Media overreaction - stories that were... well... rubbish

[seany t]

I've been running my ever cynical eye over the goings on in our national media of late, and got into a heated debate with a few work folk the other evening regarding some of the big issues in the spotlight right now. A few seemed to have an immense amount of hatred for city bankers, Social Workers and the BBC, and I was thinking are these stories really THAT important that they're creating this level of concern / disdain? For example, I know the Baby P case is shocking, but equally bad things always will occur no matter how good or bad a system is around us, and this high visibility doubting is unfair on the thousands of people doing their job to the best of their abilities.

And a couple of us more skeptical folks got thinking about all those issues the British public have got worried about in recent years and yet have amounted to pretty much nothing.:

Mad Cow disease - conveniently, we'll not know if this one was as worrying as we all thought for a few years according to the research undertaken.

Bird Flu - 113 deaths worldwide in 7 years. Not quite the epidemic once feared, though there's always the 'mutant strain' scenario to keep you awake at night. This doctor even thinks the whole ploy was a considered move by some drugs companies to guarantee funding:
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/WTBFP.php

The Millennium Bug - Oh dear...

Princess Diana Death Conspiracy Theory - The investigation into this, largely thanks to a wonderfully inept programme on ITV and a couple of newspapers, has now cost the UK taxpayer over £10 million:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2558256.ece

Can you think of any more - we had a list of about 10 but drunkenness has clouded my memory?

Or more importantly, what do you think all this scaremongering and doom amounts to? Public panic? Money / work for the media? Entertainment?

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

I do sometimes wonder about the duplicitous relationship between politicians/government ministers and newspaper editors.

Look at the whole furore surrounding the Ross/Brand prank call. Why was a minor entertainment story allowed to receive so much coverage? Is it because Labour still has got issues with the BBC for anti-war comments (as well as other stuff)? Was it to try and deflect attention from the global money crisis?

Is there some kind of underhand "if you keep this story out of the papers, we'll feed you some really interesting piece of news when the time is right?" sort of arrangement?

 

[Uncle Leo]

Global warming. It was brass monkeys when I popped out for lunch yesterday.

 

[Mad Cyril]

And a couple of us more skeptical folks got thinking about all those issues the British public have got worried about in recent years and yet have amounted to pretty much nothing.:

Immigration.

 

[MrB]

The sensationalising of any small and irrelevant piece of research by some tinpot scientist

Tuna fish increases the risk of getting rectal cancer by 1%.
Putting Cling Film on food gives you Typhoid.
Drinking beer is bad for you

and suchlike.....

 

[Uncle Leo]

The way that the benefits of certain food stuffs are good for you one week and not the next.

Daily Express, June 6th: "Monster Munch can help prevent liver failure"
Daily Express, June 13th - "Monster Munch give you tongue cancer"
Daily Express, June 20th - "Dame Ellen McNomates swears by Monster Munch as she sails round the world in an empty pack of pickled onion flavour"
Daily Express - June 27th - "Monster Munch killed Princess Di"

 

[Pubey]

The way that the benefits of certain food stuffs are good for you one week and not the next.

Daily Express, June 6th: "Monster Munch can help prevent liver failure"
Daily Express, June 13th - "Monster Munch give you tongue cancer"
Daily Express, June 20th - "Dame Ellen McNomates swears by Monster Munch as she sails round the world in an empty pack of pickled onion flavour"
Daily Express - June 27th - "Monster Munch killed Princess Di"

Daily Sport - July 2nd - "Monster Munch in XXX Video"

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Immigration.

Contemptible.

 

[seany t]

The sensationalising of any small and irrelevant piece of research by some tinpot scientist

Tuna fish increases the risk of getting rectal cancer by 1%.
Putting Cling Film on food gives you Typhoid.
Drinking beer is bad for you

and suchlike.....

There are lots of things I don't understand about research. We sometimes get forced to do market research in my job alas, and it just seems like such a waste of time, effort and money with a lot of parallels to medical / scientific research.

