Tuesday, January 10, 2006

nope, nothing here, folks, just move along...

LINK
Policybyblog has a link on Birdflu...and comments:

Part of the propaganda of commercial media is that they keep us in touch with, as one slogan goes, "the news you need"; one network program even promises, "Give us 23 minutes and we'll give you the world." But the "world" we tend to see in mainstream media is narrow, selective, episodic, torn from context. I illustrate this fact by asking my students to name more than two wars going on in the world today. Most can cite conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. In my surveys, Vietnam, China, and "Africa" trail distantly behind. In fact, there are about 40 wars raging in various parts of the planet. Some objectively are huge news stories--1 million dead in the Sudan, 3.3 million killed in the Congo--but they receive scant coverage, while others are given saturation coverage. Why? The reasons are complex, but the result is that the herd chases its own tails (and tales). If Iraq is the big story, then all the lenses go to Iraq, Congo be damned. Meanwhile the U.S. mainstream media diverts into issues that we would all agree are quite trivial in the scope of the economy or world peace--the Michael Jackson trial, for example.

Yup...Michael Jackson is more important than starving Africans...ho hum, move along folks...
And my post on birdflu is HERE...but mainly about the danger of it being spread via the Haj...

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