Of course we are all now familiar with the latest media-consumption craze: the global swine flu pandemic.
Concerning this, I cannot help but notice that, since this has started capturing the media’s attention, I myself have been feeling sick.
Every day, and every night, we are bombarded with media frenzy over this news. We’re told to wait. We’re told to worry. The media pumps this up into a huge disaster, using words like “pandemic” and “no resistance” and “deaths”.
Don’t get me wrong: sickness and death are tragic. But as the fine print in every media report points out: The regular flu kills tens of thousands each year. And this current version of swine flu is turning out to be less fatal, per infected person, than the regular flu is.
Hmm.
I realize the media has a job to do, but I can’t help wondering if the media itself isn’t contributing to this problem. By constantly parading this story in front of everyone, they’re making everyone worry. Raising everyone’s stress levels. And, as a result, lowering everyone’s resistance. The “dirty laundry” is probably more virulent than the flu itself.
Other things are more important: Dealing with the outbreak itself, fixing the economy, fixing credit, putting ethics back into credit card companies, and fixing taxes.
But, maybe, someday, someone ought to take thought to “fixing” mainstream media.
“Kick ‘em when they’re up! Kick ‘em when they’re down!” certainly does seem to fit! And I’m certainly being kicked, and I’m certainly being brought down by it.
Enough, please. I’m going to die someday, and there’s nothing I can do about this flu outbreak that I wasn’t already doing anyway. Please, big media, let me get back to my life – regardless of how much of it I have left!
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