Doublespeak could prove our worst enemy...

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I grow more concerned daily with the "doublespeak" coming out of Washington and also our national media. On one hand, we are told that Y2K represents a "bump in the road" and on the other we see nuclear power plants suffering failures.

In my view, the biggest single problem is not Y2K itself but the panic about the end of the year that will surely result if we don't see a serious change in the media coverage of this event.

If we begin to see widespread failures in April or July then the public will assume that the government and the media have simply been covering up the real problems and this will trigger a full scale nationwide panic.

The best way to prevent this is for the networks to begin airing long format programs devoted to the issue and for our leaders to begin to speak frankly about the subject. The truth is that a lot of this is truly "unknown". Why not just report that fact and encourage folks to take some common sense preparations?

Treat it like a hurricane or other natural diaster that "may occur". Prepare and then hope for the best. That way, the panic can be avoided.

Everyday I ask myself why we could not get a single network to air a documentary that we spent over $150,000 dollars in making. Even though they routinely air nonsense subject matter produced in a "slock" fashion on much smaller budgets.

We took great pains to present the issue unbaised and to seek out the top experts in all fields. What other program has folks like Dr. Bob Alloway, Rick Cowles, Sen. Bennett, Irene Dec, and on and on...??? We travelled all over the country shooting interviews and conducting research...and not one network has even seriously considered running this program. We had to resort to direct sales just to try to recover some of our investment.

If I had produced a documentary on alien invanders or ghosts from the back woods, it seems I would have no problem finding a broadcast outlet...but not one nibble of interest in the most serious documentary produced dealing with Y2K.

Duncan McCollough, former chief council for Citicorp appears in our documentary and his comment about the lack of media coverage and the government's lack of leadership still rings in my ears...

"I think if we don't begin to see this issue treated seriously soon.. we are in the realm of a cover up". Perhaps he was right.

I am not prone to seeing conspiracies behind every action that the government takes, in fact, I find the leadership of this country to be so ineffective as to make such theories seem totally unlikely, however, I am starting to think that information about Y2K is being with held from us.

In any event, we will continue to update both our web site and our documentary until the very last day of the year. Hopefully, a network will approach us soon, but until then we will continue to attempt to market our program via the web and at Y2K events.

At least we can say we tried...

Les Rayburn, director Millennium Factor: The Truth About Y2K http://www.millenniumfactor.com ORDER TOLL FREE 1-800-559-4488

-- Les Rayburn (les@vazda.com), March 07, 1999

Answers

I hate the disinformation coming out of Washington about Y2K. I also hate these ongoing commercial plugs for the 'Millennium Factor.'

Enough!

-- (quietly@amused.org), March 07, 1999.


If you are smart enough to detect the media/government hype, brainwashing, etc., then you are smart enough to plan accordingly. That is to say, take care of you and yours and forget everyone else because everyone else is not concerned about you having a nice day. Are you a GI or just a hope to be? Just preach prepardness, that's the best you can do for your audience.

-- GILongTimer (GILongTimer@LongTimer.Com), March 07, 1999.

I for one agree with Les, and think he has contributed some valuable information to this forum, not just an "ongoing commercial". Hang in there Les. As the year goes on and more Y2K info comes out, maybe you'll get that network shot yet! Good luck. <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), March 08, 1999.

Hey Les, when are you going to stop the blatent spam?

-- Tired of Spam (anon@anon.com), March 08, 1999.

"Everyday I ask myself why we could not get a single network to air a documentary that we spent over $150,000 dollars in making."

I'm sure David Koresh had the same complaint about why no record company would distribute his music. The answer? It stinks!

Norm

-- NWO (NWO@hotmail.com), March 08, 1999.



You couldn't get air time for the simple reason that the media and government, which work in concert, do not want people waking up to the reality of Y2K just yet, Senate reports notwithstanding. It would put a major crimp in the goal of planned chaos, and its handmaiden martial law, if most folks were prepared and self-sufficient.

