WTF??!! ABC Is AIring Scary Bird Flu Drama

[cali]

    This really pisses me off. What are they trying to do, make the American people even more compliant? Thanks alot you fuckers.

It's bird flu for sweeps
By Colin Mahan - TV.com

Avian bird flu movie will alight on your TV and infect you with fear.

<snip>.

ABC has announced they will rip a panic-inducing storyline from the headlines just in time for sweeps. Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America will highlight the dangers of network executives hearing about hot-button topics.

Fatal Contact stars lantern-jawed former Mike Hammer Stacy Keach and Nip/Tuck's Joely Richardson in a story about what happens if the US became infected with a virulent strain of bid flu. Although details of the plot haven't been released, if it follows typical disaster-movie conventions Keach will be the only one who can do something about it while the authorities ignore him.

The movie airs May 9......

<snip>

http://www.tv.com/story/story.html&story_id=4207

[katinmn]

1. Hmm. And Junior is having a press conference on bird flu today

NIH has been having clinical trials with live bird flu virus.

It's only a matter of time. One way or another they will have a bird flu in this country.

[AndyA]

Almost as if on cue, eh?

Something stinks worse than a pound of ground beef left lying on the counter for 4 days!

[12string]

45. bird flu speech

I heard that chimpy is going to unveil his plan to nip the bird flu pandemic in the bud.He plans to go right to the source and nuke the Canary Islands

[katinmn]

50. ROTFLMAO!

That sounds plausible from the Bush Admin.

:rofl:

Welcome to DU!

[annabanana]

2. CBS did big scary bird flu story on the Early Show today...

must be a talking point memo out today..

(special note of plans to handle "civil unrest" caused by pandemic outbreak)

Hair trigger ready... someone sneeze and jackboots will appear nationwide...

[spinbaby]

5. It's their plan for the election

Can't have an election if we have a pandemic, you know.

[cali]

6. Maybe they figure that they need a

new fear meme to add to the terrorism fear mongering. You know, the layered look of multiple different scary scenarios.

This makes me so pissed off I'd like to see a boycott over it.

[stepnw1f]

3. Propaganda Wrapped as Entertainment

Get people frightened of an unseen, unpredictable enemy to distract the people from current political, global events.

[annabanana]

4. p.s.. . . shame on Stacy Keach.. . . . . n/t

[dogday]

7. The sky is falling

The sky is falling The sky is falling The sky is falling

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, the sky is falling.....

[bdamomma]

8. they will do anything

to control the american people with fear, won't they? and again the stupid kiss up media just obeys.

[leftchick]

9. CNN doing the same thing

memo to Karl: your days in the WH are numbered.

[H2O Man]

10. Quick!!!

Get to Wal Mart and buy a supply of plastic wrap and tape!!!!

[HereSince1628]

16. Don't forget a couple cans of tuna!!

[H2O Man]

20. True ....

a back-up supply of mercury could come in handy for gaging the temperature.

[peekaloo]

11. pre-empting Boston Legal?

bastids!

I bet the survivors all live on powdered milk and tuna fish.

[cali]

14. heh.

but of course.

[htuttle]

12. "12 people with varied backgrounds thrown into a fight for their lives..."

"...while they work out their interpersonal relationships."

Did Irwin Allen come up with a classic formula, or what?

:eyes:

[RaleighNCDUer]

28. Allen didn't come up with it - just refined it. Hitchcock's Lifeboat.

The true original.

[NotGivingUp]

13. It's all for Rumsfeld to make more money...

article from mercola.com:

Rumsfeld To Profit From Bird Flu Hoax

Bird FluFinally, the pieces of the puzzle start to add up. Not long ago, President Bush sought to instill panic in this country by telling us a minimum of 200,000 people will die from the avian flu pandemic, but it could be as bad as 2 million deaths in this country alone.

<snip>

Ahh, The Plot Thickens...

If you read the link below from Gilead, you'll discover Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was made the chairman of Gilead in 1997.

Since Rumsfeld holds major portions of stock in Gilead, he will handsomely profit from the scare tactics of the government that is being used to justify the purchase of $2 billion of Tamiflu.

http://www.mercola.com/2005/oct/25/rumsfeld_to_profit_from_avian_flu_hoax.htm

[AzDar]

15. What startled me is that even in the sound byte for 'upcoming

segments', the talking head mentioned "calling in the military if there is a major outbreak". WTF??
Rove tipping his hand, again?

