All entries for Thursday 06 April 2006

Deadly!

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Thinking about Ben’s post, among others, accusing the media of over hyping today’s Bird Flu announcement, got me annoyed at the extreme, unneccessary overuse of the phrase “The deadly strain of Bird Flu”when referring to all things avian flu.

It begins or appears in every report on TV and radio. Aside from the fact all journalists seem to have given up coming up with new ways to introduce bird flu stories, it’s just completely out of proportion to emphasise the “deadly” element of bird flu. Yes people have died from it but not enough to justify the prefix.

If we’re going to start calling something that has killed (on average) 36 people a year since 2003, then surely everything else that kills as many or more deserves the title too. So, newswriters and readers of the world, are we to start hearing any of the following?

• “The deadly activity of driving” (which kills 44,000 a year in US)
• “The deadly task of taking the bus” (which kills 43 people a year)
• “The deadly action of getting out of bed” (which kills 785 people a year)
• “The deadly bee” (which kills 40 people a year)

Any more suggestions are gladly welcome. Bird Flu is potentially deadly, but it amazes me (as well as many others on here) that the media seem intent on scaremongering the public.

….Or maybe they know something we don’t…oooh-errr, spooky!

: 06 Apr 2006 16:53 |  Tags: Broadcast Journalism Politics Stupid People |  Comments (8) |  Close comments |  Report a problem