The following conversation recently took place over a cup of coffee:
Jim: “Downing, why do you guys keep cutting into my favorite TV shows for those weather bulletins. I hate it when you guys do that. Usually, you’re talking about a storm that’s dozens of miles away and no threat to Abilene. You always do it in my favorite show. They just stay on the air incessantly, like there’s some kind of contest to see who can stay on longer. When they do go back to the program, it usually is just about the time the commercial plays or the show ends.”
Downing: Yes, I know how you feel. We get lots of calls when that happens and they are not friendly callers. They are mad.
Jim: And, they always seem to drone on and on, repeating the same old information. Give me a break!
Downing: I hear you! You know, we’ve been trying for years to come up with a better way to warn you when bad weather is coming. We’ve put crawls across the bottom of the screen – viewers complain. We’ve tried to put a miniature radar screen in the corner and viewers complain. We just can’t seem to do anything right. Do you have any ideas?
Jim: Well, the least you could do is wait until the commercials to interrupt. – unless it was a real emergency.
Downing: Wait a minute? Are you inferring that we break in when there isn’t an emergency? Oh, I’ll admit it looks like that sometimes, but severe weather is very unpredictable. Commercial breaks in TV shows happen about every eight minutes. Are you saying that we should wait eight minutes before informing the public about an approaching tornado?
Jim: No, if there is a tornado coming, you should break-in immediately. I just think you guys overkill the situation because you tell us a tornado is forming, but it never materializes. I just resent you guys acting like every storm is the “storm of the century”.
Downing: So, you only want to be told about tornadoes, right? What about thunderstorms?
Jim: We have thunderstorms all the time and they almost always just bring rain and cause street flooding.
Downing: But that flooding is the leading cause of weather-related fatalities. And those thunderstorms can pack a real punch; lightning, hail, high winds…
Jim: You got a comeback for everything, don’t you?
Downing: Not really, I just want you to understand that we have tried lots of things to keep our viewers safe. You know, we’ve got about 16 counties to cover and just because it isn’t threatening you doesn’t mean it isn’t affecting someone else. You know, we now have something we never had in weather forecasting: advance warning. We have the technology to let you know about ten minutes before a tornado is going to hit you. But that doesn’t do any good if we sit on the information. It would be like seeing a truck barreling down on you and saying nothing to warn you. It puts the forecaster in the position of playing God. “Do I break into programming and warn them or take a gamble that nothing will happen?” If anything is coming, I want to know about it as soon as possible.
Jim: So what you’re saying is I can expect you guys to do it the same old way, right? Fine, I’ll just change channels. There are plenty of other choices out there, you know?
Downing: You’re right, there are. Which of them are going to break-in and tell you about the grapefruit-size hail about to demolish your car?
Jim: I just want you guys to be more responsible in your broadcasting. Don’t break-in unless you absolutely have to and when you do, get on and get off so my favorite show won’t be interrupted. If you don’t, people are going to stop watching you.
Downing: Until the skies cloud up and raindrops start falling. Remember, Noah tried to warn his neighbors… You know, if the cut-ins are THAT disruptive, maybe we should have a city-wide referendum about whether to break into programs. Let the people decide?
Jim: I could live with that!
Downing: Are you sure? Are you REALLY sure?
Friday, May 29, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Ah, the Joys of Going Digital
Okay, we’ve had a few “bumps” along the road to converting to a totally new broadcast technology. It’s frustrating and embarrassing, but the problem is exacerbated by viewers and government officials that don’t really understand what all is involved. It’s not like you run down to the Digital TV Station store and pick-up a few spare parts. You see, there are no spare parts, yet. When something breaks, it takes time to fix it: parts need to be ordered, installation takes time. It’s funny, I keep finding myself reverting back to that old announcement TV stations would make: “We are temporarily experiencing technical problems. Please stand by. The problem is NOT in your set.” You know what, if TV hasn’t always had to deal with a “ghost in the machinery”, we wouldn’t have ever had to make that announcement.
Still, the changeover has come with a bittersweet edge to it. For those of us who have been doing this a long time (33 years for me), moving from analog to digital marked a whole new chapter in our station’s story and a chance to look back fondly on the way it use to be. So, in this age of 24/7 television, let me share with you the way it was “once upon a time”.
