And Plagues Swept the Land

"The sky is falling! I must go and tell the king."

  - Chicken Little in the fairy tale, The Sky is Falling

Michael Tracey, a columnist for the Rocky Mountain News, questions the media's inclination to ignore the real threats facing us to write instead about the latest cry of alarm. He uses the recent ban of ephedra as a case in point, telling us that Tylenol poses a greater danger, yet we don't hear much about that. Tylenol is "old" news. Who cares?

And what about SARS?

"The News alone in its archives has 317 stories involving the illness. The coverage was such, the fears induced such, that global travel was affected. Editorially, across the media, the story line was that here was the latest threat to the physical well-being of humankind."

Tracey feels that the dramatic headlines associated with the latest "scares" are unnecessary and misleading, especially since deaths from any of these things are insignificant compared to those from heart disease, cancer or Alzheimer's, to name a few.

Why does this happen? Well, because the media is out to make a buck, and to make a buck, they have to have viewers and readers, preferably more than their competitors. To get viewers and readers, they need something exciting or sensational to report almost every day. So when a new disease comes along, their tendency to make it sound worse than it is, is a means of getting your attention.

The problem with this is that tomorrow they'll need a new "threat to mankind," because out here in "radio-land" we become bored very quickly. Based on what I've seen over the years, they will find what they need, and we'll stay tuned. In the meantime, the things that are really killing us will be getting minimal coverage, if they're covered at all.