Monday 27 April 2009

Swinish flu reporting

When he’s not blogging and catching buses, blogger Poneke has a day job as one of the country’s few remaining responsible journalists.  He writes this morning about the Swine Flu epidemic erupting in the MSM:

PANIC IN THE SKIES!! WE’RE ALL DOOMED!! PIGS FLY!!
    The swine flu scare is déjà vu all over again. The media internationally and in New Zealand is beating this up the same way it did the Y2K bug, SARS and Bird Flu. . .
    Swine flu is actually one of the mildest strains of flu and has spread fairly innocuously around the world a couple of times in my own lifetime. . .  
    New flu strains go round the world every year. Thousands of New Zealanders catch the virus annually without it becoming front page news. Some of them even die of it, especially the frail elderly.
    Folks, there is nothing to see here but a media and political beat-up. Time to move on.

6 comments:

twr said...

"Deja vu all over again" ??? Must have happened three times then.

Peter Cresswell said...

You've missed the obvious Yogi Berra reference. (Google it.) :-)

gregster said...

There is a downside to report, from: http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-04-26-voa20.cfm

"World Bank President Robert Zoellick said the bank will boost its lending by $100 billion during the next three years, noting that the economic crisis has forced as many as 90,000,000 more people into extreme poverty.

"There is a widespread recognition that the world faces an unprecedented economic crisis," said Robert Zoellick. "Poor people will suffer the most. And we must continue to act in real time to prevent a human catastrophe."

The 24 member World Bank steering committee, called the development committee, was headed by Mexico's Finance Minister, Agustin Carstens.

"The financial crisis is turning into a human and development calamity," said Agustin Carstens. "Many people have already been driven into absolute poverty."

The World Bank is providing Mexico with $200 million in loans to help it deal with the recent swine flu outbreak."

Jeffrey Perren said...

File this one in the "never let a crisis go to waste" folder -- and if there isn't a real one, create a bogus one.

Observe how Janet Napolitano is all over this, despite about only two dozen cases occurring in the U.S. so far. Think about that. The head of the Dept of Homeland Security is involved in a matter that at best calls for the CDC. Hmmm...

It's becoming harder and harder not to be a govt conspiracy nut these days.

gregster said...

It's becoming harder and harder not to be a govt conspiracy nut these daysTrue Jeff,

I've thought that often myself.


Greg

Sus said...

Well said, Poneke. You echoed my thoughts on the subject.