Between media following the “if it bleeds it leads” and filling in gaps in the news demand with fear-mongering speculation, and certain punditry and politicos willing to exploit the disease for their own purposes, the American public is being fully informed with a lot of MISinformation.
Executive Summary: Is Ebola a horrible a disease? Yup. Are Ebola carriers among us, unseen and undetected? Nope. Is it causing major problems in parts of Africa? Yup. Is the US under dire threat of being wiped out (or even seriously impacted) by a domestic Ebola pandemic? Um … nope.
Meanwhile, 50 people die from lightening, 300 from alcohol poisoning, and 36,000 in motor vehicle accidents in the US every year. Just saying.
Originally shared by +Media Matters for America:
It’s time to talk about the media’s terrible Ebola coverage.
The Media’s Ebola Coverage: The More You Watch, The Less You Know?
CNN has found their new airplane, that is until they tie the disappearance of the Malaysian flight to Ebola. CNN is pretty much as devoid of intelligence as Fox these days.
+Michelle Norton Pretty much. It's a lot less mean-spirited, though.
Journalism? Hard.
Fear-mongering? Easy.