The Media Likes Scaring Us, And We Like It

[Guest guest]

Hi y'all,

 

I didn't mark this as OT because its not .. think on it a bit and

you'll see just how pertinent it is to pretty much all we do in this

industry.

 

Even more so .. its pertinent to all the totally ridiculous and

anti-democratic rules the EU is forcing down its citizens throats ..

rules based on impertinent studies by idiots who are so-called experts

in their fields .. but who really are just going along with the

program because sitting on a committee of experts makes one some big

bucks!

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch http://www.AV-AT.com

 

 

The Media Likes Scaring Us, and We Like It

 

By John Stossel

March 21, 2007

 

I'm embarrassed by my profession.

 

We consumer reporters should warn you about life's important risks,

but instead, we mislead you about dubious risks.

 

I first started thinking about this when interviewing Ralph Nader

years ago, before he stopped speaking to me. Nader worried about

almost everything: Food? " It can spoil in your own refrigerator, "

Chicken? " [it's] contaminated with pesticides, herbicides,

fungicides. " Flying? " Inadequate maintenance. " Carpets? " Rugs are

dirt collectors. And dirt collectors mean internal, indoor air

pollution. " Coffee? " Caffeine is not very good for you. "

 

He went on and on. Just interviewing him was exhausting. Nader and

interest groups like his fuel the Fear Industrial Complex: the network

of activists, government bureaucrats, and trial lawyers who profit by

scaring people.

 

The media should be skeptical of their prophesies of doom, but we

rarely are.

 

My TV program, " 20/20, " has done frightening reports on the dangers of

paper shredders, soccer goals, lawn chemicals, cell phones,

garage-door openers, and more. There's always some truth behind the

scares -- someone got hurt, or some study somewhere found a risk. But

we rarely put the danger in perspective. We give you a breathless rush

of alarm over every possibility, often delivered with a throbbing rock

beat.

 

Sometimes we don't even get the numbers right. Remember the summer of

the shark? It was nonsense. That summer the number of shark attacks

was hardly different from two previous years. But in those other years

we had an election to cover, or OJ was on trial. Mid-summer 2001

didn't bring many sexy stories, so Time did a cover story on " the

Summer of the Shark. "

 

It should have embarrassed the media into putting risks in

perspective. But it didn't.

 

Listening to us, you'd think our growing exposure to pesticides, food

additives, and other mysterious chemicals has created America's

" cancer epidemic. " But in truth there is no cancer epidemic -- cancer

incidence is flat, and death rates have been falling for years. But

such good news doesn't get much play. No interest groups benefit from it.

 

Remember the breast-implant scare? Some lawyers and activists said

silicone from breast implants caused lupus, breast cancer, and more.

Connie Chung did a scare story on CBS, the FDA banned silicone

implants, and soon many women were certain that their medical problems

were caused by their implants.

 

How could they not think that? The Fear Industrial Complex told them

they were being slowly poisoned. Lawyer John O'Quinn helped spread the

fear and reaped the reward. He sued implant makers again and again

until they paid his clients over $1 billion. Fortune called O'Quinn

and his partner " lawyers from hell. " O'Quinn won't say how much money

he made off those lawsuits, but he's now rich enough to have a

warehouse that holds 900 valuable cars.

 

After the suits from O'Quinn and others bankrupted implant maker Dow

Corning, and after many women were terrorized -- some so much they cut

their own breasts open to get the implants out -- scientists started

saying there's no evidence that silicone causes autoimmune disease and

cancer. Study after study failed to find a link. Sherine Gabriel,

chair of the department of health sciences research at the Mayo

Clinic, announced that there was " no significant difference in the

occurrence of connective tissue diseases between the women who had the

implants and the women who did not. "

 

The FDA has now re-approved silicone implants, and thousands of women

are having implants inserted, implants that contain the very same

silicone that was used before.

 

So has O'Quinn apologized for scaring women and bankrupting Dow

Corning? No. Did he give the money back? Of course not. The lawyers

never do. Instead, O'Quinn impugns the authors of the medical

studies. " Who bought and paid for that science? " he said to me,

indignantly. He told me he's proud to sue rich businessmen.

 

Reporters rely on lawyers like O'Quinn, bureaucracies like the FDA,

and interest groups like Nader's to give us safety warnings and " dirt "

on evil companies. We should be more skeptical. The Fear Industrial

Complex has motives of its own.

 

Next week we'll look at another example of how the media scare us stiff.

 

Copyright 2007 Creators Syndicate