[paparush]

17. Bird Flu and Immigration

Are the Gay Marriage issues for 2006. Issues designed to hog the front page and hog the coverage on 6 o'clock news, thus keeping stickier issues (see: Illegal War, Scandal, Lies, Fascism) away from the tender minds of the populace.

[endarkenment]

21. Oh and Remission Reaccomplished!

The asshat brigade is back on the Victory In Iraq Praise the Lord bandwagon again.

[endarkenment]

18. he actually used the phrase "Avian bird flu "

I use that all the time as a joke 'cause it is bloody stupid sounding. Apparently Colin Mahan is either a very understated wit or a total moran.

Meanwhile we have du'ers demanding that we SEAL THE BORDERS to stop the germ invested mexicans from KILLING US ALL.

Wake up!

[bleedingheart]

35. Well isn't it a bird flu from Avia???

hahahaha

:sarcasm:

[Dogmudgeon]

19. Disaster Movies are the best things going for public awareness

Discussing the upcoming ABC flu-pandemic movie is better than finding out how badly unprepared our Beneficent and Wise Leaders are after a pandemic has happened. Public health issues like contagious disease preparation are woefully under-funded and suffer from a nearly complete lack of leadership. The "response" to Katrina proved that.

Remember when the probability of asteroid and comet impacts were making the news? Sure, Armageddon was visual cotton-candy, but Deep Impact made the real statement. Within a few years, enough money was being spent that our astronomers could map most of the Earth-crossing objects that could cause major catastrophes. The amount of money is minuscule (I think it's around $50 million) and also contributes to scientific education, training, and knowledge in general. It pays the salaries of several physicists and astronomers, a far more productive use of public money than "Faith-Based" anything.

Of course, the big example is The Day After Tomorrow. Yep, a big, dumb, overacted disaster movie. But it worked. The topic was raised, people got educated, and the issue is out in the open, in spite of the "Skeptical Environmentalists" who tried to intimidate us with Science when they failed to do it with Money.

And nobody went mad with fear and pledged his life to King George as a result.

Same for supervolcanoes. Peak Oil. Ecological issues. Even AIDS awareness was raised by movies, plays, and literature. If disaster movies help get the word out, that's fine with me.

There's an idea that simply mentioning something frightening immediately causes people to stop thinking and to pledge their lives to King George. That's nonsense. I don't believe the "Sheeple" argument for one minute. Give the people awareness of the problems -- even if it takes a big, dumb movie. We've done a pretty good job of dealing with them already. And with a fart-lighting sophomore in the White House like Li'l Boots, any information is better than the reigning Press Secretary.

Trust the People. We're not all that dumb. And the stakes are high. But I trust us more than I trust the Bought-and-Paid-For Experts and the Powers That Be.

--p!

[cali]

22. I totally disagree that this has

any bearing on how prepared the government will be if bird flu does hit, or that it's helpful in educating people. I may be reading too much into the airing of it, but I certainly don't think it provides any help to either the government or the general publlic.

[endarkenment]

25. As in just the opposite.

It is not preparedness it is a calculated orchestrated fear mongering campaign directed from RNC Ministry of Disinformation and my guess is it is part of their 06 campaign.

Preparedness would be best accomplished through the professionals at CDC and any that are left at FEMA, not through made for tv propaganda flicks.

[Dogmudgeon]

30. By itself, a disaster movie does nothing

However ...

Public awareness of just how unprepared we are for any public health crisis is still quite low. Most of the existing public awareness is based on the same kind of cynicism that's in this thread. It's understandable, but it misses the underlying issues. We need to convert much of that cynicism into anger and action.

How do you educate people about those underlying issues? You get them talking. And a good, bracing, scary disaster movie is one way to do that.

