Just saw the (first installment?) of CBS's Y2K report on the evening news.

Was actually pretty good. (!)

Not as strident as many of us would like, but was rather even-handed. Mostly "no one really knows" - NOT (surprisingly) that "all is fine - go back to sleep, children".

It DID tend to focus more ont he rest of the world, but kept coming back to "no one knows, even about the US".

Will keep watching for the rest of the week.

-- Hugh (hewiggins@mindspring.com), November 08, 1999

Answers

Yes, I saw it too. I was also surprised that they said that all the compliance information is sef-reported and tended to be positive. Yes, it would have been nice to see a more in-depth story, but they only gave this one about 5 min. Perhaps a longer special is planned.

-- Darla (dnice@hgo.net), November 08, 1999.

Anyone diligent enough (VCR in hand) to provide a transcript of this series?

-- Zach Anderson (z@figure.8m.com), November 08, 1999.

I think we are seeing a bit of C.Y.A. reporting here...

I know that sounds cynical, but that is my take.

Agree that it could have been the same old happy-face B.S. but wasn't- and that is a GOOD thing.

JJ

-- Jeremiah Jetson (laterthan@uthink.y2k), November 08, 1999.

Here's an article that matches almost word for word the Y2K segment that was on the CBS Evening News:

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

http://www.cbs.com/flat/story_200787.html

Is The World Ready For Y2K?

* Billions Have Been Spent

* Time Is Running Out

* And No One Really Knows What Will Happen

Monday, November 08,1999 - 07:05 PM ET

(CBS) The CBS Evening News is looking ahead to the 21st century. Some predict the next century will begin with a bang from the Y2K bug, causing a cascade of computer crashes and chaos. White house officials Monday unveiled a $40 million Y2K problem operations center, just in case.

So is there a ticking Y2K time bomb? 60 Minutes Correspondent Steve Kroft is on the case, on the countdown to 2000.

---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------

If you ask the question, where will the Y2K computer bug do serious damage? The answer is: No one really knows. But everyone agrees on one thing: All is not Y2K-ready in the world.

"There's the unknown, and there are regions that are simply well behind and apparently not giving it enough attention," says John Pasqua, AT&T's vice president for Y2K.

Pasqua believes the $650 million spent by the telecommunications giant means the phones will work at home. He's not so sure about some of the rest of the world.

"There's still some reluctance on the part of some of these international countries to share their status information with the rest of the world, and that's why we're putting them in the high-risk category," says Pasqua.

Places people are worried about are:

* Oil-producing Indonesia, where phones failing or the electricity going out would mean energy shortages.

* Russia, where Y2K problems at airports could mean a slowdown in air traffic in Europe for weeks.

* Asia, where problems in manufacturing electronic parts and automotive components could ripple through the U.S. economy.

"There's so many links in our global supply chains that all it takes is a few weak links to cause problems," says Ed Yardeni, chief economist at Deutsche Bank.

For several years now, Yardeni has been predicting that Y2K failures equal a 70 percent chance of a worldwide recession.

"As an economist I am not predicting doomsday. I am not predicting anything that we need to particularly panic about. What I am predicting is a recession," he says.

"I just think it's naively optimistic to believe that all these systems are going to function just fine, and there's going to be no problems," he adds.

The assumption is that wealthy countries like the United States or Great Britain are ready.

But that's only an assumption. No one really knows what countries have fixed which problems. The little information available is all self-reported, which means it's almost always reassuring and positive. And no one is checking its reliability.

"We have found from our work that there will be failures at every economic level, in every region of the world," says Jacquelyn Williams-Bridgers, inspector general at the U.S. State Department.

Williams-Bridgers says more than 80 countries are at moderate to high risk of having Y2K problems in telecommunications, power generation and transportation.

"Now there may not be disastrous events but there will be pockets of failures," she adds.

At the World Bank-funded International Y2K Cooperation Center in Washington, director Bruce McConnell worries about networks of computers that may fail gradually, not all at once.

"My assessment is that not very much will happen on the first of January or the second of January. It will be somewhat of a nonevent, and that after that we will start to see failures in business systems, which will come about over days and weeks," says McConnell.

After being asked, "You don't really know how this is going to turn out," McConnell answers "Absolutely not."

And back at AT&T, they know Y2K won't be a one-night stand. SWAT teams will be on call from Dec. 31 on into the first weeks of January.

"With Y2K, it's one of those unique opportunities where you're not done until you run out of time," Pasqua says.

With billions already spent on the computer bug, U.S. companies admit this New Year's Eve, they'll be waiting to see what in the world will go wrong and where. )1999, CBS Worldwide Inc., All Rights Reserved.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), November 08, 1999.

Here's a copy

http://www.cbs.com/flat/story_200787.html

I thought is was decent, at least not the usual spin. My local station did run the new McDonalds ad just before the piece (just kidding, not really)

-- BH (bh_slientvoice@hotmail.com), November 08, 1999.

Here was a clear demonstration of an industry lag. There was little to no information in this piece that we did not know three months ago. So expect the evening news to maintain it's pace(three months behind)until something major breaks. Then you will see the entire news industry doing reporting on y2k that equates to learning how to fly a plane before learning how to read. Should be entertaining.

-- Buster Collins (BustrCollins@aol.com), November 08, 1999.

I think they're getting ready to *save* us in the final reel. Maybe, after rollover, lots of scary reports of problems around the world then explaining that our government is freezing bank accounts to save us from the chaos caused by those stupid furriners. Fear of bank runs is the key and the only weapon available before rollover to prevent them is candy talk. Geeze, I'm starting to believe this stuff. Gnite.

-- Carlos (riffraff1@cybertime.net), November 09, 1999.

Fluff~nada but fluff. The only thing reasonable was the final comments about almost everything being "self reporting." That entire piece was an insult to anyone who has used their time and effort to teach themselves about Y2K, and was useless to anyone who hasn't.

-- RJ (LtPita@aol.com), November 09, 1999.