In the beginning, there was “the moratorium”. The idea for television had been around since the 1880s – that’s a fact. The great battle that occurred though was how to make it actually happen. It works on the same principle as animation: a series of pictures flash before your eyes, each one changing slightly, creating the appearance of motion. The battle was over whether that would happen mechanically (like it does on film) or electronically (as it eventually did with television). You see, your TV picture (at least in the analog days) was constantly changing, but it happened so far that your eye couldn’t adjust to it. If you’ve ever tried to take a picture of a TV screen, you can see the change. Usually a black bar is running across the picture – that’s the new image coming across your screen.
Anyway, television as a medium had its big debut at the 1939 World’s Fair, but guess what happened? World War II came along and all the attention (and raw materials) went to the war effort. It wasn’t until 1945 that the TV industry really ramped up. In fact, so many TV stations were going on the air that it was creating a problem as their signals overlapped. I’m told that it looked kind of like trying to watch TV through Venetian blinds.
So, the FCC stopped issuing licenses, putting a moratorium in place until it could get things sorted out. By 1953, that had happened. Abilene was assigned two frequencies: Channel 9 on VHF (Very High Frequency) and Channel 33 on UHF (Ultra High Frequency). Since most TV’s were equipped to carry VHF, getting Channel 9 was important.
For the record, it was the Abilene Reporter News that secured the first TV license for Abilene. The call letters, KRBC, stand for “Reporter Broadcasting Company”. But in a move I still don’t quite understand, the newspaper’s owners decided they didn’t want to get into TV and sold the license to a young car salesman named Dale Ackers. KRBC stayed in the Ackers family for years (until after Dale’s death, when his sons sold it off).
It would take volumes to tell the KRBC TV story, but trust me – it’s a good one. I love some of the old stories best. Like the one about the antenna coming to town. It was brought in on a train car and then paraded through town for all to see. A parade! It was taken out to the transmitter site at Cedar Gap and all the broadcasting was done from there. But to get there, you usually had to meet someone in town and be escorted out because getting to the location meant having to drive up some steep and rough terrain. I’ve been to the transmitter site twice in my career. It’s not for the faint of heart. It’s one reason the station was moved to South 14th (although back then, we were sitting on the edge of town – almost out of town, actually).
Back in those days, you had to sign on your transmitter early and since the broadcast day didn’t start until 5:30 in the afternoon, the only thing to see was that stupid “Indian chief” test pattern. The only sound was that one-thousand cycle tone that ran incessantly. People would sit for hours watching it, fascinated by the technology and what it would eventually bring into their home.
First kids show on KRBC? Crusader Rabbit – Five minutes long.
Typical broadcast day? Five in the afternoon to 10:15 at night. That all changed when KRBC became an NBC affiliate months later.
The one commercial you’d NEVER see on KRBC? A beer ad. For close to 30 years, KRBC upheld it community commitment by refusing to run beer advertising on TV. They’d just preempt it and run another commercial over it. You could do that, back then.
May favorite memories? You know, I have always loved two things about TV – sign on and sign off. Sign on happens when they finally through the switch, turning off the tone and test pattern and actually start broadcasting programming. It usually began with just a picture of the TV station and this golden-throated announcer saying, “KRBC Television now begins its broadcast day.” That would be followed by a lot of technical information you really didn’t understand. It was just the excitement of watching the sleeping giant come to life. You know what the first thing that giant did? Played the National Anthem. The Star-Spangled Banner was also the last thing you’d see at sign-off. That same announcers voice would come on and say, “KRBC Television now concludes its broadcast day.” The same technical stuff would be read – you know, stuff like “KRBC broadcasts on Channel 9 in Abilene, Texas with an effective radiated power of eight-trillion gigawatts …” Since the station was now on the air until just after midnight, the announcer would always close by saying, “From the entire staff and management of KRBC, Good night and good morning. And now, our National Anthem.”
You know, I miss that reminder that I live in perhaps the greatest country in the world at perhaps the greatest time in history and I have just been put to rest by perhaps my closest friend: my favorite TV channel.
