This Coronavirus Is Bad Enough Without The Media Trying To Out-Sensationalize Each Other.
Most People Read & Listen To Headlines – Not to the Facts & Body of the Story. But then Again, in Today’s Media, the Body of the Story is Not Necessarily the Truth or is More Likely a Half Truth with Much of the Facts Not being Reported.
But Here’s The Rub . . .
When you Add-Up all the People who Read or Listen to the News, Compared to all the People Available to Read or Listen to the News, the Number of News Consumers is Very Small in Comparison – BUT . . .
THE BIG BUT . . . Is that Most People Today get their News Akin to when we were Children (Kids) Playing Broken Telephone – When one Kid Starts a Story & Whispers it into the Ear of the Kid Beside him or her, and then that Kid does the same Thing with the Kid Beside him or her as the Story is Passed along Amongst many Ears, Until Finally, the Last Kid has to Tell the Group what he or she heard Vis-A-Vis the Story.
And Inevitably . . . the Story from the Last Kid Usually Never Mirrors the Meaning of the Original Story from the First Kid. Generally, the Last Person to Hear the Story Doesn’t Even Relate Anything More than just a Similar Story from the Original.
So Imagine What Is Happening Every day . . . when Limited Consumers of the News are Fed Lies, Innuendos, Half-Truths & Not Fed All the Story, which is then Disseminated to the Whole of the Country by Ways & Means of Uninformed Conversation and Social Media (Twitter, Face Book, YouTube, Instagram – Etc), which becomes the FACT?
I was Writing an Editorial the Other Day, when I saw on the Bottom of the Screen (The Crawl) of the Muted TV Tuned to Fox News, a Headline that More or Less Read:
CDC Instructs People 60 & Older To Stock-Up On Food And Stay At Home.
Because I’m 70-Years Old, this Headline Carried a Significant Message (Warning) for Me & Many Tens of Millions of People in the USA, which Numbers in the Range of 50 To 60 Million People.
Anne Was Out Of The RV At The Time Walking Stryker. And when Anne Returned with Stryker, I told her What I had just Seen . . . Immediately, Anne Went to the Internet CDC Site to Read the Proclamation for Herself.
And What The Proclamation Said Was . . . Not Verbatim – But Pretty Much as close to Accurate as Possible . . . The CDC Wrote – If You’re Over The Age 60 & Have A Pre-Existing Condition Including Diabetes & An Immunity Problem, It Is Suggested That You Do Not Go Into Crowds, Stay Away From People Who Are Coughing & Sneezing, Take Precautions Like Washing Your Hands Regularly & Thoroughly & Have Enough Food In The House If You Have To Self-Quarantine.
What The Fox News Crawl Wrote & What The CDC Actually Wrote Couldn’t Possible Have Been More Different.
Then Yesterday (March 11, 2020), Anne & I went to Winn Dixie to Pick-Up a Few Items . . . And Being a Really Warm Florida Day & Not Wanting to Leave Stryker in the Truck with the Motor Running, the AC-On, the Windows Shut, the Doors Locked and a Message on both Front Side Windows which Reads . . . “AC IS ON – DOG IS OK”, I Chose Rather to Stay in the Truck with Stryker, while Anne went into the Grocery Store to Pick up the Few Items.
While Anne Was In Winn Dixie . . . I was Listening to Fox News on Sirius/XM Radio, when I Heard Harris Faulkner Say that Dr Anthony Fauci Said . . . “MILLIONS OF AMERICANS ARE GOING TO DIE FROM THE CORONAVIRUS”.
If That’s Not A Hair-Raising Headline? . . . Nothing Is.
So Again, I Told Anne What I Heard & Again Anne went Right to the Source . . . And What Dr Fauci Actually Said (To Paraphrase) Was: Millions Of Americans Could Become Infected By The Coronavirus If People Don’t Take The Proper Precautions.
That’s A Hell Of A Lot Different Than Millions Of Americans Are Going To Die.
So . . . If This Is The Kind Of Garbage Misinformation the Media is Peddling On Fox News, Imagine the Crap the People of the United States of America and Canada are being Fed by a Media which at Best should be Embarrassed, and at Worst should Just Shut Up.
There Is A Corresponding Audio Editorial Being Broadcast Today . . . And as I’ve Written & Broadcast in the Past, Broadcasting isn’t something I Like to Do, Mostly Because I speak from my Mind and my Heart. I have No Teleprompter, No Notes & No one to Feed Information in my Ear.
