20/20 Scared Stiff - Worry in America

[on-ramp]

did anyone watch the 2 hr special last night.

very interesting eye-opening program. basically blames the media for hyping stories - good business for the industry, to get politicians elected, sell $hit, etc... ah, the business of fear.

btw, your chances of being killed in a terrorist attack are the same as getting hit by an asteroid.

[Moneyguy1]

It has been discussed before. How many 24 hour "news" outlets are there? How many newsworthy stories per day are there? So the news outlets say "How do we fill all that extra time?"

Hype.

[HardDrive]

Kind of obvious, yes?

Go to any city and watch the local news. " SNOW STORM 2007!!!!!" "Death stalking your children at ever turn!!!!!" "Our killer highways!!!!"

Quite a good reason I don't watch much television.



(ps I'm guilty of watching old simpsons reruns and Mythbusters)

[Moneyguy1]

You should see it out here when there is forecast rain. My God...you would think the world was in its final throes.

[island911]

Originally posted by on-ramp
...
btw, your chances of being killed in a terrorist attack are the same as getting hit by an asteroid.

Oh Really!? Just how many people have been killed by astroids in the last ten years? --or is that comparison just more media hyping?

Come to think of it, first you would have to be an astronaut to be struck by an astroid.

[Moneyguy1]

The statistics do hold, although a bit misleading. Terrorist deaths involve relatively few victims per incident. An asteroid hit could involve hiundreds of millions in one fell swoop. Asteroid hits are far more improbable than terrorist attacks, so they even out.

[Flatbutt1]

Originally posted by HardDrive

(ps I'm guilty of watching old simpsons reruns ....

Yes well the more advanced the intellect the greater the need for simple diversion. I like Star Trek TOS!

[on-ramp]

Originally posted by Moneyguy1
The statistics do hold, although a bit misleading. Terrorist deaths involve relatively few victims per incident. An asteroid hit could involve hiundreds of millions in one fell swoop. Asteroid hits are far more improbable than terrorist attacks, so they even out.

exactly

[island911]

Originally posted by Moneyguy1
The statistics do hold, although a bit misleading. ..

Conjecture holds? --Since youre interested in the strict detail of statistics, do you have even ONE data point to support an asteroid hit killing hiundreds of millions in one fell swoop?


Yeah, "a bit misleading." --don't go out on too much of a limb there.

[Moneyguy1]

island...

I will not argue this point with anyone. It is pointless to do so.
You have your POV and that is OK. Stick with it.

[TerryH]

Originally posted by island911
Oh Really!? Just how many people have been killed by astroids in the last ten years? --or is that comparison just more media hyping?

Come to think of it, first you would have to be an astronaut to be struck by an astroid.

Asteroids hit earth about once every 100,000 years on average and one is blamed for the extinction of dinosaurs 60-70 million years ago. Some say it may have been a volcano.

[Moneyguy1]

Or both.

[artplumber]

More importantly, it pointed out how children believe that if they were to visit a friend with a firearm in the house it would be more dangerous than having a pool. Problem is that the death rates from pools are 100X those from accidental firearm discharges. It was suggested that the neg publicity assoc with firearms far exceeds that given to pool deaths possibly furthering an agenda, but more importantly causing misconceptions in the public.

They even mentioned the flying vs driving death rates.....

[legion]

I always thought that 20/20 and 60 minutes were the kings of scaring old people...

[Rick Lee]

And I remember all last week seeing "Breaking News" on all the tv monitors in my office and it was about who gets Anna Nicole's body!!!! But it gets worse! I was sitting at hotel a bar, reading a book and kept looking up at the tv's, thinking "Who in the world could possibly care about this nonsense? How dare the media!". Then two women from the Christian Dior conference in the same hotel sat down next to me and they talked about it like they had watched every single minute of coverage from the time of Anna Nicole's death. It's truly frightening. Reminds me of George Carlin's adage: Imagine how dumb the average person is and then imagine that half the world is even dumber than that!

[red-beard]

Interesting. I have firearms and we're putting in a pool. It's probably too dangerous to visit, so everyone stay away.

[MRM]

Actually, I worry more about meteoroids. Don't worry much about them at all, but I then don't worry about terrorist attacks much, either.

[Rick Lee]

Ride the Metro to DC, two blocks from the White House everyday and you would worry a little about terrorist attacks.

[legion]

I worry about metroids.

[Paul K]

On the news thing, try watching the BBC news. Way better than the "After the break, the new threat to America's children" B.S. you have to endure in the US.

Cheers,

Paul.