Long time, to be sure. I just wanted to check in with the world to let it know that I've not succumbed to Swine Flu, as much as the nytimes.com would love to add "New Hampshire" to it's sensationalistic (but oh-so-clean-looking) "Flu Tracker" interactive graphic. The Times, which used to be one of the more level-headed corporate media outlets has succumbed to the all-consuming virus that has infected the corporate media as it does all businesses: "Greed Flu." (I dare not venture on to see the garbage on msnbc.com, cnn.com or--shudder--foxnews.com.)
People have grown accustomed to graphic photographs and video footage from far-off wars and genocides. Real images of surreal situations and people so different from us as to be almost unreal. Give the people what they want (or at least can't help but peak at) and they'll fill your coffers from now until the cows come home (which, when they do, Murdoch will likely buy them all up, the slaughterhouses, too, and squeeze the life--and a tidy profit--out of apocalyptic beef. If there is a God, may He have a sense of irony and infect those cows with Mad Cow Disease. ) Anyway. The NYT interactive graphic is, comparatively, much cleaner.
Though, I wonder if I could get text updates the nanosecond a new case is discovered. Let's track flu infections and deaths the way we count Olympic medals. Cold. Impersonal. Competitive? Heaven forbid respectfully covering a public health situation rather than gawk with paralyzing fear, mixed with all-too-morbid fascination.
Sure, this flu is spreading quickly, sure Michael Crichton et al have our imagination whipped into a frenzy over killer virus strains, but let's put this into perspective. How many people die from the "normal," human influenza viruses annually? In 2003 the CDC reports that figure was roughly 36,000. How many people die from cancer--daily? The American Cancer Society reports 1,500. We're not lining up in cancer wards, watching people die, or flipping our shit whenever we miss work or school because the flu makes us puke a little. Where is the NYT graphic tracking cancer deaths? The Swine Flu kills fewer than two hundred people in less-than-ideal living conditions and suddenly the sky is falling.
Swine flu: more hype for your money.
22:56: Amendment: The NYT has earned itself a tiny bit of respect, albeit thanks to its bloggers. This "The Lede" piece is extremely well done and far better than my above rant. (Which is why Robert Mackey makes the big bucks and I'm left to shout into the cyber-wilderness at no one at 11 o'clock on a Friday night.)
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