Remember how AIDS got going? People were unaware of the issues of rapidly-mutating and novel STDs. The country's politics had just lurched to the right, and a reaction had begun against gay people. When AIDS hit, people cynically assumed it was either God's way of "spanking" the gays, or it was just Herpes Two, Part Two (by the way, I was one of those callow cynics). It took several years until people became aware of just how devastating AIDS was. Anthony Fauci and company made some terrifying (and, unfortunately, self-serving) predictions about AIDS killing half the human race in twenty years. But it took until Hollywood "discovered" AIDS that research got funded. It took a while until gays were "re-humanized" and the decimation of the gay community was shown on TV.

Then, people demanded action.

We need that kind of action on public health issues now, and we need it badly. It's not just the bird flu, it's the idea that human populations are incubators for disease just as flocks of birds are, but that human biosurveillance is dedicated almost 100% to drug marketing. We are at risk of overlooking developing epidemics simply because we won't spend the money or educate the public about risk reduction. The money shows up when getting a new penis pill to the market is at stake, but looking for new bugs isn't quite as "sexy".

Hell, we won't even permit needle-exchange in most places (let alone effective addict treatment programs) because of our damned moralizing -- and a major Hep-C outbreak has been the new result.

Imagine, if in 1983, a disaster movie came out that portrayed a world with half its population gone because of AIDS. Like The Day After, only "Germporn" instead of "Nukeporn", as the hipsters now call it. You can bet that Saint Reagan would have moved heaven and earth to respond to it, and none of that nonsense about how buttfucking makes Baby Jesus cry.

(I realize there are many gay folk on DU, and many of them have lost friends and loved ones to the epidemic. Please accept my apologies if I glossed over or trivialized any part of the response to AIDS. My point was simply that it took dramatic means to raise public awareness of it. I shudder to think that we might "overlook" another public health disaster like AIDS -- either from religious moralizing or hipster cynicism.)

The same thing applies to climate crises, Peak Oil, the world's inexorable trek to Total War, and a dozen other frightening crises we're facing. We need a little fear -- and a lot of education, as well as the kind of anger that leads us to demand effective action from our "leaders". (And maybe just enough cynicism to call bloodsuckers like Rumsfeld before a Congressional committee.)

If a couple of disaster movies can spark those changes, then they'll be well worth it.

--p!

[Canuckistanian]

23. Brought to you by Roche, makers of Tamiflu™

Dying from a major pandemic sweeping the earth?

Take Tamiflu™ and you'll be mountain climbing again the next day.*

*Some studies show no effect at all. May cause instant death in rare instances.

[Julius Civitatus]

32. Don't forget Rummy Rumsfeld

http://www.mercola.com/2005/oct/25/rumsfeld_to_profit_from_avian_flu_hoax.htm

[AnotherMother4Peace]

24. All part of GOP strategy

[endarkenment]

26. I agree.

Campaign 06 is based on a strong subliminal message of FEAR FEAR FEAR. Father figure Republicans will save us!

[leesa]

27. Booga. Booga. Don't watch it.

[cali]

29. Way to miss the point of my OP

I'm remarking on it as a cultural phenomenon. People frequently do that..

[Julius Civitatus]

31. Remember, Rumsfeld makes money from sales of Tamiflu

Tamiflu is the only know cure for avian flu.
Rumsfeld has invested heavily in his drug.
He's ultimately interested in selling it and increase the hype.

http://www.mercola.com/2005/oct/25/rumsfeld_to_profit_from_avian_flu_hoax.htm

[Chimichurri]

33. ABC has evolved into the Pharma news network. Just watch

elizabeth vargas and almost every night of the week they feature a new groundbreaking drug for some newfound ailment.

At least that's what caused us to stop tivoing it a couple of months ago. Although I've no doubt they continue to propagandize big pharma for us.

[sable302]

34. remember all those scary made for tv movies

about the killer bees?

The whole country was scared about a bunch of freakin' bees.

Same damn thing.

[coffeenap]

36. Woke up this am to NPR (accidentally) talking about THE

pandemic, not a pandemic, as if it has been planned. MIHOP? LIHOP? BS??? (used to love NPR back in the day...)

[WinkyDink]

37. The "Avian bird" flu crisis won't even have to be real.

How would we know? Just say somebody in Bethesda has it, or somebody in some other military hospital, and voila!
Martial law declaration.
"Preventative" quarantines, enforced by the military, after FEMA is weakened/abolished.
"Postponed" elections.