Somewhere out in space those great old tv signals are still bouncing around somewhere, perhaps having the same effect on a boy far different from me, but maybe, not that different at all.
Downing Bolls
Still, the changeover has come with a bittersweet edge to it. For those of us who have been doing this a long time (33 years for me), moving from analog to digital marked a whole new chapter in our station’s story and a chance to look back fondly on the way it use to be. So, in this age of 24/7 television, let me share with you the way it was “once upon a time”.
In the beginning, there was “the moratorium”. The idea for television had been around since the 1880s – that’s a fact. The great battle that occurred though was how to make it actually happen. It works on the same principle as animation: a series of pictures flash before your eyes, each one changing slightly, creating the appearance of motion. The battle was over whether that would happen mechanically (like it does on film) or electronically (as it eventually did with television). You see, your TV picture (at least in the analog days) was constantly changing, but it happened so far that your eye couldn’t adjust to it. If you’ve ever tried to take a picture of a TV screen, you can see the change. Usually a black bar is running across the picture – that’s the new image coming across your screen.
Anyway, television as a medium had its big debut at the 1939 World’s Fair, but guess what happened? World War II came along and all the attention (and raw materials) went to the war effort. It wasn’t until 1945 that the TV industry really ramped up. In fact, so many TV stations were going on the air that it was creating a problem as their signals overlapped. I’m told that it looked kind of like trying to watch TV through Venetian blinds.
So, the FCC stopped issuing licenses, putting a moratorium in place until it could get things sorted out. By 1953, that had happened. Abilene was assigned two frequencies: Channel 9 on VHF (Very High Frequency) and Channel 33 on UHF (Ultra High Frequency). Since most TV’s were equipped to carry VHF, getting Channel 9 was important.
For the record, it was the Abilene Reporter News that secured the first TV license for Abilene. The call letters, KRBC, stand for “Reporter Broadcasting Company”. But in a move I still don’t quite understand, the newspaper’s owners decided they didn’t want to get into TV and sold the license to a young car salesman named Dale Ackers. KRBC stayed in the Ackers family for years (until after Dale’s death, when his sons sold it off).
It would take volumes to tell the KRBC TV story, but trust me – it’s a good one. I love some of the old stories best. Like the one about the antenna coming to town. It was brought in on a train car and then paraded through town for all to see. A parade! It was taken out to the transmitter site at Cedar Gap and all the broadcasting was done from there. But to get there, you usually had to meet someone in town and be escorted out because getting to the location meant having to drive up some steep and rough terrain. I’ve been to the transmitter site twice in my career. It’s not for the faint of heart. It’s one reason the station was moved to South 14th (although back then, we were sitting on the edge of town – almost out of town, actually).
Back in those days, you had to sign on your transmitter early and since the broadcast day didn’t start until 5:30 in the afternoon, the only thing to see was that stupid “Indian chief” test pattern. The only sound was that one-thousand cycle tone that ran incessantly. People would sit for hours watching it, fascinated by the technology and what it would eventually bring into their home.
First kids show on KRBC? Crusader Rabbit – Five minutes long.
Typical broadcast day? Five in the afternoon to 10:15 at night. That all changed when KRBC became an NBC affiliate months later.
The one commercial you’d NEVER see on KRBC? A beer ad. For close to 30 years, KRBC upheld it community commitment by refusing to run beer advertising on TV. They’d just preempt it and run another commercial over it. You could do that, back then.
May favorite memories? You know, I have always loved two things about TV – sign on and sign off. Sign on happens when they finally through the switch, turning off the tone and test pattern and actually start broadcasting programming. It usually began with just a picture of the TV station and this golden-throated announcer saying, “KRBC Television now begins its broadcast day.” That would be followed by a lot of technical information you really didn’t understand. It was just the excitement of watching the sleeping giant come to life. You know what the first thing that giant did? Played the National Anthem. The Star-Spangled Banner was also the last thing you’d see at sign-off. That same announcers voice would come on and say, “KRBC Television now concludes its broadcast day.” The same technical stuff would be read – you know, stuff like “KRBC broadcasts on Channel 9 in Abilene, Texas with an effective radiated power of eight-trillion gigawatts …” Since the station was now on the air until just after midnight, the announcer would always close by saying, “From the entire staff and management of KRBC, Good night and good morning. And now, our National Anthem.”
