Now I don’t deny the seriousness of a potential pandemic, or the seriousness with which government should take such a threat, but I will always decry the idiotic way that the media treats such thing.
As far as the media is concerned, it’s pretty much over all ready, but of course, for about a week it was the end of civilisation as we knew it. They couldn’t get enough of it, the 24 hour news channels especially, but locally, especially my personal “favourite”, Channel Ten news. Every night it was new breathless nightmare scenarios.
Locally, let’s just remember, that for all the talk, there still hasn’t been a confirmed case of the swine flu. Not one! And even outside of Mexico, there hasn’t been any serious cases, and the disease is showing no signs of being serious, at least outside of people always at risk from the flu (and that kills thousands every year, yet the media doesn’t bother talking about that).
I’m impressed with all government actions on this thing — and they needed to react, of course — but the mainstream media has just been their usual joke. I’ve found more useful info on a few blogs than I found on every bit of TV news put together. Even if this does become a pandemic (and there’s so many different meanings for that word too), the media reaction to this has been over the top.
But back to my first point — now that it doesn’t look like it will be quite as serious as first thought, the media basically doesn’t think it exists anymore. It’s right out of the headlines already, and I’m sure they’ll find something new to scare the populace about soon.
I did get a flu shot last week mind you… I’d planned it weeks ago and got the script already, but I’ll admit that it did seem like a good idea with all the news out there (and while i know the standard shot doesn’t defend against swine, we’re all more likely to get regular flu anyway!) Will be a good to stop either myself or the family going down with regular flu, which is the point of course. And far more likely…
As always, The Daily Show knows best on this topic:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M – Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Snoutbreak ’09 – The Last 100 Days | ||||
|
||||