Ordo Ab Chaos - from chaos, order... a totalitarian order, if you will.

-- belief (b@,.,), March 08, 1999.


First of all, I have no desire to "spam" anyone. I have been on the Internet since 1991, and have had my home email address that entire time. That is to say, that I deeply respect the power of the Internet and hate to see it further commercialized by unwanted advertising.

My complaints are sincere. A lot of folks, myself included, poured months of our lives into creating this documentary and are quite proud of it. I am no newcomer to filmaking and have a ton of national and international awards to my credit. While some have complained about the style of the piece, NO ONE has disputed it's level of research and credibility.

If you've seen it and did not enjoy it..I am sorry for that. However, I do not think that the fact that I have a video for sale makes my viewpoint less valid. Anymore than it does Ed Yourdon, Michael Hyatt, or others. All of whom have profitted from this issue much more than I ever will. At this point, there is virtually no chance that I or any of the investors in this documentary will ever even recoup our investment, but I would still like for it to reach a wide audience. So much so that I would be willing to sell the broadcast rights for a fraction of their value.

How's that for putting my money where my mouth is?

Les Rayburn, director That documentary that will remain nameless so has not to spam

-- Les Rayburn (les@vazda.com), March 08, 1999.


Les (and others): My copy of the video arrived today. Because of all the discussions here about it I was curious to judge for myself. Here's my take (I don't work for Les and those of you who have been around here for awhile already know my general slant on things).

I was going to post this as a new thread but in a small concession to those who feel a bit over-'spammed' with this topic, I thought I'd slip it in here instead.

Anyway, the video was better than anything that I've seen on the major networks (CSPAN not included). I did not learn much new but that is because I've been following these issues so closely for the past several months and have done a substancial amount of reading myself.

I did not personally care for the format but I completely understand the reasons behind it. It is essentially a collage of sound bites stitched together by general topics (power, embedded systems, etc.) It does not attempt to explore any of these in great depth but then again, that would have been extraordinarily difficult given the time allowed. I know that this is a very common format for such a piece but I do not share the general publics' 2-second attention span.

I would agree that this video is about as fair as is possible with a couple of small exceptions for overly-dramatic artistic license and incidental music. It is clearly targeted at the general population who suffer from severe attention deficit disorder. A sound bite here, a symbolic image there, a peripheral factoid here. (BTW, the factoids go by so fast we had to back up the tape a couple of times to be able to read some of them. Might be sign that Mrs. Rimmer and I are older than we like to admit...)

Still, it is fairly balanced and a worthwhile effort - though I felt a bit like a grad student auditing an undergraduate class. While Yourdon regulars will not find anything new, it makes a pretty good "Intro To Y2K" for the masses. As such, I would highly recommend it for the vast majority of people who who will not read, research the issues for themselves and ask the tough questions... of course I mean news reporters.

The major networks could dramatically improve their own Y2K coverage by simply airing this video. When I think of that silly puff piece on "Y2K and elevators" that Monkeyline With Lou Dobbs ran a couple weeks back, today's Navy PR event, and the upcoming April 9th power utility 'coming out' party, I just want to scream.

My favorite sound bite in the video was Arnaud de Borchgrave's reference to how the media would rather cover "ZipperGate" than Y2K.

The real problem here though (in fact, the real problem with Y2K) is the timing. This video needed to be produced and aired nationally at least a year ago. We should be on to much more in-depth investigative/analytical pieces by this point in time.

There's not enough here to please the hardcore Yourdon forum regular. Indeed, nothing short of a 12 part mini-series could adequetlty cover the issues involved -- and that is just not going to happen until post mortum.

Even so, I would definitely recommend this video not only to its intended audience but also to reporters. Were I to be Y2K Czar, every reporter in the country would have to watch it 3 times, take notes, then pass an essay test before they got their word processors back.

I'm not at all sorry I spent the money on it and will probably try to get some of my more skeptical and/or willfully ignornant friends to watch it.

Good job Les and crew.

Got grips?

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), March 08, 1999.


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