I Make Mistakes. I Occasionally Forget Names & Dates – But I Publish Anyways.
Before Listeners Start Correcting This Latest Broadcast . . . I Am Tired. There is a Whirlwind of Information Going through my Mind with too Many Names, Dates & Places to for me to Remember them all.
So Here’s A Few Pre-Listening Edits:
The Doctor’s Name I Couldn’t Remember Was . . . Dr Fauci.
The Fox Woman’s Name I Couldn’t Remember was Harris Faulkner.
The Date Of Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s War Measures Act Was October 1970.
And For The Get-Together In Kissimmee . . . That’s Been Postponed. But Anne & I Will Still Go Out & “Live”.
Best Regards . . . Howard Galganov
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14 Comments
To me this is a whole lot of Media hype to sell news, Govt control to manipulate masses, Public running senseless and scared with overblown, irrational fears, and just all-round overreactions from anyone who wants to feel important. Like some bad, future dystopia movie. I’m expecting alien, ape zombies to come and start eating people soon.
Biden added to the false info going around in his speech today. He made remarks about Trump doing nothing & not having qualified medical people advising him plus other false claims he read off the teleprompter. A while later Sanders came on the air and also told lies about the President and his advisors.
HG, in reference to your latest and fine podcast: Like you, I was born and raised in Montreal. When those terrorist bombs went off in the mail boxes plus the kidnapping and murder of Laporte, I was a newlywed. After much family discussion, my wife and I decided that was not a world we could responsibly bring children into. We moved to Toronto in ’69 and “lived happily ever after!” Actually, within 8 years, our whole family (both sides) ran from Montreal.
Enjoy your warm weather there ’cause it ain’t even to 60 yet during the day in Virginia – close but not there. I too have learned that headlines are misleading (often hinting bad when it isn’t).
I think a good bit of the coronavirus hype is to try to make President Trump look as if he isn’t doing enough to prepare America and mostly to keep him from having rallies that attract 10s of thousands of people where biden has a hard time getting 50 people in one place. China and S Korea both are showing less newly infected people as if the virus has already run it’s course there. And there are much less sic and deaths than the regular flu each year and the media isn’t mentioning that fact.
320 million population in US. If one million actually get the virus, that is way less than 1%. And if 3% of those infected actually die (which is far above the average) that is 30,000. Far less than many, many causes of death. Chance are even in this worst case we will not know a single person who dies from the virus.
Does this mean we don’t have to worry about climate change.
When Biden read his speech my opinion Shumer wrote i presumed switched to CBC and Trudeau and wife quaranteed and CTV News put me to sleep, Watching the Five,came from one of my suppliers who is Chineese he told me he watches Chineese channels it happened in an institution around there there are a part of this place 5000 soldiers worked out with Athletes some got sick after and it started came from Chineese TV MAKES MORE SENSE THAN CNN Yes people died
Howard, Excellent commentary!
I retired as a nurse after 33 years 9 years ago–I worked ICU/CCU/ED/Med/Surg/ and Oncology. In all that time, I lived and worked through all the Hiv/Mers/Sars/TB/Influenza/ and MRSA outbreaks including diseases that only affect the vulnerable populations of the elderly and immunosuppressed. In all that time I have never seen a better managed or more timely national response to a disease than is being carried out right now by the Trump administration–We’re in good hands!
Yesterday my husband was watching the news – don’t know which channel – but the anchor said that Covid19 is 10 times deadlier than the flu. I heard earlier that it had less than 1% fatality rate, perhaps .01%. But “10x deadlier” sounds so much scarier, considering that number is mostly for those most at risk. Most others recover. Be careful. “The sky is falling!” – Chicken Little
I think all this news about the carnivore virus is making me sick.
No matter what one chooses to call it–the Corona, the Covid19, or the Huwan Virus, the questions are: WHY was the U.S. NOT properly INFORMED by China about this CRISIS & WHY is it so HYPED UP? There previously have been many other viruses which have never CAUSED such CHAOS and CLOSINGS of various needed functions & activities–governmental & otherwise! The LIBERAL SOCIAL MEDIA is in ‘Heaven’ at this time because they can BLAME Trump for this so-called crisis! God help us all! GO TRUMP GO! AMEN!
We are in our 80’s and are very concerned about the deadly virus. We do believe it is real, and not just a hype! Wake up people.
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