Media panic

[lordlundar]

Some useless twat: OHMYGOD!THERE'SADISEASEIT'SANOUTBREAKWE'REALLGONNA DIEE!!!

<LL picks up a 40lb. sledgehammer and walks over to sut>

*WHAM*

LL: Ahh, I feel better. Now this rant...

SUT: <groaning> But we're...

*WHAM*
*WHAM*
*WHAM*
*WHAM*

LL: NOW STAY DOWN!

*ahem*

Now let's see, where was I? Oh yes. Now this rant isn't just directed at the swine flu scare at current, it just happens to be the latest thing to get on my nerves. No, this rant is at the media's push to incite terror in anything. Y2k, terrorist attacks, power grid problems, etc.

Is there a concern for these? To a small degree, yes. However, media outlets like Fox, CNN, MSN, heck, it seems ANYTHING in the US it seems like is more intent on telling the public not what it's about, but why you should fear for your life because of it.

Let's look at the recent swine flu scare for example. For the better part of a week now, those media outlets are showing images of people in surgical masks and talking about how potentially lethal it is, using numbers up to a couple hundred potential deaths in the US, and showing people being quarantined, national guard preparing for mobilization, etc. So far, I have seen one 20 second blurb that the medical community is only concerned about it's spreading ability (contagious) as opposed to it's lethality. Good reason too, considering the conventional strain of influenza is FAR more lethal. But does that make good news by scaring people? No, so it only gets a 20 second blurb one day on a 24 hour news channel.

Then there was the Y2k panic. By the time the media had the chance say the modern world is going to collapse, all vital components either had fixes in place or contingency plans, most having both. Did that stop them? Nope. For several YEARS we heard about it, only to find, shock of all shocks, nothing happened.

Suffice to say, If the terrorists so intent on destroying the western world wanted to really incite terror, just send a small media blurb about some overblown panic to the major media networks and watch the riots. The media networks do so much better at inciting terror than Bin Laden could EVER do.

SUT: all... ...gon... ...die...
LL: Excuse me. <grabs shotgun>

*KA-CHUNK*

*BANG*

[Greenday]

By blowing this stupid crap out of proportion, the media gets higher ratings because people are watching because they actually believe it.

The Y2K one was one of the dumbest things ever. Computers don't have any trouble keeping track of years. They know 2000 comes after 1999, not 1900.

[daleduke17]

It's the same as during the elections. You only heard good about Obama, bad about McCain and about 20 seconds on the third party candidates (and it was mostly a joke story as well).

[powerboy]

Yeah, the media does blows things out of proportion. But they do it, so they can higher ratings. And yes, I do hate it also.

[Evandril]

The Y2K one was one of the dumbest things ever. Computers don't have any trouble keeping track of years. They know 2000 comes after 1999, not 1900.

What I've heard from my tech friends on that one..If there had *NOT* been a big scare, quite a few systems wouldn't have been fixed in time, and there would have been problems. Computers don't care what info you want them to remember, they'll do what they are told. If they are told the year only has two digits (the basis of the y2k scare), then when they get done with 99, 00 comes 'next', if you're lucky. Not a *HARD* fix, but a tedious one, and NOT a cheap one. Without a decent scare, the folks in charge who are scared of tech would have never authorized the work needed to keep the problems from happening.

[Pedersen]

The Y2K one was one of the dumbest things ever. Computers don't have any trouble keeping track of years. They know 2000 comes after 1999, not 1900.

Actually, on this one, at least, the media was somewhat justified. There was a time when having 10M of disk space was damned pricey to do. That's right, 10 megabytes. 10,485,670 bytes. That much disk space cost thousands of dollars when the first of these programs were being written.

Programmers then took a cue from people: We write just the last two years of a date, why not have computers just store that much of the year? This resulted in a savings of at least 1 byte off of every record.

Now, take a system like the Social Security Administration, who, even then, would be storing as many records as they could. Multiply that one byte by 100,000 people. That's a savings of 1% of the disk drive. Now, multiply that by the number of disks, and multiply that by the cost of those disks. That 1 byte represented several thousand dollars of savings at a time when disk space was expensive.

The problem wasn't keeping track of time. The problem was doing date arithmetic with those years. You've got a birthday in 1900, so a zero was stored for your birth year. The year is now 2000. Since *all* of the years that have been saved had the leading two digits chopped off, we continue to do so. So, someone keys in "calculate the social security checks for jan 1, 00". Well, what's 00 (the current year) minus 00 (the year someone was born)? Woops, everybody is too young for social security.

That was the problem. And everything had to be tested. Since everybody did everything differently for how they did the math, no one could say for sure what would happen for any given program. Would the year show up on screen as 19100? Or 00? Or would it be right, and show as 2000?

And when that number got sent to another system, how would that system handle it? Would it shut down if it saw 19100? Would it handle 00 properly?

Make no mistake, the problem was a lot bigger than everybody thinks it was. The reason so little happened was because people started trying to fix the problem before 1990, and that left sufficient time for over 99% of the problems to be fixed. The media was simply late to the game.

But the problem was real. And much bigger than most people realize. It was only averted because of the hard work of a lot of people.

