Saturday, December 10, 2005
Chris Smith - victim of unfair press coverage
Dick Harmon in the Thursday, December 8, 2005 Deseret Morning News tells how tight end Chris Smith's record of 1,156 yards in one season was finally beaten after 15 years when Tulsa tight end Garrett Mills reached 1,164 feet last weekend. That's a longtime for a record to stand in any sport where records are made and broken almost weekly.
Even with his record, Chris Smith never did play professional football. He was the victim of unfair press coverage.
Although Smith had the best record in NCAA in 1990 in April 1991, the Cincinnati Bengals drafted Smith in the 11th round, the 295th player taken and the 17th tight end selected. Smith didn't play for the Bengals that season. They already had three players in the tight end spot.
According to Harmon, "draft day humiliated Chris Smith." Two months previously he had been rated the number 1 tight end for the upcoming draft. At the NFL Combine in Indianapolis because of injuries he ran a little slower than usual, but he thought scouts would base their choices on his game films and performances.
Instead a Sports Illustrated article published just before the draft included several negative quotes from a Toledo tight end and a scout. The magazine quoted tight end Jerry Evans, who was at the Combine saying about Smith: "He's effeminate. He can't block." NFL scout Dave Te' Thomas said: "I think Chris will look good in a business suit."
Today, Smith wears a business suit, all because of bad press. He works for a start-up company in Salt Lake City selling automotive accessories. He and his wife have three children. He coaches his daughter's club soccer team, plays basketball several times a week and golfs. You don't have to play for the NFL to have a good life, but Smith probably regrets his lost chances.
Harmon, D. (2005, December 8). Smith's tight end record at BYU has finally fallen. Deseret Morning News. Retrieved December 10, 2005, from http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,635167138,00.html
Even with his record, Chris Smith never did play professional football. He was the victim of unfair press coverage.
Although Smith had the best record in NCAA in 1990 in April 1991, the Cincinnati Bengals drafted Smith in the 11th round, the 295th player taken and the 17th tight end selected. Smith didn't play for the Bengals that season. They already had three players in the tight end spot.
According to Harmon, "draft day humiliated Chris Smith." Two months previously he had been rated the number 1 tight end for the upcoming draft. At the NFL Combine in Indianapolis because of injuries he ran a little slower than usual, but he thought scouts would base their choices on his game films and performances.
Instead a Sports Illustrated article published just before the draft included several negative quotes from a Toledo tight end and a scout. The magazine quoted tight end Jerry Evans, who was at the Combine saying about Smith: "He's effeminate. He can't block." NFL scout Dave Te' Thomas said: "I think Chris will look good in a business suit."
Today, Smith wears a business suit, all because of bad press. He works for a start-up company in Salt Lake City selling automotive accessories. He and his wife have three children. He coaches his daughter's club soccer team, plays basketball several times a week and golfs. You don't have to play for the NFL to have a good life, but Smith probably regrets his lost chances.
Harmon, D. (2005, December 8). Smith's tight end record at BYU has finally fallen. Deseret Morning News. Retrieved December 10, 2005, from http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,635167138,00.html
Monday, December 05, 2005
The real story the press ignored in 2000
In November 2000 British listeners to BBC and readers of the Observer knew the reasons for Al Gore losing Florida. They learned that thousands of black voters were disenfranchised in Florida because of false charges of having criminal records. This was a story the U.S. press ignored while it covered the recounts and looked for hanging chads. Salon.com seemed to be the only American media outlet interested in the story.
Greg Palast, an American who often works in London, broke the story in the Observer. Even prior to the election, he had written: "Florida Governor Jeb Bush and his Secretary of State Katherine Harris ordered local elections supervisors to purge 57,700 voters from registries on grounds they were felons not entitled to vote in Florida. As it turns out, these voters weren't felons, at most a handful. However the voters on this 'scrub list' were notably African-American (about 54 percent) and most of the others wrongly barred from voting were white and Hispanic Democrats" (Pilger, John. 2005. Tell me no lies. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, pp. 465-481).
In February 2001 the Nation published the story. The Washington Post took seven months and the New York Times finally reported it on February 16, 2004. Why was the press silent about this important story? Palast in his book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (2003), claims it was a fear of breaking from the 'pack.'