- Client / government commissions research for x amount of pounds.
- Outcome is either one of three things:

1. Something is massively wrong. You need to do more research to find out what it is.
2. Nothing seems to be wrong at all, but why is that? You need to do more research to find out what it is.
3. The results are a bit muddy. You need to do more research to find out what it is.

The person who came up with all this self doubting ******** is a financial genius as big, multilayered companies now can't exist without it. People won't put their neck or job on the line for a hunch, and so ask a bunch of 'experts' to do it for them instead.

It's a bit reminiscent of the news channels' current policy of asking us lot to do their jobs for them. I mean, whats your opinion MK Shrimper on Zimbabwe? Or yours graysblue on inflation? Seemingly, they now matter far more than a bunch of authority figures who are experts in their respective fields?

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

AIDS. We were all told that it didn't matter if you were heterosexual or drug free, we were all at risk. But it's almost exclusively a disease of gays and those using dirty needles.

 

[seany t]

AIDS. We were all told that it didn't matter if you were heterosexual or drug free, we were all at risk. But it's almost exclusively a disease of gays and those using dirty needles.

Unless you live in a third world country obviously...

But true otherwise yeah. I still wouldn't share my carton of Ribena with any of the other kids...

 

[loz]

AIDS. We were all told that it didn't matter if you were heterosexual or drug free, we were all at risk. But it's almost exclusively a disease of gays and those using dirty needles.

Try pedalling that line in Africa and see how long you last.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Try pedalling that line in Africa and see how long you last.

Quite a long time I'd imagine. I would be in a tank.

 

[osymandus]

AIDS. We were all told that it didn't matter if you were heterosexual or drug free, we were all at risk. But it's almost exclusively a disease of gays and those using dirty needles.

As well as those evil blood transfusions people and promiscuious people who wanted to infect who ever they found (and yet strangly Lesbians were teh lowest at risk group !) Anyway i digress

Seany t , you have it spot on , its been an inbed relationship with which ever governing power fro centuries , you had your minstrals and court story tellers bigging up your latest crusade , war , slaughtering of disquet peasents etc To your justifiing of invading with a preemptive stirke to defend your sovergine state , to declaring all market economies are bad and decadent captialists need to be fed their own private parts and not allow your people to see any other news feed s( cough *any empire insert name here *).

As individuals it is your duty and right to find out what is happing in the world around you , why rely on any self or social apointed experts , if their experts they can take your questions and enquires , as thats how they should have become experts in their area.

I actually don't mind doing the news channels job for them if their going to putout such lazy rethoric

 

[Mad Cyril]

AIDS. We were all told that it didn't matter if you were heterosexual or drug free, we were all at risk. But it's almost exclusively a disease of gays and those using dirty needles.

What about Mark Fowler?

They don't come much straighter, duller or unspectacular.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

What about Mark Fowler?

They don't come much straighter, duller or unspectacular.

Much as I am amused by your post MC, is it not typical for the BBC to buy in to this 'not being a gay disease'?

 

[osymandus]

Much as I am amused by your post MC, is it not typical for the BBC to buy in to this 'not being a gay disease'?

Well given the generation of teh virus stems from Chimps , and it came either from eating contaminated meat or the other way , why are you not persecuting bush meat and bestiality consumers . Oh and the propagation was prevalent in the most promiscuous areas of society so in Latin America fro example it was very much the macho hombra's who love ladies who helped spread it.

Early 80’s decadence propably helped as well

 

[Mad Cyril]

Much as I am amused by your post MC, is it not typical for the BBC to buy in to this 'not being a gay disease'?

No.

You'll be telling us that people fitting Ian Beales profile aren't the most likely victims of gun crime next.

 

[Napster]

Global warming. It was brass monkeys when I popped out for lunch yesterday.

Alas, they've covered their collective backsides and called it climate change

 

[canveyshrimper]

Plenty of theories about 11/9, and the assasination of JFK 45 years after the event.