It doesn't require a tin foil hat to acknowledge that the media has a LOT to gain in this situation. Now you have a scared captive audience that is relying on you for information that could save their lives. Furthermore they don't exactly have a track record for honesty in the last few decades. The media is about the only winner in this situation, and I believe they are absolutely stoking the fires of fear.

^^
If that’s the case they’ve overplayed their had. MrsWD won’t watch the news anymore because it upsets her so much. She’s not that much of an outlier. The woman living with us won’t watch either.

I would like to know how you found that video.

Then I would like to know why you thought there was any validity in it whatsoever that would lead you to post it.

That makes no sense at all.

The ONLY reason to post it is to label it as fake and dangerous news.

Here's the thing. Given the obvious eccentric and fanatical and patently false nature of the video, why would anyone believe any portion of the video. We don't know when this footage was shot. We don't know where in the hospitals it was shot. Hospitals are big. Lots of places in them aren't that busy for 20 seconds at a time. We don't even know that the inside of the hospital is the same as the outside of the hospital. Disclaimer, I didn't watch much of this obvious garbage so there could be a sign filmed inside that matches up with the outside.

But really, I can't understand how anyone would watch that with any credibility. It's odd that Matt questions the media, of a WORLDWIDE phenomenon, but doesn't question a crackpot youtube video. That I don't get.

This is the problem with the Internet and our country. So much real news has been labeled as fake news by people who don't like it, that fake news now has the same opportunity to be taken seriously because people are easily herded into buying into fantasies that self-reinforce through the group collective. Very Borgian. Another brick in the foundation of our developing Idiocracy.

Thank you. We have seen that story. We are cleaning our masks with ultra vielot light. It is the same machines we use to clean our patient rooms.

About three weeks ago I was directed to send my staff out to every Home Depot, Lowe's, paint store, hardware store, basically everywhere we can think of and buy all the safety glasses and face masks.

For the last week I've had contractors working 12 hour shifts 7 days a week building out empty shell patient floors into mass patient units. This week we're going to 2-12 hour shifts. We're adding about 350 beds in those floors. We took over our dining room to make it a patient ward. We have our mechanical contractor working 2 -12 hour shifts building temporary med gas head-walls in their shop. We're ordering the parts and pieces to add a second patient to every single patient room. We've bought 1200 cots for patients. Saturday I met with our oxygen supplier to add a trailer mounted tank at 3 of our hospitals. We're running 2" oxygen lines up the side of the building to feed these shell floors. Our peak in predicted to me May 3. April 24 is my deadline to get these floors ready for the surge.

Don't tell me the media is over blowing this thing. This is a result of our State and Federal government's inaction to plan and react.

I put this in PARF, but will repeat here:

My parents live in a self-contained retirement community, their neighbours are two very fit and spritely sisters in their early 70s. These ladies travel a lot, and arrived home on March 25 from San Paulo, where they had gone to (but did not) join a cruise ship. They were both tested on return, and sent home to self quarantine. Test results several days later, the elder sister proved positive for COVID-19, the younger did not. The elder sister was hospitalised immediately, deteriorated rapidly and died in hospital on April 3. Now the younger sister has tested positive, and has also been hospitalised.

Whatever the cause of our predicament (and I agree with you), the media is trying to sensationalize it.

The music, the graphics, tone of the news presenter's voice, and the way experts are interviewed all serve to increase anxiety. I watched an interview with La. Gov. Edwards yesterday. He was asked over and over when the hospital load would peak. He gave reasonable, informative answers, but they just kept asking him when it was going to get "real bad." The questioning was clearly intended to be inflammatory, rather than informative.
I don't think they are fudging actual numbers or even lying to us purposely. They do get things wrong from time to time, largely because they over-rely on the most sensational information.
I posted earlier, one news reader announced, "Terrifying news out of (someplace)."
Just give me the news and let me decide whether it's terrifying or not.

It was painful to watch, but there were indications that some of it was authentic as far as it went. There was a lot to suspect (like 95% of it). But one person did speak with a hospital official at the entrance to the ER who was on TV some time before saying they were overwhelmed, and the entrance to the ER was crickets.

The media, by not explicitly stating that the sensational video they show isn't the whole story and isn't going on 24/7 leaves the door open for the jackholes who contributed to that video.
More complete, less sensationalized information from the media would have headed this kind of crap off at the pass.