If this kind of voting fraud occurred in any other country, there would be riots in the streets. In America, voters and the press stoodby passively and watched the election be stolen from Al Gore. Why don't Americans care? Because of our apathy, we get the press and the government we deserve.
You can watch some of Palast's reports on BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/newsnight/1174115.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/3956129.stm
Greg Palast, an American who often works in London, broke the story in the Observer. Even prior to the election, he had written: "Florida Governor Jeb Bush and his Secretary of State Katherine Harris ordered local elections supervisors to purge 57,700 voters from registries on grounds they were felons not entitled to vote in Florida. As it turns out, these voters weren't felons, at most a handful. However the voters on this 'scrub list' were notably African-American (about 54 percent) and most of the others wrongly barred from voting were white and Hispanic Democrats" (Pilger, John. 2005. Tell me no lies. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, pp. 465-481).
In February 2001 the Nation published the story. The Washington Post took seven months and the New York Times finally reported it on February 16, 2004. Why was the press silent about this important story? Palast in his book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (2003), claims it was a fear of breaking from the 'pack.'
If this kind of voting fraud occurred in any other country, there would be riots in the streets. In America, voters and the press stoodby passively and watched the election be stolen from Al Gore. Why don't Americans care? Because of our apathy, we get the press and the government we deserve.
You can watch some of Palast's reports on BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/newsnight/1174115.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/3956129.stm
Fear factor and avian flu
Is an avian flu pandemic a possibility? or is it a hoax?
On NPR this morning I listened to another report about the possible avian flu pandemic, "Vaccine Production May Fail in Flu Pandemic," http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5036908. The current technology for producing flu vacine may not be up to the task of protecting people from a brand new strain of deadly flu -- a much-feared pandemic, according to the report. This story and others of a similar vain have received considerable press, partly because government is one of the major sources. Another source as in this story is the pharmaceutical industry. Both benefit from the fear factor. Big pharm sells product. Big governemnt gets bigger. And the fear factor also sells newspapers.
Yet, the other side of the story is getting very little press.
On October 8, 2005 U.S. News reported:
"A draft of the government's plan to combat a potential super-flu estimates a death toll of up to almost 2 million Americans. The plan is being rewritten to designate who will run the country during a possibly chaotic period that could follow a mutation of a bird flu in Asia."
"The draft is based on the last century's three pandemics, and states that in the best-case scenario, about 200,000 people could die."
"The government currently has enough of the anti-flu drug Tamiflu to treat 4.3 million people, and $100 million worth of bird flu vaccine is being manufactured. The draft indicates that tens of millions more doses of each would be necessary, far more than can be manufactured quickly."
In the editorial section of the October 17, 2005 issue of the Wall Street Journal, Dr. Henry Miller, former director of the Office of Biotechnology at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), seeks to frighten the U.S. public by telling us that the bird flu virus can jump from birds to humans and produce, and is a fatal illness in 50 percent of those infected.
Dr. Joseph Mercola <http://www.mercola.com/2005/oct/25/> claims that the flu scare is a hoax, based on faulty science. He says that the predictions are based on the deaths in Asia of 60 people, who as bird handlers had constant contact with the sick birds. "How do they make the giant leap of faith that 60 deaths will translate to 2 million or even 200,00 deaths in the United States from a virus that does NOT readily spread from birds to humans, or humans to humans?"
These scare tactics, he states, are perpetuated by a pharmaceutical industry that stands to make billions of dollars. Each dose of Tamiflu vacine costs $100. "So those 20 million doses the government has authorized will cost U.S. taxpayers $2 BILLION."
Rima E. Laibow, MD, <http://healthfreedomusa.org/> states: "As a physician and a scientist, I want to share the best news of this flu season: You can prevent or treat the Avian Flu (IF it develops the ability to infect humans) easily, simply, cheaply, safely and naturally."