[endarkenment]

38. Now that is an actual scary thought.

How on earth would we know the real ABF from the Fake ABF? I suppose we would figure it out after everyone on DU (except of course for the usual suspects) 'got the flu' and everyone over on FR was in high snicker mode.

[npincus]

39. That's it... I'm OFF KFC!

Sorry, Colonel.

[sendero]

41. Well..

.... something positive has already been accomplished! :P

[shanti]

40. that was the headline in the sac bee today too

they're pushing it again :(

[sendero]

42. The really scary thing is..

... it would be pretty easy to create such an epidemic. Very easy.

[bdamomma]

43. Don't count on Federal help for bird flu

that is what bush said, bush can go to hell, after Katrina we know better not to count on this government. They should all leave, scumbuckets.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12607854/

Report: Don't count on federal bird flu rescue
White House says local communities must prepare for pandemic disruptions

May 3: The Bush administration says cities, states and businesses must make plans now to keep functioning if a flu pandemic happens — and not count on a federal rescue. NBC’s Jeannie Ohm reports.
MSNBC


Updated: 2:06 p.m. ET May 3, 2006
WASHINGTON - A flu pandemic would cause massive disruptions lasting for months, and cities, states and businesses must make plans now to keep functioning — and not count on a federal rescue, the Bush administration said Wednesday.

“Our nation will face this global threat united in purpose and united in action in order to best protect our families, our communities, our nation and our world from the threat of pandemic influenza,” President Bush said in a letter to Americans noting the release of an updated national pandemic response strategy.

[Mojorabbit]

44. Oh for Gods sake

this movie has been in the works for ages.It is supposed to have been meticulously researched. John Barry who wrote the book on the 1918 flu was a consult for the movie. I remember reading about it over a month ago and have been looking forward to it. Of all the things to have a conspiracy bent to this is not one. It amazes me that with all the wonderful brain power here no one is following the world news on this. It is a possibility. * will screw it up if it happens. You are on your own if it happens. It will be the a gazillion times worse than Katrina if it does happen. I am glad for any venue to get people educated on the subject even if it is a made for tv movie.

[cali]

48. I've followed the bird flu

story pretty closely. If it hits, and it's as contagious as some scientists think it will be, we're screwed no matter who's president. You may well be right about the conspiracy aspect being too much, but I totally disagree that the movie will make any difference. Just exactly what do you think it can do?

[Mojorabbit]

49. I don't know how many

people have told me that they think bird flu will be like anyother flu if it hits. That shows me ordinary people have no clue. If they have no clue they will not have at least minimal preps in place.

If a movie gives them a scenario that shows them what might happen then its good in my opinion. I would hate to think of families starving because they have no food in their houses and there is none to be had in stores.
If people start asking the govt to do something perhaps there will be some money put back into the public health system which is being starved right now. I know...long shot.
If people are educated they might just look a little closer at the government's plan and put their input in if they are not happy about it.
If there is enough of an outcry perhaps local communities will beef up their planning. I could go on ad infinitum.
I am not under the illusion that much can really be done if it does hit by the govt. But... education and preparation might make all the difference at the family level and if enough families are prepared they will not be a drain on resources and it might be the edge that communities need to come out the other end in better shape than they would have otherwise.

If it takes a made for tv movie to get people thinking then I am a happy camper.

[WinkyDink]

51. Fear-mongering is not necessarily enlightening the masses.

Does wonders for duct-tape sales, though.

[Akoto]

46. Silent Chicken: The Wrath of Jesus

[Media_Lies_Daily]

47. I'm sorry, but I'm not getting all of this apprehension about the....

...airing of news reports or movies about Avian Flu. Why is this topic different from any other topic?

If this was a movie about the aftermath of a nuclear war would you be posting the same comments? How about the aftermath of a major earthquake, or tsunami, or hurricane, or tornado? How about a hijacked airliner that ends up cratering the Pennsylvania countryside, or a passenger cruise ship that strikes an iceberg?

[WinkyDink]

52. None of these has been connected, BY BUSH, to the word

"quarantine"---except for the Avian flu.

THAT'S why.

[Beelzebud]

53. Want to see how the federal government would handle something like this?

Read Stephen King's The Stand.