bird flu from asia?

[cacophony]

i'm not going to disagree with that.

[cacophony]

Originally Posted by Strangelet

The fact that its so easy to pander to people doesn't make it excusable.

i wholeheartedly agree, and i feel like i tread this line at work all the time. i could get bazoodles of traffic to my content by using misleading lines like "a cure for cancer?" because i know people would click. there's a necessary conscience that some outlets try to maintain and others don't.

your comment actually reminds me of something that is a big hot-button issue for me, which is that victims deserve to be victimized if they're too stupid to avoid it. like take someone who's been bilked out of thousands of dollars by nigerian scammers. there's a tendency to say, well if they were stupid enough to fall for it they deserve to get scammed. and i hate that logic. because no matter how stupid or greedy someone is, the scammer is NEVER RIGHT.

so i agree with you, that just because it's easy to pander to people, that doesn't make it excusable. just because humans as a species tend to fixate on the next most plausible source of armegeddon, that doesn't mean those who stand to profit from that impulse should do so.

i'm not defending media. i'm just saying i don't want the baby thrown out with the bathwater. there was justifiable intensity to the initial coverage of this new virus, and it still merits monitoring. yes some outlets went way too far because we're in a slow news cycle otherwise. but that doesn't make all coverage silly, or the whole situation overblown.

[kagenaki koe]

on a lighter note, i thought i'd bust out an old shirt i bought years ago:

http://www.threadless.com/product/73/Outbreak_Girl?=

i'm wearing it right now btw (the tan version not the blue)

[Rog]

well well, what's happened to the swine flu epidemic?....seems to have disappeared from the uk media in the last 2 days............

oh, i know, MP's expenses row is now saturating the news

[cacophony]

yeah, man. fuck those assholes for disseminating public health information.

[Rog]

what?

[Rog]

what are you on about? the UK media was not disseminating public health information, more like panicking the population

[Deckard]

Precisely.

And now it's time for their next "frenzy".

"disseminating public health information"? Sheesh...

[Sean]

Originally Posted by cacophony

yeah, man. fuck those assholes for disseminating public health information.

Probably more accurate to say "fuck those assholes for stirring up an opportunistic, ratings-boosting, worldwide panic through wild exaggerations that caused more destruction than the swine flu itself ever did".

Case in point...

"Egypt's decision to ignore U.N. advice and cull its pigs over flu fears has unintentionally fanned sectarian tensions in the mainly Muslim country."

[Strangelet]

Originally Posted by Sean

Probably more accurate to say "fuck those assholes for stirring up an opportunistic, ratings-boosting, worldwide panic through wild exaggerations that caused more destruction than the swine flu itself ever did".

Case in point...

"Egypt's decision to ignore U.N. advice and cull its pigs over flu fears has unintentionally fanned sectarian tensions in the mainly Muslim country."

To be fair to cacophony's position, it would be hard to argue that the media was more a culprit than pre-existing tensions towards the egyptian christian minority by the ruling muslims. The culling decision happened quick, it necessarily targeted a particular sect, and it didn't happen in other countries where the christians are not as numerous enough as to pose a threat.