"How does the Avian Flu do its damage? Birds (or humans if the virus mutates spontaneously - or is mutated in a lab) die because the H5N1 virus depletes Vitamin C stores so quickly that the cause of death is fulminate scurvy. Scurvy is the same disease that killed seamen on long voyages because unless we get enough Vitamin C from our diet or our supplements, we get sick or die. Humans cannot make Vitamin C but we need it for a great many vital processes including immune function and vascular integrity. This particular type of virus uses up Vitamin C stores so quickly that the immune system is overwhelmed and the blood vessels loose their structural integrity: they leak so badly that infected animals literally bleed to death through those damaged vessels."
"Prevention? Vitamin C: lots and lots and lots of Vitamin C. Treatment? Lots and lots and lots of vitamin C."
Now, I don't know much about disease nor remedies. Whether the Bush administration, FDA and pharmaceutical companies are right, I don't know. I do know they will profit from a flu scare. I also know that the other side of the story is not being told. In this issue as in many others we are only getting one side of the story (a biased one at that).
On NPR this morning I listened to another report about the possible avian flu pandemic, "Vaccine Production May Fail in Flu Pandemic," http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5036908. The current technology for producing flu vacine may not be up to the task of protecting people from a brand new strain of deadly flu -- a much-feared pandemic, according to the report. This story and others of a similar vain have received considerable press, partly because government is one of the major sources. Another source as in this story is the pharmaceutical industry. Both benefit from the fear factor. Big pharm sells product. Big governemnt gets bigger. And the fear factor also sells newspapers.
Yet, the other side of the story is getting very little press.
On October 8, 2005 U.S. News reported:
"A draft of the government's plan to combat a potential super-flu estimates a death toll of up to almost 2 million Americans. The plan is being rewritten to designate who will run the country during a possibly chaotic period that could follow a mutation of a bird flu in Asia."
"The draft is based on the last century's three pandemics, and states that in the best-case scenario, about 200,000 people could die."
"The government currently has enough of the anti-flu drug Tamiflu to treat 4.3 million people, and $100 million worth of bird flu vaccine is being manufactured. The draft indicates that tens of millions more doses of each would be necessary, far more than can be manufactured quickly."
In the editorial section of the October 17, 2005 issue of the Wall Street Journal, Dr. Henry Miller, former director of the Office of Biotechnology at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), seeks to frighten the U.S. public by telling us that the bird flu virus can jump from birds to humans and produce, and is a fatal illness in 50 percent of those infected.
Dr. Joseph Mercola <http://www.mercola.com/2005/oct/25/> claims that the flu scare is a hoax, based on faulty science. He says that the predictions are based on the deaths in Asia of 60 people, who as bird handlers had constant contact with the sick birds. "How do they make the giant leap of faith that 60 deaths will translate to 2 million or even 200,00 deaths in the United States from a virus that does NOT readily spread from birds to humans, or humans to humans?"
These scare tactics, he states, are perpetuated by a pharmaceutical industry that stands to make billions of dollars. Each dose of Tamiflu vacine costs $100. "So those 20 million doses the government has authorized will cost U.S. taxpayers $2 BILLION."
Rima E. Laibow, MD, <http://healthfreedomusa.org/> states: "As a physician and a scientist, I want to share the best news of this flu season: You can prevent or treat the Avian Flu (IF it develops the ability to infect humans) easily, simply, cheaply, safely and naturally."
"How does the Avian Flu do its damage? Birds (or humans if the virus mutates spontaneously - or is mutated in a lab) die because the H5N1 virus depletes Vitamin C stores so quickly that the cause of death is fulminate scurvy. Scurvy is the same disease that killed seamen on long voyages because unless we get enough Vitamin C from our diet or our supplements, we get sick or die. Humans cannot make Vitamin C but we need it for a great many vital processes including immune function and vascular integrity. This particular type of virus uses up Vitamin C stores so quickly that the immune system is overwhelmed and the blood vessels loose their structural integrity: they leak so badly that infected animals literally bleed to death through those damaged vessels."
"Prevention? Vitamin C: lots and lots and lots of Vitamin C. Treatment? Lots and lots and lots of vitamin C."
Now, I don't know much about disease nor remedies. Whether the Bush administration, FDA and pharmaceutical companies are right, I don't know. I do know they will profit from a flu scare. I also know that the other side of the story is not being told. In this issue as in many others we are only getting one side of the story (a biased one at that).
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