Weekly World News takes charge!

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The Weekly World News has taken up the Y2K cause. Like it or not this is the third cover article on Y2K! So now when you try to warn friends and loved ones about Y2K, you may as well talk about "Batboys" and Elvis sitings. With the exception of the old Newsweek cover, you can count the mainstream media out for the next few months. There will have to be major systems crashing before the NY Times, US News & World Report or Time, pick up the Y2K ball.

-- Bill (bill@microsoft.com), September 18, 1998

Answers

The Economist is pretty mainstream. See their website for very good Y2k coverage. www.economist.com. .....

-- Dan Hunt (dhunt@hostscorp.com), September 18, 1998.

Bill, U.S. News & World Report had an excellent article on Y2K in their June 8th issue. The title was "Year 2000 time bomb- Prevailing myths deter managers from debugging computers". Here are the 5 myths they covered: "1) There's plenty of time. 2) Someone will find a quick fix soon. 3) We are throwing enough money and people at the problem to fix it. 4) With so many new computers out there, surely we can't be vulnerable to a problem created 25 years ago. 5) With luck, it won't affect me." The article really helped convince me, I wish they would run more.

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), September 18, 1998.

The problem is that until it shows up on Dateline, 20/20 or some other news magazine show as "news" most of the public won't realize the importance of the subject.

-- bhayes (bkhayes@intellex.com), September 18, 1998.

The problem is that most of "mainstream" America doesn'r read US News & World Report, The Economist, NY Times, et al. However most people do see the Weekly World News at the checkout stands. So now we have a whole group of people who refuse to believe it just because they ran that story. "You've got to be kidding, that's tabloid stuff!"

PS, OK, I read the thing. Nice quote, Ed!

-- Annie O'Dea (tarotmaid@yahoo.com), September 21, 1998.


Guess I'm a little selfish. I've been preparing for several months for y2k disruptions, but still have projects to finish and "things" to accumulate/store. The mainstream media can alert the masses when I've finished, thank you.

-- Jerry Roberts (Jerry_Roberts@hotmail.com), September 24, 1998.


The "Farm Journal" have a good 4 page article on the problem.

Nice, realistic, not raving or alarmist but definitely not a whitewash either. Again, figure these guys are writing to an audience of farmers who depend on things working to earn a living (haven't found a lazy farmer yet!) so they (the writers) have probably got in the habit of disccusing the truth.

What a refreshing thought!!!!

By the way, talk about high tech stuff affecting your life: the article before was about satellites in plowing, then there was one about caluculating futures prices to figure the offssets in storage costs because of world-wide grain excesses (and what to do about it by using margin calls and various shipping techniques in winter), then another about new hybrid seed genetics.

Just dumb "hicks" are worried about this thing according to the mainstream press. Yeah, right.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), September 24, 1998.


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