CLASSIC Example of MSM Fear Mongering and Terrorizing!

[Dem Agog]

On MSNBC's front page, the following story with the hysteria-inducing MSM panic-laden headline:

"Bird flu expected in U.S. in 6 Months"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11741441

Basically, they're saying that the spring migration will bring the bad H5N1 cooties to your doorstep, your babies' doorsteps, and kill innocents and children within 6-12 months.

But a link from that story points to this story from just four months ago:

"Bird flu not taking wing on migratory pathways"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10624217/from/RL.1

Which basically contradicts everything that today's attempt at media terrorism by MSNBC says. It says that the cooties are fare more likely to come on a jet to your doorstep, your babies' doorsteps and kill innocents and children within 6-12 months.

It's just another classic example of attempts at terrorism by the mainstream media, who have learned that terrorizing and fear mongering are the only way they'll get advertising dollars from panicked readers.

We're being played. Again.

[sakabatou]

1. Contradicting, isn't it?

Heh.

[raccoon]

2. We are indeed. There's so much fear-mongering done by the

MSM. On the local news here, every evening it's a new scare, something that might happen to one person out of umpteen-million--and I'm sure your local news is the same.

[Dem Agog]

3. "What vegetable you might eat... that could KILL you! At 11!"

It's the only way they make money, by inciting fear. Blach. And yes it is just the same here. The lead-ins on the news are so panic-laden as to be hilarious.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

4. Couple of things.

The first article you quote is very recent. The second is from over three months ago and says this:

Since the early fall, however, there have been only scattered reports of more outbreaks. The disease has been glaringly absent, for example, from western Europe and the Nile delta, where many presumed it would crop up as migrating birds returned to winter roosts.

Since that time we have seen outbreaks in western Europe, and the consensus has moved somewhat towards migration being a bigger part of the problem. The first article is also based primarily on information from the UN team that is studying bird flu, and I think it presents their position quite clearly - and in their own words. Overall, neither article is particularly alarmist.

[Dem Agog]

5. I see your point but disagree on one thing...

I think it's pretty alarmist to say "Bird flu in US in 6 months"...

They're stating something as fact when they don't know enough to back it up. Never mind that in order to mutate enough to be easily transmitted from human to human, the virus would have to weaken substantially so its hosts don't die so damned quickly.

It's not a good thing, but I'm sick of the constant drumbeating about another disease. A few years ago it was West Nile. Now it's this. The media lives to inspire fear. It's the only way they can set themselves apart, get more viewers, more ad clicks and make more money.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

6. I'm confused.

The article is titled "U.S. stepping up efforts to fight bird flu
Spring migration could bring virus to U.S. within next year, U.N. official says" which is hardly the same thing as "Bird flu in US in 6 months." Did I miss something?


It's not a good thing, but I'm sick of the constant drumbeating about another disease. A few years ago it was West Nile. Now it's this.

I understand this, and the media certainly do sensationalise it. I've often said that if bird flu ever does mutate into a form that is transmissable between humans, the chaos and fear will cause more damage than the disease itself. That was certainly the case with SARS. However, bird flu isn't like SARS, or West Nile. It has the potential to be very, very bad in a way that neither of those ever did, regardless of the media's obsessive hoo-ha over it.

[AllegroRondo]

7. Fear sells

and the media is only in the business of selling air time.