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Monday, October 20, 2014

'NYT' Fans Panic, Then Criticizes It

The NYT, after fanning outsized Ebola fears all month, comes out today with a piece bemoaning the panic caused by such a focus from nearly all of what we used to call the MSM.   Oh, by the way, did you note that the 21-day quarantine period has passed in Texas and not a single new Ebola case has turned up?   Yes, the Times has included in many of its stories level-headed information that might reduce panic--but then fan the flames by carrying one story after another, usually at or near the top of its site or front page. 

From today's Times:
In the month since a Liberian man infected with Ebola traveled to Dallas, where he later died, the nation has marinated in a murky soup of understandable concern, wild misinformation, political opportunism and garden-variety panic.
Within the escalating debate over how to manage potential threats to public health — muddled by what is widely viewed as a bungled effort by government officials and the Dallas hospital that managed the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States — the line between vigilance and hysteria can be as blurry as the edges of a watercolor painting.
A crowd of parents last week pulled their children out of a Mississippi middle school after learning that its principal had traveled to Zambia, an African nation untouched by the disease....
Also last week, a teacher at an elementary school in Strong, Me., was placed on a 21-day paid leave when parents told the school board that they were worried he had been exposed to Ebola during a trip to Dallas for an educational conference.
Now where would they get that idea?

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