Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post this morning quotes a Media insider as concluding coverage of the swine flu story is overblown: "Of course we're doing too much to scare people," said Mark Feldstein, a former correspondent for NBC, ABC and CNN who teaches journalism at George Washington University." Heck, I even blogged about the flu the other day. Kurtz suggests Cable TV News operations and their 24/7 voracious appetite for news are responsible for the overkill.
But put yourself in the shoes of a TV News Director...are you supposed to ignore the story? How much is too much? The media here in Montgomery was full of reassuring comments from the Alabama Farmer's Federation that Alabama Pork products are perfectly safe (though Russia on Sunday announced it would stop importing raw pork from the state...a fact one local TV story I saw ignored.) Dr. Don Williamson, head of the Alabama Dept. of Public Health, has been all over TV, answering sometimes dumb questions calmly and professionally.
People will make decisions about the flu story based on one thing and one thing alone. Will a particular activity potentially endanger their family? ALFA and the ADPH and the UN be damned. They'll avoid traveling to Mexico or eating pork or going out too much in public...family first.
[UPDATE: Note this 4/30/08 story about Vice President Biden's advice to his family!]
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