You know, I miss that reminder that I live in perhaps the greatest country in the world at perhaps the greatest time in history and I have just been put to rest by perhaps my closest friend: my favorite TV channel.
Somewhere out in space those great old tv signals are still bouncing around somewhere, perhaps having the same effect on a boy far different from me, but maybe, not that different at all.
Downing Bolls
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Losing Control: What Technology Is Doing To Our Social Skills
You know, people never cease to amaze me -- even after 30 years of doing this job. But there seems to be a growing anger and animosity among TV viewers these days.
Case in point, last Friday night: it had been a long and hot week. Everyone was kicking back Friday evening to watch a little television. Our meteorologist Nance’ Burgin was keeping an eye on a couple of storms moving southeast just outside the eastern counties in our viewing area. Just before six o’clock, those storms took a turn to the South-Southwest and things began to rapidly develop from there.
At about 6:50 or so, the first severe weather bulletins went out and as we always do when severe weather threatens, we cut into our regularly-scheduled program to update viewers in the path of the storm. But this was no ordinary storm. It was rapidly growing in intensity. We got a call from a viewer in Rising Star reporting golf ball-to-baseball-size hail. Within moments it had increased in size to softball to grapefruit. Torrential rains and high straight line winds were also being reported. Weather people will tell you that the size of the hail is a good indicator of just how severe a storm is: the larger the hail, the more dangerous the storm (and it doesn’t have to be that big!).
This storm was erupting so quickly that Nance’ was having to do cut-ins every three or four minutes, interrupting TV shows as she did so. That got a lot of people angry and they called the station to express their displeasure. Did I say “displeasure”? Let’s call it what it was: “outrage”.
Now, for the record, please understand that we don’t like cutting into people’s television shows. When we do, they usually get very angry and say some pretty mean things to us. It’s okay -- we understand. And you know what: if it was a show I was interested in, I’d be angry, too. But this was more than just anger. As I said, it was “outrage”. Let me tell you something, when people are that mad, they don’t want to get into a discussion with you about it. They are ready to physically assault you!
What astounded me was the level of anger and how it was expressed. I think an unusual phenomenon is taking place in the world: we have been blogging and texting so long that our “dark side” is beginning to take over whenever we get mad. We get on the telephone and talk to people with the same “hateful” tone and language we express when we blog total strangers. When did we as a race of human beings stop being a “kinder, gentler” people? Maybe we never were and just tricked ourselves into believing that we were somehow better than people who only know how to hate. Maybe it's a bi-product of having to deal with machines all day, unable to interact with another human being. Friday night, it was like watching Jesus being condemned by the crowds shouting “Crucify him!” It was like watching a pack of snarling, attack dogs.
Of course, when these calls come in, the faceless people who make them never tell you who they are. When you’re anonymous you don’t have to worry about accountability for your actions. It’s an interesting behavior and one that social scientists should take a closer look at.
Downing Bolls
Case in point, last Friday night: it had been a long and hot week. Everyone was kicking back Friday evening to watch a little television. Our meteorologist Nance’ Burgin was keeping an eye on a couple of storms moving southeast just outside the eastern counties in our viewing area. Just before six o’clock, those storms took a turn to the South-Southwest and things began to rapidly develop from there.
At about 6:50 or so, the first severe weather bulletins went out and as we always do when severe weather threatens, we cut into our regularly-scheduled program to update viewers in the path of the storm. But this was no ordinary storm. It was rapidly growing in intensity. We got a call from a viewer in Rising Star reporting golf ball-to-baseball-size hail. Within moments it had increased in size to softball to grapefruit. Torrential rains and high straight line winds were also being reported. Weather people will tell you that the size of the hail is a good indicator of just how severe a storm is: the larger the hail, the more dangerous the storm (and it doesn’t have to be that big!).
