A week before its sweeps month movie Fatal
Contact: Bird Flu in America, ABCs World News
Tonight led its broadcast clucking about the federal governments
action plan to prevent a costly pandemic in the United States. But
when The Washington Post broke the story with an early look at the
plan in mid-April, it gave it just passing attention.
Tonight, the new White House plan for fighting a bird flu outbreak.
Colossal disruptions and restrictions of movement to keep people
alive, anchor Elizabeth Vargas opened the May 2 evening newscast.
Avian flu commanded the first story of the program, with
correspondent Martha Raddatz noting a day before the official
release of the White House plan for avian flu that the statistics
are frightening. The report projects that a modern pandemic could
lead to the deaths of 200,000 to 2 million U.S. citizens.
But the governments report was in preparation for weeks, with the
Post previewing the plan in a front page April 16 article by staff
writer
Ceci
Connolly.
The Treasury Department is poised to sign agreements with other
nations to produce currency if U.S. mints cannot operate, while the
Defense Department would stockpile millions of latex gloves and
Veterans Affairs would implement a drive-through medical exam
Connolly reported in the Easter Sunday paper.
Connollys sneak peek at the federal plan received short shrift on
the April 16 World News Tonight, with anchor Dan Harris
summarizing the Post article in two sentences, reporting how the
federal plan envisions a worst-case scenario and widespread
shortages of vaccines and supplies.
ABCs bird-flu-themed sweeps movie premieres on May 9. Co-producer
Diana Kerew told
TV.com
that the movie was scheduled because of its topicality.
Thats what worries some flu experts.
The
Associated Press
reported on April 30 that infectious disease expert
Michael Osterholm
worries that the blurring of information and entertainment could do
the public a disservice and plans a conference call with television
critics before the movies air date.
ABC didnt need a movie-of-the-week to do the public a disservice.
On NewsBusters.org, BMI Director
Dan Gainor documented how ABCs Jim Avila swallowed whole the
alarmist hype from Dr. Robert Webster, the father of the bird flu
when he warned that 50 percent of the population could die from
the virus.
The Business & Media Institute documented the
medias
pandemic of hype in covering bird flu, including an editorial by
Dr. Elizabeth Whelan of
the American Council on Science and Health.
Week Before Fatal Contact, ABC Leads with Bird Flu Plan
suggested reading