Friday, July 30, 2021

CNN provides the stupidest Covid story of the month

I know, I know.  Leave me alone about it being CNN.   I should go to more credible news outlets like anything you might find in the checkout lane at the grocery store.  But CNN is still a source that is used and reported on in various other outlets and websites as if it's really news. 

That's how I saw this, and I just had to laugh.  It's classic 'they're tunneling under our houses' The Monsters are Due on Maple Street hysteria of the fifth magnitude.  Apparently some people in Missouri are getting vaccinated against Covid - in secret!  Why in secret?  Because they're scared, scared I tell you, of their loved ones who are antivaxers!

Really, read the "story".  It's all there in black and white.  As of now, I should mention I know of nobody who has said they oppose others getting vaccines, much less that they would somehow punish or hurt someone for doing so.  In a world with billions of people, could there be a few freakish cases of people doing so?  Sure. But with that logic, we could make a non-story into a news story about anything.  Oh, wait.  Yeah.  

Anyway, I realize it's unfair to use CNN as an example of the bad messaging that has defined the Covid era.  Nonetheless, it's because CNN is hardly unique that I don't feel terrible about it, even if the story is so stupid as to melt your brain. 

It illustrates a major problem right now, and that is the clash of agendas around Covid and its reporting that has muddied the waters and led even the most open and acquiescing individuals to at times at least raise an eyebrow. If it was just CNN it would be good for a laugh.  But it's not just from laughable sources like CNN.  Which is my beef.  If the medical community wants me to listen, I ask that it please do its best to sound like the medical community, not a tabloid publication or a used car salesman. 

UPDATE:  Why waste time with CNN?  Because CNN is merely one voice in the chorus of propaganda.  So I was just informed that the Gray Lady is picking up on the 'look out they're coming to get you!' hysteria.  It's not just one outlet that is the problem, it's the industry.  As I tell my boys, believe it or not there was a time when we could tell the difference between grocery store tabloids and mainstream news outlets.  

14 comments:

  1. The crying of wolf has long gone for me. There are very very few sources that I truly trust to even listen to in order determine the truth to make a good decision. Don't believe everything you read in the paper goes for everything you see on TV or internet except more so.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My mom used to say don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see. I would say that, and add 'except the modern news media, then don't believe any of that either.'

      Delete
  2. Well, there are stupid stunts like this: https://www.foxla.com/news/socal-restaurant-requiring-proof-of-being-unvaccinated.

    There are 350 million people in the USA. Any idea or any action, however ridiculous, will find someone to embrace it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Since news broke of Basilico's Pasta e Vino's requiring customers to provide "proof of being unvaccinated," the eatery said on Instagram that they've received nonstop phone calls, threats, and "hundreds of one-star reviews."

      "When asked if the new policy was a joke, Roman said to tell viewers to "read between the lines, and if they can't understand that, I need to put up another sign saying they're too stupid to enter."

      Lol that was brilliant on his part. Shoe on the other foot. If people can't see what he is saying that's their problem

      Delete
    2. This is another example against the idea that businessmen only do things that are good for business. He's certainly got some publicity out of this, and he will attract some contrarians, but he's also going to tick off a large portion of his potential customer base, who really could not care less if he meant it as a joke or not, or for that matter if his business survives.

      Delete
    3. Obviously he believes his business can take loss or that his freedom and liberty is worth the loss of income. So a large portion of potential customers may be ticked off but if the sentiment in his part of the country against being told you 'can't come in unless you're vaxed' is the same as in my part, then he will gain his potential losses from the unvaxed who do come.

      Delete
    4. I heard he was trying to make a point, but I admit the point sliced into the woods. But I'd say for one business owner making a point, you have the not so difficult cases where those who aren't sold on the vaccines are being targeted, and not just by restaurant owners.

      Delete
  3. OK, I just submitted a post that seems to have evaporated. Let me try again.

    Maybe the restaurant owner is indeed a Ben & Jerry's or "Cleveland Guardians" of the right, deliberately offending some customers for the sake of what he claims to be the greater good. Maybe he thinks he is a modern-day Nathan Hale, offering himself as a martyr for liberty, or maybe he meant it as a joke. Either way, YOU seem to take him seriously, and you seem to think it quite possible that enough customers will take him seriously and support him to offset the loss of offended customers. That is enough to render obsolete Dave's claim:

    "As of now, I should mention I know of nobody who has said they oppose others getting vaccines, much less that they would somehow punish or hurt someone for doing so."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I admitted you could have your examples. But as I say, the reason I hard on the Left is because with the extremes on the Right, they are held up as such - extremes to be ignored. The extremes of the Left, as the NYT picking up on this silliness demonstrates, is picked up by the institutions and industries that should be keeping us from the same.

      Delete
  4. "Maybe the restaurant owner is indeed a Ben & Jerry's or "Cleveland Guardians" of the right, deliberately offending some customers for the sake of what he claims to be the greater good. Maybe he thinks he is a modern-day Nathan Hale, offering himself as a martyr for liberty, or maybe he meant it as a joke."

    Or maybe he is just tired of being told how to run his business and wants to run it way he sees fit no matter what you, me or anyone else thinks. Do I take him seriously? I take him as a man who is as Rush Limbaugh would say, illustrating the absurd with absurdity. If you you can't understand that then I can't help ya.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Maybe this is hard for you to understand, so you're proud of your achievement, but yeah, I got that right away. He is making a political point with his business, one with which you are in sympathy. OK. Businesses on all sides of the spectrum can and do make such publicity stunts. Sometimes they may think it will help their business, in which they may or may not be right; sometimes they may not care what it does to their business, but they have other motivations. We've gone over all that before.

    At any rate, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. If businesses should stay out of politics, that applies to both left and right; and if businesses should engage in politics, that applies to both left and right. I may have a favorite in this fight, but I want to win the fight fair and square. Not many people seem to agree with that today.

    But THE WHOLE REASON I BROUGHT THIS UP was to establish that YES, there ARE people who bear a grudge against those who get the shots, against those who wear masks, etc. Maybe they are a tiny fraction of the population, and you might not know any of them personally; but hey, if anyone I've known has contracted HIV, I never found out about it, and TV has told me that is impossible, too. "CNN is reporting something I know by direct observation to be untrue!" is a valid complaint; "CNN is reporting something I have not experienced!" is not.

    ReplyDelete
  6. There is nothing you've written that is so profound that a person could not understand believe me. Oh and one more thing. Are you and Deco related? You both get snarky and over the top if another commenter doesn't immediately roll over and agree with you. Moving on...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In other instances I would agree, but I don't think Howard is being unreasonable in this case.

      Delete
  7. He may have done this with the hope of getting fiercely loyal customers from the smaller pool of folks who distrust the vaccines, and the elites who push them. I have no clue whether or not that would actually work, though

    ReplyDelete

Let me know your thoughts