Well we can now tell who the whack jobs are on this Board now can't we?

Would not have necessarily pegged you as a deep state conspiracy nut job but then again I don't hang around in PARF. Does the media overstate and dramatize things, sure. Our local news has dramatic music and we get several epic snow storm is coming reports each winter. They are doing similar intros but toned down a bit for this stuff. Do several of the main outlets like NPR, BBC, NBC/CBS/ABC, etc. make ***** up just to scare people, no, I don't think so. If you go to the entrance of an ER it may be crickets because they aren't letting folks in who normally swarm the place daily for nose bleeds. Hopefully the impact of this will be less than the "worst case" scenario because some states/cities jumped on it early.
Maybe take the tin foil hat off and not get your news from fellow Whackos.

My best friend runs a small residential construction company. One of his guys in his 40's is on a ventilator and near death. I know him and his family well. He's worked on my house several times. He's on day 10 since being admitted and testing positive. He may be one of our deaths over the weekend. The family gets updates every few days as they can't visit.

It was shared online and has been making the rounds for several days.

Come on Shaun you’re a smart guy, the mainstream media has made this bed over several decades of deceit and now they have to lie in it. You could fill books with examples of stories in which they have either outright lied or massively blew things out of proportion. They will say and do nearly anything to fill the airwaves and get you to watch. I’d question the sanity of anyone who says they believe 100% of what they see reported. Then go show them how every news branch reports the same story differently and watch their heads explode.

Yep. FOX, Sinclair, OANN, conservative talk (AKA hatestream) radio, Breitart, etc. lie constantly or just simply hide the truth from their audience to satisfy their respective roles within the right-wing propaganda mechanism. I can see why you don’t trust the media, Matt. Tin-foil YouTube videos passed around the internet are just the icing on the cake.

^^^this. I hope that guy recovers.

My son is a doctor, working in one of the nearby hospitals. His wife’s sister is an ICU nurse. Sh t’s real.

I have no opinion about what's on "the media" as I don't watch. I follow science links and those to responsible print outlets & read online.

If "the media" is scaring people out of their normal lethargy, that's a good thing. Fox News was telling people it was a hoax and political right up to the day it was declared a national emergency. People who consumed that cr@p are likely the ones threatening Dr. Fauci's life and calling him "deep state."

Now I see some of the most extreme conspiracy theorists promoting chloroquine, which the medical community is skeptical of...

This virus is real, and the good news is that yesterday's case count is off the curve.

The bad news is that testing is still behind - and unavailable to many - I'm also told the test used by the US has a 20% false negative.

So unfortunately, the full truth will not fully emerge for quite a while.

Ole Trump tried to put Lipstick on this pig...in trying to minimize it, however REALITY GOBSMACKED HIM SQUARE IN THE FACE.

If it bleeds it leads has been the MSM dictum since the early 70's in a WAR FOR RATINGS...that said..

Media people for the most part do have a Liberal bias going back to the end of WW2/ They for the most part are pretty well educated and hang out with other Liberally minded folk so their perspective is BIASED in that direction. It is not that they lie directly..but their phrasing, use of language, editing as to what is emphasized in their stories and or what stories are reported on is all reflected in that bias.

So the discerning viewer has to be sophisticated enough to separate out what is biased hyperbole and what are the facts of the story...

regardless the subject..
it's meant to entertain you..
captivate..
not inform or educate ..
fact's are boring..

Rika

Certainly there is a social benefit to the extreme reporting. Think about it...if the news were less sensational and frightening, thousands/millions would ignore the warnings about social interaction. As Americans, we don’t take orders well. Perhaps a bit of hype is helpful.

Oddly, in this case, you may be right.

Even with all of the media frenzy, there have been many, many people that still aren't listening and still aren't social distancing.

Are some of the folks not listening because they figure the media is FOS? Or is it just because they are idiots or conspiracy nuts or youth that figure that they are invincible or "it only happens to other people."

CNN aired an interview of a woman headed to a church for pre-Easter services (palm sunday?), who said she was unconcerned about coronavirus because she was 'covered in Jesus' blood.' So there are those folks as well...

She'll be covered in the virus.