Politics

Author: Richard R. Tryon and others

Clayton Tryon-Petith

Mass Media-Hyzer

11-12-01

Merchants of Fear

“Terrorism is about making people feel vulnerable. The terrorists know that for every person that they kill, they can plant fear in the hearts ofmillions. This lop-sided ratio between actual casualties and fear sown is most pronounced in the case of the latest scare: anthrax [and terrorism].”

With this goal in mind, the recent attacks on America have instilled fear in the hearts of millions of people who rely on media coverage everyday. However, the media recently has been sensationalized, causing widespread panic and overreactions to false situations nationwide. A country has been put on hold with exaggerated warnings of peril driving people into their homes, glued to scrolling info bars across the bottoms of television screens everywhere.

As soon as the first World Trade Center tower was hit on the morning of September 11th, the cameras turned on and the scheduled programming booted off in way of wall-to-wall commercial free coverage on every major television network. In fact, it was the most extensive and expensive of any event since JFK was assassinated. The information and video was looped until new, up-to-the-minute details arrived. “‘The terrorists have been playing the media from the get-go,’ says Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University media professor. He cites the planning of [the attack] with the
second World Trade Center crash timed to appear on live television”

Much criticism has come to the cable news networks airing of footage of victims plunging out of the buildings. It’s this kind of coverage that causes viewers stomachs to turn, knowing that children could be watching the startling images. Many applauded the announcement of a directive unanimously agreed upon by the major networks to strictly limit the usage of September 11th footage. They have been exercising sensitivity to the victims and their families, and getting on to other news. Robert Bianco of USA Today notes that “Networks that repeat the shots too often risk either scaring viewers into inaction or numbing them to the power of those images.”

In the wake of the initial attacks, Americans everywhere began to fear the threat of biological warfare. As anthrax cases turned up in the media’s mailbox with eventually all of the big three networks’ New York headquarters contaminated as well as locations on Capitol Hill, fears were becoming all but untrue. For an average American, to believe that you could get infected with anthrax is a notion amplified by media. News specials aired on how to protect your family from terrorists, showing a father fitting gas masks of his children and what supplies to stockpile for your “germ shelter”, give the viewer a sense of eminent danger, when the reality could not be further from the truth. “It is not rational for an average American…to fear receiving an anthrax-laced letter. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel…pointed out thechance of receiving such a letter is about one in a billion, much less than the chance of being struck by lightning, and less than the risks faced in driving one mile in a car.” Executive Director of the Center for Media and Public affairs said the “best, most concise account of anthrax on Capitol Hill” came in a recent Washington Post article written for children.

“It was straightforward and not panic-inducing. The kids get the straight news that doesn’t scare you.”(Kloer, 1E) Meanwhile the phones rang off the hook at emergency dispatch stations nationwide with calls suspecting the current public enemy #1; white powdery substances.

In Chicago alone hazardous materials crews were fielding up to forty calls a day. False alarms ranged from baking soda and flour on the sidewalk, to what turned out to be the dandruff of an airline pilot in the cockpit of a plane parked at O’Hare. One man even reported to police “something strange about his bag of M&M’s”. Mayor Richard Daley warned citizens, “If you start sending [hazardous material] teams all over, that’s all your going to be doing. We have to get on with our lives. The terrorists will win if we change our whole way of life. These evil people who committed these
terrorist acts will win. We have to get on with our lives.”


Another high ranking emergency response official, who asked to remain anonymous, advised Chicagoans to turn off their radios and televisions and enjoy the great fall weather. “Get in the car. Take a ride down Lake Shore Drive, then go out to the forest preserve and look at the fall colors. Get back to normal life. Do something soothing. Chill out. Get away from all this.”

So relax America, the sky is not falling. Take a big breath of anthrax-free air and think about what you can take for granted, your family, your friends, yourself. Do not let the media brainwash you into getting scared just so you watch more of their channel and make them more money, because its their job, and there’s no news like bad news.