This storm was erupting so quickly that Nance’ was having to do cut-ins every three or four minutes, interrupting TV shows as she did so. That got a lot of people angry and they called the station to express their displeasure. Did I say “displeasure”? Let’s call it what it was: “outrage”.
Now, for the record, please understand that we don’t like cutting into people’s television shows. When we do, they usually get very angry and say some pretty mean things to us. It’s okay -- we understand. And you know what: if it was a show I was interested in, I’d be angry, too. But this was more than just anger. As I said, it was “outrage”. Let me tell you something, when people are that mad, they don’t want to get into a discussion with you about it. They are ready to physically assault you!
What astounded me was the level of anger and how it was expressed. I think an unusual phenomenon is taking place in the world: we have been blogging and texting so long that our “dark side” is beginning to take over whenever we get mad. We get on the telephone and talk to people with the same “hateful” tone and language we express when we blog total strangers. When did we as a race of human beings stop being a “kinder, gentler” people? Maybe we never were and just tricked ourselves into believing that we were somehow better than people who only know how to hate. Maybe it's a bi-product of having to deal with machines all day, unable to interact with another human being. Friday night, it was like watching Jesus being condemned by the crowds shouting “Crucify him!” It was like watching a pack of snarling, attack dogs.
Of course, when these calls come in, the faceless people who make them never tell you who they are. When you’re anonymous you don’t have to worry about accountability for your actions. It’s an interesting behavior and one that social scientists should take a closer look at.
Downing Bolls
Friday, May 1, 2009
Talking About the Bug: Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf
For the first time since last October, we have been focused on something other than the economy, although that is still there. Now there is the Swine Flu outbreak and talk of a global pandemic.
I am blogging this as our community waits to hear back on the results of lab tests. Fourteen samples were collected from people displaying flu-like symptoms and we may know later today whether any of those are Swine Flu. My point is this, however: maybe we are over reacting a little bit at this point. Stores are running out of surgical facemasks and hand sanitizers. The hand sanitizer rush – okay, I can see that, but the facemask thing – that just seems like a little much at this point. We’re walking around looking like there’s a Sars outbreak. Too bad E-R isn’t on anymore; I can see a whole show built around the trauma center not having any surgical masks. You know, exposure to some germs is a good thing because it allows out bodies to build immunity to them. If we keep spreading lotion on our hands that kills 99 percent of all germs, I fear some much bigger health issues may be headed our way in the future.
Influenza is an interesting thing when you sit down and think about it. Remember two years ago when there was a shortage of flu vaccine and everyone was terrified? (It’s like earlier this year when people found out their DTV coupons weren’t good anymore.) Long lines encircled the civic center and people were turned away. I even heard rumors of flu shots being sold on the black market. It’s funny what a little fear will do to folks, isn’t it? This year, there was no flu vaccine shortage and you couldn’t give flu shots away. As I understand it, the flu is a respiratory illness and those at the greatest risk for catching it are the ones who need the shots most: healthcare workers, the elderly, the very young, and the chronically ill. If you are healthy and practice good hygiene, you should be able to handle this flu like you do the viruses that come around every flu season. If you want a shot, get a shot. Otherwise, wash your hands often, avoid contact with infected persons, don’t spread germs, and if you are sick, stay home. As sorry as I am to say it, it just boils down to this: We live in a world that is interconnected and if there is a flu pandemic, you’re probably going to get sick. It’s as simple as that. If we as a society want to keep that from happening, we will probably need to move Thanksgiving and Christmas to the summer months, when the threat of influenza is much smaller. The holidays must be a nightmare for public health officials and the evidence is certainly there that there is a connection. The peak period for flu is late January and early February, about the right time frame when you figure the gestation period, the holidays, and how long it takes the flu virus to morph into a new strain.
I got an email this week about our reporting of the Swine flu story. Here’s what it says:
“To the so call news fakers, are you that uneducated when it comes to come sense. Proverbs 6:16-19. You are telling people that they can't get the swine flu by eating pork. Do you not know that the virus is in the blood of these animals? Does not know the blood is going thru the entire body of these animals, then into the meat of these animals? You are fools in sheep clothing being lead to the slaughter. This is why the Holy Bible say not to eat swine you idiots. O, the savior did away with that law. I don't think so, he came to prove that you can do them all. Each man, woman and child can walk in his ways, he told us to do this, that the law is not burdensome to each one of us.
