Swine Flu: Nope, Not Gonna Do it.
By JT Szabo
Holy Cow…er…Pig!
If you have turned on any kind of television, internet or radio device in the last few days, odds are you have been bombarded with concern and worry over the “swine flu”.
Well, I’m here to save you from all that needless concern. Not going to do it.
For a little over a month now, The Miami County Post has continued to grow, with more and more readers stumbling across our humble pages each day. And I really appreciate that, so I have decided not to reward you with undue burden or worry.
Apparently, the Swine Flu is a new and mysterious strain of the common influenza virus. No stranger to influenza am I, we’re old friends. Like a distant relative with frequent flyer miles, the influenza virus comes to visit my household every year at about the same time. And just like the years before, it comes…makes me miserable…then leaves without ever saying ‘you’re welcome”.
So naturally, when I first heard about this new variation, it seemed as if the major media outlets had called it a day. THE FLU! I said, waiting for the next story to come on. ‘Cause let’s face it, with the economy in the crapper, our once glorious auto industry on it’s way out to the slaughterhouse, and that little nuisance called a WAR, I naturally assumed that the flue would be a minor note in the newscast.
Nope. Not even close.
Finally, after watching some cub reporter tell me how to wash my hands and cover my cough for the forty-third time, I had nearly crossed the brink of insanity. Fortunately for me, they beat me to it.
I guess where I am going with this is, here at The Miami County Post, we don’t care. Sorry, but we don’t.
And it’s not that we aren’t sympathetic to the sick. But what about the Millions of people who just like me, get the flu. And what about the couple thousand people who actually die from the normal flu each year? Never hear anything about them. But add a little Latin-American spice to the story, a favorite barnyard animal, and voila! Instant storyline. It just doesn’t seem right to over inflate such a nothing story. “There’s a new strain of flu going around this year, so just be careful”. End of segment.
Unfortunately for us both, in order to reiterate the fact that I wasn’t going to hype the swine flu, since it’s the cool thing to do in journalism today, I had you read an article dedicated to the swine flu. And I truly am sorry for that. Just blame the media for making me do that and we will all be fine tomorrow.
RSS Feed
