This is too easy. To see the latest example of swine news today, click this article. The Reuters article starts like this:
“Mexico voiced hope on Friday it might be getting control of an outbreak of a new flu strain that has killed up to 176 people there, shut down large parts of the country and raised fears of a global epidemic.” Interesting, so up to 176 people have been killed? At first glance all I saw was the words flu, killed, and 176.
Scroll down to the 9th paragraph. Ahh…they have only actually confirmed 7 people have died from this in Mexico (interestingly the same number listed below in my original post)…but “suspect” it could be as high as 176. Wait a minute…that’s totally different fact we’re led to believe from the attention-getting opening paragraph. I knew I saw a number somewhere that made me believe hundreds have died already from this strain. I guess you actually have to pay attention and really read what they write/say.
So they took the extreme position upfront, to get to you read it, and buried the facts in the middle of the article. It all seems so dishonest and sensationalized to me. Anyway, not surprisingly the article goes on to say this strain doesn’t seem to be as bad as we were led to believe. One of the final paragraphs is the icing on the cake:
“Even normal flu can be deadly, with seasonal influenza killing an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 people globally every year.” Wow…that’s way more then the 8 people the H1N1 (I feel so educated now) has killed in this “rampart global pandemic”. Wait a minute…where are they getting the 250,000 to 500,000 number? I better check my sources.