ATS: White house wants to control health and safety anouncements

The White house wants to control emergency health and safety anouncements as well as other news of scientific nature as released by various federal agencies. In other words, real hazards will take a back seat to political hazards

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This is a major mistake by the Bush administration. Granted the mass media tends to over do it at times, but people aren't stupid. THey can figure things out for themselves.

I predict that the kaka will hit the fan over this one.

www.stltoday.com



[Edited on 11-1-2004 by SkepticOverlord]

well, i've got 3 letters for u...NWO... so police are getting more 'freedoms' to search and do survailance, u are practicaly strip searched b4 boarding a plane (wait untill a passenger train is hit), random vehical searches on tollway, cops are call when u inqurie about a flight simulation vidoe game and now this story.....3 letters..NWO....

If you believe in the NWO, do you also beleive that they are so incompetant to think that this would actually work?

it's not incompatance..it is more like testing the waters..try it this way and if it doesn't work..rewrite it....sorta like patriot II. in the name of national secruity..alot of bills and laws are being passed with little to no public knowledge, which 'they' don't want us to know. most of these new police powers are to curb terrorist activities..but they will be used in the u.s. against it's own citizens...guilty or not...u too may get caught up in just a little sweep for terrorists......

Howard,

you are wrong and here is why.

in Toronto last year we had an outbreak of SARS which exactly matches the scenario of this threads topic you made here. The local officials got it right in the end but in the beginning they did two things wrong that caused panic both locally and even globally as well as the potential that people were harmed or even killed that should not have been.

What they did was in the beginning run to the microphone with every little development as it happened with no thought of fully sourcing out the story. Then when it was found that too many exaggerations led to more problems then decided to do the opposite and literally 'clam-up.' This strategy led to rumour mills running overtime and even a bit of panic at times.

In the end the most reasoned method of communications was daily announcements that were not necessarily the most timely but time relevant.

Well Mr. Anderson ( ), on further reflection on the issue, I have come to the conclusion that you have a valid point there. (hey look, I just agreed with you :p)

What politician will risk his or her political career by not making a “federal case out of it,” to borrow a phrase.

Politicians can not help but posture on camera. Let’s say that there is a disease outbreak somewhere (inevitable). If the White House downplays the story and the situation escalates out of control, who do you think will get the blame?

I can understand the desire to vet the news releases, but in this case they will be better served by letting the agencies handle them directly, this way, when something goes wrong, as it surely will, they can always deflect the blame to the agency. If they take over the process of information dissemination, they will be forced by fear of political liability to overdo it.