The media is still hyping the swine flu. Bloomberg.com is now reporting that the 'swine flu is spreading more widely than the official numbers show.'
Uh? What is the basis for the report, other what Bloomberg wants to report? Does Bloomberg now collect medical statistics from seven continents?
'Forty-three countries have confirmed 12,022 cases, including 86 deaths, according to the World Health Organization’s latest tally. ..... The Geneva-based agency is asking vaccine makers to prepare for large-scale production of an inoculation for swine flu, while also ensuring adequate supplies of a shot for seasonal flu, which kills an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 people worldwide each year.'
Am I missing something?
Swine flu has killed 86 people and a normal seasonal flu kills a half of a million people, and the media covers the swine flu story like it could be the end of humanity as we know it.
The Dept of Health and Human Services is ready to spend $ 1 billion to get a stockpile of swine flu vaccine to treat 20 million people. The last time the government pushed a swine flu vaccine on the public (in the early 1970s) people died from a reaction to the vaccine.
What is wrong with this picture? (I mean the media picture, not the one in the upper right corner).
The recent flap over who won the Miss USA beauty pageant and why, has been good on a number of levels. It was good for Donald Trump, owner of the Miss USA pageant business for all the free publicity. Although, the publicity would have better served him prior to the pageant rather than after the event.
It has also been good at illuminating media and cultural bias.
Prior to the election as a candidate, President Obama, answered a question about marriage with an answer worded similarly to what the beauty pageant contestant Carrie Prejean would answer.
To my untrained ear, the answers sound very similar.
President (to be) Obama: "I believe marriage is the union between a man and a woman, for me as a Christian it is also a sacred union. Now God's in the mix."
Miss USA wannabe: ".... in my family, I think I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman, no offense to anyone out there, but that's how I was raised and that's how I think it should be between a man and a woman, thank you. "
Where was the outrage when the presidential candidate expressed this opinion about marriage? Why does a beauty pageant contestant take all the recent heat? Is there any consistency left in media?
The presidential candidate even brought "God in the mix". Where was the endless harping about the need for the separation of church and state? The outrage just didn't happen.
Miss Prejean has been told her answer was stupid and been called a term that in polite company would be used only to refer to a female dog.
A Presidential candidate (The One) with the same answer hears not a peep of descent, and is even lauded for being an inclusive candidate on this issue.
In my opinion the different treatment of the two individuals by the cultural media on this issue is hypocritical at best. At worst it points out once again left leaning media bias.
Shouldn't a presidential candidate receive more scrutiny than a beauty pageant contestant?
I thought a free and unbiased media was one of the keys to our liberty by keeping our government and its leaders in check. When the media fails at this responsibility and shows bias in favor of the government leaders, is an unchecked government far behind?
The media continues to make the claim that it is not biased, but with examples like this I don't see how that claim can be supported.
Another example of media bias is the reporting on recent government spending.
The media continues to repeat the message that it is the worst economic times since the great depression. But what are the facts? Is it a spending problem or an unemployment problem?
Is government spending a problem only done by a Republican administration as reported by Bill Moyers over a year ago. The budget being reported on in the Moyers piece was passed by a Congress controlled by the Democrat party.
Where is the outcry on government spending now?
Where is the reporting on the magnitude of this spending when compared to past spending?
The stimulus package authorized in less than three months of the Obama-Pelosi administration exceeds the spending for eight years of the Iraq war, which had often been used as a measure of excess spending during the Bush presidency.
