Issues hyped up by the media then forgotten

[Bahnhof Strasse]

The ozone layer was in the news just last week. Apparantly it's being killed off by hippy crack: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1919139,00.html

 

[behemoth]

The new ice age was replaced by global warming, and luckily oil didn't run out in 2000.

 

[Wolveryeti]

24 hour licensing laws were meant to be the End of Society As We Know It. In actual fact exactly the same amount of people got falling-over drunk and the papers were so desperate they pretty much all ran the same photo.

 

[behemoth]

Did any aeroplanes fall out of the sky in 2000 due to the millenium bug?

Our company spent millions on a new computer system that was worse than the old one, just in case.

 

[kained&able]

west ham vs millwall. It was a disgrace, everyone needs arresting west ham should be chucked out the league, vilke racists.

Seems to have been quietly placed under some rug somewhere.


dave

 

[Callum91]

We had Turkey burgers too, was grim had to walk six hours a day just to get them.

Did you have to walk for 8 hours on the way back?

 

[behemoth]

Millwall came to Gillingham on Saturday, and after a 2-0 thrashing, their lovely supporters were put safely on a train for London only to get off at the next station and come back for a friendly chat.

 

[kyser_soze]

Whatever happened to the ozone layer? Did it heal itself up or something? And we're still polluting so I assume we still have acid rain, yet I haven't heard about that since the 80s!

Stabbings and paedophiles don't get the same amount of press as they used to, but something tells me the rate of stabbings and paedos has remained pretty constant.

And what the fuck happened to swine flu?! Weren't we all supposed to be dead of it by now?!

What other issues can you think of that have pretty much been ongoing all our lives but all of a sudden the press pick up on, massively hype it up only to never mention it again when they've hammered it to death?

Get ready, we're just coming out of summer and there was no Maddie this year.

Wait until about late Oct/early Nov for the next swathe of teen stabbing stories. Paedo stories regularly pop up, but it takes a pretty big case - or one with photo/telegenic victims - to make a front page these days.

Acid rain and ozone generally get folded into the wider GW story - FWIW, I think the UK is no longer poisoning Norway's forests with sulphur dioxide anymore...

Swine flu is a watch this space. I think some bits of the press are a little bit embarrassed at the level of coverage they gave it early on...

 

[skyscraper101]

Anyone remember American Airlines Flight 587, the plane that went down in Queens NY in 2001 and killed 265 people? It was (and still is) the second deadliest U.S. aviation accident to date.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_587

Once it was established that terroizm wasn't to blame it seemed to just disappear in the news entirely.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

1970s the Russians were going to kill us all with nuclear weapons but didn't.

1980s Aids was going to kill everyone but didn't.

19?? Mad Cow disease was going to kill everyone but didn't.

20?? SARS was going to kill everyone but didn't.

2009 Swine flu was going to kill everyone but didn't.

 

[purplex]

Remember the flesh eating bug scare a few years ago?

That was monster monster scary

 

[kyser_soze]

Asteriods, we were all going to be hit by one a few years back or something like. It just happened to conicide with a few Hollywood films about the subject.

Or when Lembit Opik is shagging another Eastern European popstrel or a weather girl.

 

[purplex]

Nu Rave.

Now neo-rave

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Any Daily Mail article relating to health is probably over-hyped and going to die a death.

Especially if CANCER is in the headline.

Butter causes cancer, eat margarine.

Margarine has transfats that cause cancer, don't eat margarine.

Alcohol causes cancer, don't drink it.

Red wine contains a chemical that help prevent cancer, so drink it.

Chocolate causes cancer.
Chocolate prevents cancer.

Eating fish gives you good omega oils, eat fish.

Eating fish gives you mercury poisoning. And kills dolphins. Don't eat fish.

 

[kyser_soze]

Cancer causes cancer - New Shock Findings Indicate that Having Cancer will give you Cancer

 

[butchersapron]

the war on the nazis

 

[The Creator]

Do you think catastrophes have never happened?

I am overseeing the preparation of a number of them around the world even as we speak.

 

[Hocus Eye.]

