, 2004
Posts: 595
From: outside the windy city
| Posted: 2004-10-20 2:44 pm Permalink
Woofmutt,you've got it right about the good news-who wants to hear something like this "I've lost 20 pounds,my husband is flying me to Maui for the week,my raise came through,and I've been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize!".You'd shoot someone if they said that,and there again would be the violence.
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dangergirl299
Grand Member (first year)
Joined: Feb 18, 2003
Posts: 893
From: Bay Area
| Posted: 2004-10-20 3:01 pm Permalink
I hate the promos for the late night news that are always along the lines of:
"watch our news show tonight or you/your children/your uncle/mother/pets might die!"
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
and then I toss and turn all night thinking "well, I don't want to sacrifice my sleep but I also am afraid of something I'm doing might already be life-threatening!" but then I figure if it were really big news it would be in the papers the next day, and it never is...
I'd rather watch "happy news" than "this might kill you!" news.
I gave up watching television several months ago, and I've never been happier!
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donhonyc
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 13, 2003
Posts: 1173
From: The Quiet EAST Village
| Posted: 2004-10-20 4:24 pm Permalink
Quote:
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-who wants to hear something like this "I've lost 20 pounds,my husband is flying me to Maui for the week,my raise came through,and I've been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize!".
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Um....I'd rather hear that than any negative news item.
Are you saying that no one ever tells you any good news?
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