If things start going down on New Year's eve in Australia, Japan, Europe, Russia, etc....Will our media cover it? Any guesses?

-- Matt (mattd97@hotmail.com), December 29, 1999

Answers

No.

-- that (one@was.easy), December 29, 1999.

The food shipments to BVI were stopped Dec 1 and the BVI officials were open that the people would suffer hunger, do you see those live reports on your t.v.? How about the passengers on the Carnival Cruise that fled the ship and protested on a foreign port? I haven't seen any coverage of the glitches happening in AZ.

I don't think the question is will the media cover it. I think the media would love to be covering it but is under the thumb of a psuedo Uncle Sam order. [Clearing my throat] The Clinton Administration is hardly known for love of the American people, information, rights, choices, freedom, and patriotic individualism.

-- Paula (chowbabe@pacbell.net), December 29, 1999.

BVI = British Virgin Islands

Being American, I had to look that up.

-- don't know (nothing@bout.geography), December 29, 1999.

I think the media will have to cover it. They have made such a big deal about watching the rollover work its way around the world that they will have little choice.

That being said, you can bet your bottom dollar that the Spinmeisters will be there in force to downplay any problems.

Lights go out in Tokyo, no problem. At least for America. Japanese use a different system. Don't worry, be happy. Yada, yada, yada....

-- Stars and Stripes (stars_n_stripes@my-deja.com), December 29, 1999.

Of course they'll cover it........THINK for a minute......we have access to tv and radio from more than one country......access to shortwave radios....not to mention the internet.......

It's virtually impossible to not report major happenings because we will get the information anyways!

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), December 29, 1999.

Craig,

I hope you're right, but the average person does not seek out those kinds of alternative news sources. In my opinion the average person won't have a clue unless a plane actually does fall from the sky...on their front lawn.

John Ludi, cynic at large.

-- Ludi (ludi@rollin.com), December 29, 1999.

Yes, they will cover it, but the news will go through more spin cycles than dirty laundry in a heavy duty washing machine. Propaganda, lies, and outright deception.

The ones who have the best chance at getting factual reports are those with ham radios and personal contacts, and possibly through some of the less commercialized shortwave radio news outlets.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), December 29, 1999.

If only that were true Craig...

The media has shown many times that it covers only that which TPTB tell it to cover, No I do not think we will see a tenth of the real stories or problems from the main stream media.In fact they will more than likely run with the terrorism bunk come the New Years problems.

-- (mw@here.now), December 29, 1999.

Considering they'll have correspondants in every time zone, it's goint to be tough explaining why all of the lights are out.

R.

-- Roland (nottelling@nohwere.com), December 29, 1999.

>spin cycle

Let us be more precise. The spin will be that whatever the problem is "We have been assured that it will be fixed very soon."

That is very dangerous spin, because the purpose will be to keep the sheep from getting nervous and fleeing the problem areas. If it dosen't get fixed soon many may die.

Kosky may have a lot of blood on his hands before January is over.

-- cgbg jr (cgbgjr@webtv.net), December 29, 1999.

--my guess is that the media WILL NOT report any y2k crashes, if they do it will be "terrorist" or "hacker" attacks. and of course, IF it looks real bad to the powers that be, they'll just take over all the commercial networks. We'll see, I don't know, just guessing, but any real stories COULDN'T be reported or the gov would be finished as any sort of entity in short order. You make 260 million folks realize they've been lied to and now their lives are in peril and all heck would break loose. So, ergo, I don't think any real crash stories-if major-will get out except on shortwave.

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), December 29, 1999.

I believe the media's poor performance on Y2K is more attributable to incompetence (at a level I never could have believed) than conspiracy. They have been duped by conspirers, but I don't believe the media as a whole have actively conspired themselves. If you look at credible reporters trying to get at this story, they have nothing to show for their efforts. (Just ask Steve Croft.) They will all cover it (in great excess) once it becomes sensational.

-- Dave (aaa@aaa.com), December 29, 1999.

The media will be placed at VERY public gatherings across the globe, and you can bet your bottom $10 gold piece that those public places will have massive security and generators.

When those places get wacked, you won't know from looking at it. If the cameraman would turn his camera 180 degrees though, you might see blackness. Nope, everythings o-tay here!

-- CygnusXI (cygnus@black-hole.com), December 29, 1999.

Count on Matt Drudge to cover it.

-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), December 29, 1999.

If it glows, we'll know...

-- nance (nancyw@mailcity.com), December 29, 1999.

If it came right down to it, who's to say they couldn't just rerun last year's videotapes? After all, last year's model drunks will look just like this year's model. (Hint: Look real close and see if there are any banners reading, "Happy New Year 1999".)

-- I'm Here, I'm There (I'm Everywhere@so.beware), December 29, 1999.