You probably won't even address what I have said here on the air, because your cowards.”
I’m no doctor, so, I turned to the Centers for Disease Control website (http://www.cdc.gov/hiniflu/key_facts.htm) for some answers. This is what they said: Swine influenza viruses are not transmitted by food. You can not get swine influenza from eating pork or pork products. Eating properly handled and cooked pork and pork products is safe. Cooking pork to an internal temperature of 160°F kills the swine flu virus as it does other bacteria and viruses.
Well gee, Mr. Wizard, if you can’t get it from eating pork, how does it spread? Influenza viruses can be directly transmitted from pigs to people and from people to pigs. Human infection with flu viruses from pigs are most likely to occur when people are in close proximity to infected pigs, such as in pig barns and livestock exhibits housing pigs at fairs. Human-to-human transmission of swine flu can also occur. This is thought to occur in the same way as seasonal flu occurs in people, which is mainly person-to-person transmission through coughing or sneezing of people infected with the influenza virus. People may become infected by touching something with flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose. In other words, you can’t get Swine Flu by watching Babe, the pig; Blue Boy, the Hampshire boar in “State Fair”; Porky’s, or Lonesome Dove (at least Gus didn’t from his two pigs). However, attendance at 4H events might be off a little this year.
Back in 1976, I was a young budding reporter, just out of college and working as a disc jockey at an Abilene radio station. They didn’t have a regular news department, but they gave me a tape recorder and sent me out to interview Congressman Omar Burleson. For those who have never been to one of news conferences, the Congressman arrives and takes questions about things going on in Washington. There had been an outbreak of Swine Flu at Fort Dix, New Jersey and there were fears the whole country might be exposed, so a massive inoculation program was started. A lot of people remembered the catastrophic toll taken by the flu outbreak of 1918 (my grandfather drove an ambulance in Ranger where the flu struck oilfield workers in large numbers. About the only memory we have of that now is the annual holiday airing of “It’s A Wonderful Life” in which Mr. Gower gets the telegram that his son Robert has died of the flu). Millions of people worldwide died in the 1918 pandemic, so long lines formed at the local National Guard Armory where the Swine Flu shots were being given. There had been some adverse reactions to the vaccine, however, and that prompted some to question the program. I asked Congressman Burleson if he was planning to get his Swine Flu shot and he replied that he wasn’t: he didn’t see any reason to. “Congressman Vows Not to Take Shot” became the lead story on every newscast in Abilene that day and opened the door for me to get into news broadcasting.
As we wait to see just how bad this flu pandemic will be, let us be hopeful that the threat of a pandemic isn’t in reality a “panic”-demic. Let’s make sure that any response begins with a health dose of common sense.
Downing Bolls
I am blogging this as our community waits to hear back on the results of lab tests. Fourteen samples were collected from people displaying flu-like symptoms and we may know later today whether any of those are Swine Flu. My point is this, however: maybe we are over reacting a little bit at this point. Stores are running out of surgical facemasks and hand sanitizers. The hand sanitizer rush – okay, I can see that, but the facemask thing – that just seems like a little much at this point. We’re walking around looking like there’s a Sars outbreak. Too bad E-R isn’t on anymore; I can see a whole show built around the trauma center not having any surgical masks. You know, exposure to some germs is a good thing because it allows out bodies to build immunity to them. If we keep spreading lotion on our hands that kills 99 percent of all germs, I fear some much bigger health issues may be headed our way in the future.