[smileyeagle1021]

It's the same as during the elections. You only heard good about Obama, bad about McCain and about 20 seconds on the third party candidates (and it was mostly a joke story as well).

unless you were watching Fox, then it was the exact opposite, all good about McCain, all bad about Obama, and hey look at this moron who thinks he has a chance.

And on Y2K... some of the stuff during that scare just baffled me... I remember buying a DVD player and the salesperson telling me to be sure to get one that was Y2K compatible... umm... why does the date have anything to do with the player's ability to play DVDs... does it even store a date anywhere in it's programming... why should I pay $10 more for a shiny sticker that really means "this product doesn't store dates anyway"...

[AFPheonix]

^ Or NPR, which tracked their stories with ombudsmen, and the percentage of stories on both main candidates were pretty equally balanced, with a decent amount of blurb on other candidates.

[protege]

It's not just Y2K, or the various iterations of "flu," but just about anything.

I've said this before...but in Pittsburgh, the big thing is the weather. As soon as it starts getting colder, you can't go one day without some station going on about all the "snow" we're supposed to get. It never fails--long lines at the supermarkets, a run on bags of salt and shovels, etc. Oh, and every damn road, most of which are *perfectly clear,* in the county turns into a parking lot. Every goddamn year!

Y2K really wasn't all that bad. Like some have said, by the time the media got a hold of the story, it had been taken care of. I mean, some of the things they were claiming were just ridiculous. There weren't any power plant failures, no planes fell from the skies, my computer didn't melt down, and my car started in the morning.

That last one was what bugged me. How the hell would my car know what day it is? There's *nothing* in a Toyota's electronics that would do that. All it's concerned with is running from the next millisecond to the next.

[Giggle Goose]

The thing that gets me the most about this whole swine flu thing is that the people on TV are giving "helpful tips" on how to prevent it.

Like "cover your mouth when you cough" or "wash/sanitize your hands often." THANKS!!!!! Gosh, media, you saved my life! What would I do without you??!!!! /sarcasm

It's unfortunate that it's happened to a handful of people, but I think our medical community can handle it. Guess the news folks are mad more people aren't dying and we'll have to wait for the next disaster

[lordlundar]

That last one was what bugged me. How the hell would my car know what day it is? There's *nothing* in a Toyota's electronics that would do that. All it's concerned with is running from the next millisecond to the next.

Because it has a computer, ergo it's prone to Y2k.

Yeah, I know. I don't buy it as well, but then, like you I know the truth about those computer boxes. For most people who don't though, the statement above is enough.

[AFPheonix]

What fries me when we have some epidemic scare is that people will rush to their doctor to get scripts written for whatever the proper medicine for the disease is, and clean us out of it completely. It's happening this time with Tamiflu, it happened with Cipro when we had that anthrax scare, etc.

Doctors should be instructed to not write for scripts unless the patient has been exposed or is actively sick. These morons wipe out the supply of medicine and prevent actual sick people from getting the stuff they need. That's far worse than running me dry of face masks and purell.

[DesignFox]

the whole panic of swine flu is ridiculous. I mean, didn't our mothers teach us simple things like, "cover your mouth when you cough" and "wash your hands when you're done with the bathroom/handling money/etc". Why on earth does the news media need to tell us this shit? Really?

Also, while the spread of information is great, shouldn't we be trying to get people NOT to panic and overreact? It doesn't seem like the flu has gotten out of control (especially since authorities seem to be handling it). With 6 Billion people on the planet, 100 deaths in Mexico doesn't seem like a pandemic, yet to me. Yes, its a horrendous number, especially in a society that doesn't really experience disease epidemics. But let's just use some common sense and some caution. We don't need to be holing up in our homes, wearing face masks and staring at our neighbors suspiciously because they have a cough.

IF you feel SICK then stay home, monitor your symptoms and talk to a doctor.

Sheesh.

I guess it's because I'm not quite close enough to NYC (where schools have been shut down for the few cases they caught) but I'm surprised there hasn't been a run on my pharmacy for Airborne and the like.

[MystyGlyttyr]

I had some major fun the other day in Wal-mart. I go through the self-checks in Spanish, partially to try and pick up the language, partially because it's so brainless that you don't even really need to know what you're being asked to do. I also had on my Rey Mysterio shirt (almost always when I'm not at work), emblazoned quite nicely with lots of Mexican flags, colors, etc. The other night, while it was in the middle of asking me for efectivo (spelling? Heh), I sneezed because I was gnawing on a chocolate bar I had just bought (mild chocolate allergy, all it does is make me sneeze when I eat it). Everyone in line behind me suddenly jumped backwards.

Solution: Keep sneezing, add a few coughs and snorts, watch crowd scatter. Giggle uncontrollably.

I'm thinking of doing it again tonight, if I can find someone with a video camera to catch the hysterics for Youtube. So far no takers.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Like "cover your mouth when you cough" or "wash/sanitize your hands often." THANKS!!!!! Gosh, media, you saved my life! What would I do without you??!!!! /sarcasm

That's what the email we got from head office said. Gee thanks, head office; now tell every single customer who comes into the petrol station to do likewise. Then your advice might actually make sense.

Sorry, but I thought we were already meant to be dead from, you know, salmonella, mad cow disease and bird flu? Probably more, I've lost count of all the food and illness scares we've had over the years.