The reason that these stories seem to go away is because the essence of NEWS is the NEW bit. The media want to grab your attention and so keep looking for something different. I remember the days of Baby Battering; it was apparently a new horrible thing. Then the news stories moved on. I guess there is just as much child abuse going on but the public attention can only be held on even the most horrific story for a limited time. The stories kept coming for a while because each media outlet is led by the others and looks for similar stories to the ones that have recently broken. It takes a time for all the media to have had a crack at the current issue.

Nowadays with fewer media outlets due to takeovers I expect the stories to fade more quickly.

 

[kyser_soze]

The anarchist summer of rage.

Altho to be fair, the anarchists forgot about it too.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

ooh the Y2K bug was a good un. Remember how we were all gonna die when everything electric spazzed out cos it was the millenium? only that never happened

I remember praying that my overdraft would get turned into an underdraft. Sadly, it never came to pass

 

[Hocus Eye.]

Of course the Summer of Rage was a planted story that never had any substance. The Met Police planted it ahead of time to justify getting heavy for the G20 and on Mayday. This is typical of the majority of news stories especially ones based upon speculation of the future rather than things that have happened. The news agenda is created by people and organisations with vested interests. The media love a press release, no need to think about the story and not even any need to type anything. No need for journalists to leave the newsroom to investigate anything.

 

[LLETSA]

1970s the Russians were going to kill us all with nuclear weapons but didn't.

1980s Aids was going to kill everyone but didn't.

19?? Mad Cow disease was going to kill everyone but didn't.

20?? SARS was going to kill everyone but didn't.

2009 Swine flu was going to kill everyone but didn't.

Seriously, however, do you really think that the threat of a nuclear holocaust wasn't real? After all, we did come to the brink on several occasions. Do you not think that the proliferation of nuclear weapons, made worse by the leaking of Soviet materials and know-how throughout the 1990s, the rapid coming about of a multi-polar world, the forthcoming struggle for natural resources, and the phenomenon of the suicide bomber, looks ominous?

Do you not know about the aids epidemics in Africa and the former USSR?

Have there never been mass die-offs from disease before?

How such matters are reported is one thing, but it nothing to do with their reality.

 

[Eri]

These worry stories are meant to keep us scared. Remember necrotising frasciitis, the flesh-eating bug? Sure it exsts but that don't mean we're going to catch it. There's a science fiction angle to a lot of these stories, aimed at making people feel that nothing can be done about it. And of course they distract us from real problems that we can act against.

 

[LLETSA]

These worry stories are meant to keep us scared. Remember necrotising frasciitis, the flesh-eating bug? Sure it exsts but that don't mean we're going to catch it. There's a science fiction angle to a lot of these stories, aimed at making people feel that nothing can be done about it. And of course they distract us from real problems that we can act against.

Keeping us scared to what purpose?

 

[audiotech]

Bogus asylum seekers.

 

[stupid kid]

Keeping us scared to what purpose?

Sell newspapers, get approval ratings up - everyone's got their angle.

 

[purplex]

Happy slapping

 

[quimcunx]

I saw an article about someone dying of a terrifying flesh-eating disease the other day. Necritising Fasciitis getting some coverage again. It's always around but they like to give it some attention once in a while.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Seriously, however, do you really think that the threat of a nuclear holocaust wasn't real? After all, we did come to the brink on several occasions. Do you not think that the proliferation of nuclear weapons, made worse by the leaking of Soviet materials and know-how throughout the 1990s, the rapid coming about of a multi-polar world, the forthcoming struggle for natural resources, and the phenomenon of the suicide bomber, looks ominous? Do you not know about the aids epidemics in Africa and the former USSR? Have there never been mass die-offs from disease before? How such matters are reported is one thing, but it nothing to do with their reality.

Erm, I wasn't passing any comment or judgement as to the level of threat or how real it was, whether or not the USSR had nuclear weapons and was prepared to use them, or whether or not there have been epidemics or pandemics before.

The thread title asked what issues were hyped up by the media. I gave some examples.

 

[behemoth]

1970s the Russians were going to kill us all with nuclear weapons but didn't.

Thank goodness Sting brought us all to our senses.