Influenza is an interesting thing when you sit down and think about it. Remember two years ago when there was a shortage of flu vaccine and everyone was terrified? (It’s like earlier this year when people found out their DTV coupons weren’t good anymore.) Long lines encircled the civic center and people were turned away. I even heard rumors of flu shots being sold on the black market. It’s funny what a little fear will do to folks, isn’t it? This year, there was no flu vaccine shortage and you couldn’t give flu shots away. As I understand it, the flu is a respiratory illness and those at the greatest risk for catching it are the ones who need the shots most: healthcare workers, the elderly, the very young, and the chronically ill. If you are healthy and practice good hygiene, you should be able to handle this flu like you do the viruses that come around every flu season. If you want a shot, get a shot. Otherwise, wash your hands often, avoid contact with infected persons, don’t spread germs, and if you are sick, stay home. As sorry as I am to say it, it just boils down to this: We live in a world that is interconnected and if there is a flu pandemic, you’re probably going to get sick. It’s as simple as that. If we as a society want to keep that from happening, we will probably need to move Thanksgiving and Christmas to the summer months, when the threat of influenza is much smaller. The holidays must be a nightmare for public health officials and the evidence is certainly there that there is a connection. The peak period for flu is late January and early February, about the right time frame when you figure the gestation period, the holidays, and how long it takes the flu virus to morph into a new strain.
I got an email this week about our reporting of the Swine flu story. Here’s what it says:
“To the so call news fakers, are you that uneducated when it comes to come sense. Proverbs 6:16-19. You are telling people that they can't get the swine flu by eating pork. Do you not know that the virus is in the blood of these animals? Does not know the blood is going thru the entire body of these animals, then into the meat of these animals? You are fools in sheep clothing being lead to the slaughter. This is why the Holy Bible say not to eat swine you idiots. O, the savior did away with that law. I don't think so, he came to prove that you can do them all. Each man, woman and child can walk in his ways, he told us to do this, that the law is not burdensome to each one of us.
You probably won't even address what I have said here on the air, because your cowards.”
I’m no doctor, so, I turned to the Centers for Disease Control website (http://www.cdc.gov/hiniflu/key_facts.htm) for some answers. This is what they said: Swine influenza viruses are not transmitted by food. You can not get swine influenza from eating pork or pork products. Eating properly handled and cooked pork and pork products is safe. Cooking pork to an internal temperature of 160°F kills the swine flu virus as it does other bacteria and viruses.
Well gee, Mr. Wizard, if you can’t get it from eating pork, how does it spread? Influenza viruses can be directly transmitted from pigs to people and from people to pigs. Human infection with flu viruses from pigs are most likely to occur when people are in close proximity to infected pigs, such as in pig barns and livestock exhibits housing pigs at fairs. Human-to-human transmission of swine flu can also occur. This is thought to occur in the same way as seasonal flu occurs in people, which is mainly person-to-person transmission through coughing or sneezing of people infected with the influenza virus. People may become infected by touching something with flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose. In other words, you can’t get Swine Flu by watching Babe, the pig; Blue Boy, the Hampshire boar in “State Fair”; Porky’s, or Lonesome Dove (at least Gus didn’t from his two pigs). However, attendance at 4H events might be off a little this year.
Back in 1976, I was a young budding reporter, just out of college and working as a disc jockey at an Abilene radio station. They didn’t have a regular news department, but they gave me a tape recorder and sent me out to interview Congressman Omar Burleson. For those who have never been to one of news conferences, the Congressman arrives and takes questions about things going on in Washington. There had been an outbreak of Swine Flu at Fort Dix, New Jersey and there were fears the whole country might be exposed, so a massive inoculation program was started. A lot of people remembered the catastrophic toll taken by the flu outbreak of 1918 (my grandfather drove an ambulance in Ranger where the flu struck oilfield workers in large numbers. About the only memory we have of that now is the annual holiday airing of “It’s A Wonderful Life” in which Mr. Gower gets the telegram that his son Robert has died of the flu). Millions of people worldwide died in the 1918 pandemic, so long lines formed at the local National Guard Armory where the Swine Flu shots were being given. There had been some adverse reactions to the vaccine, however, and that prompted some to question the program. I asked Congressman Burleson if he was planning to get his Swine Flu shot and he replied that he wasn’t: he didn’t see any reason to. “Congressman Vows Not to Take Shot” became the lead story on every newscast in Abilene that day and opened the door for me to get into news broadcasting.
As we wait to see just how bad this flu pandemic will be, let us be hopeful that the threat of a pandemic isn’t in reality a “panic”-demic. Let’s make sure that any response begins with a health dose of common sense.
Downing Bolls
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