This is unbelievable.
"So if the news people, who's job it is to investigate this stuff...."
I just got back from a meeting, and the TEN PM news was on the TV in the background. Same thing, except they reported "up to fourteen dead." HOW OLD IS THIS STORY NOW??? And it hasn't occurred to ANYONE in the news biz that if SIXTY MILLION products are being recalled, that there just MIGHT be more than fourteen dead?
Okay, just on the off chance one of these "journalists" (I use the term loosely) managed to put two brain cells together and question the number of deaths being quoted, HOW DIFFICULT WOULD IT BE to:
a) Get the phone book
b) Identify the Yellow Pages
c) Find "VETERANARIANS" (chances are it's toward the back)
d) Phone each one with the following query:
"Good morning, I'm Barbara Bonehead from See B.S. 2 news at five, and we're doing an informal, unscientific survey of ALL vets in the area, and we will NOT be using your name. Could you give us a rough idea of how many pets you've lost to the tainted food?"
If you're located in a major metro area, forty or fifty replies should not be difficult. A hundred would be better. Not located in a major metro? MAKE SOME LONG DISTANCE CALLS for heaven's sake! Anyway, forty or fifty should give you a good average.
THEN...(here comes the hard part)....
Find out approximately how many veteranarians there are in the Continental U.S.! (This may require an intenet search engine, or even a phone call to a veteranary trade publication) THEN....
Extrapolate (big word I know, but you'll have to look it up!) the average number obtained from your survey to the number of vets in the U.S., and you'll have a PRETTY GOOD IDEA how many Fluffies and Fidos have actually succumbed to the rat poisoned pet food!
Am I missing something? Not a big tough assignment, but it doesn't seem to have occurred to ANY of them to look into this. Otherwise it would have hit the wires already.
Do we have to do their jobs for them or what? Oh wait, I forgot. If it can't be blamed on a Republican or and Evangelical Christian, they don't care!
I know I know I know !!
Here's the worst part: I THINK THEY KILLED THE STORY COMPLETELY!!!
My three local TV news channels didn't report ONE WORD on the pet food recall on Sunday or Monday (so far).
I sent them an email telling them I am appalled that they would kill a story when potentially several thousand animals have/are dying. I gave them all the data, all the links, all the info they need to report/investigate.
Everything you wrote is apparently way too complicated or scientific for the news media. You were right, "extrapolate" is a HUGE word that I'm sure they've never even heard before, much less know how to do.
My news even reported "over 16 have died, including 4 here in our state." Ok, so it takes rocket science to think in your head, "Hmmm, 4 dead in our state, and there are 50 states... but only 16 officially reported dead? Something isn't adding up."
17% of the animals in the taste test at Menu Foods died. SEVENTEEN PERCENT !! So again with the extrapolation: If 60 million cans/pouches were out there to be eaten... +/- 17% of the animals who eat it are potentially going to die... I think it's bigger than 16 dead animals.
And I'm sure they would have killed this story if it were PEOPLE dying by the thousands from RAT POISON in the food supply. Yeah right.
But they can certainly put the Anna Nicole Smith autopsy results at the TOP of the news hour on all three local channels! Talk about an OLD story that needs to be KILLED!! Sheesh.
I'm truly outraged at the lack of responsible media interest in this story. They did a good job of giving it TIME last week, but they did a lousy job on accuracy or investigation or stressing the magnitude and urgency. And now that the magnitude of the problem is coming to light, they have KILLED the story entirely. So a week from now it will just be "that food recall that killed about 16 animals."
Grrrrrr!!!