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13 May 11 - 09:18 AM (#3153306) Subject: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: saulgoldie I know NPR is under the microscope allthemore lately. But is reporting on the lunatic fringe the "way to salvation?" Or is this news in the sense that there are significant numbers of people who actually "believe?" http://www.npr.org/2011/05/12/136239062/divining-doomsday-an-old-practice-with-new-tricks My first response was, "Isn't there REAL news out there that was supplanted by this piece that I would have rather heard?" On the other hand, maybe the news value is not in the ideas of the subjects of this piece, but the fact of the people who believe the idea of the imminent end? OTOH, maybe someone "considered" it a fluffy laugh piece amid the other horrible news. Saul |
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13 May 11 - 09:31 AM (#3153309) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: nickp Damn! I'm going on vacation on the 24th and I've already paid for it. I guess the travel insurance won't pay up! |
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13 May 11 - 09:56 AM (#3153320) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: Bettynh All Things Considered was living up to its name, that's all. They had 2 hours to fill on a Monday. |
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13 May 11 - 10:08 AM (#3153323) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: Amos If a meaningful number of your own species are sharing a mass hallucination, yes, it constitutes legitimate news. If it is true, even moreso!! :D A |
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13 May 11 - 10:15 AM (#3153326) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: Uncle_DaveO Just remember, All Things Considered is not and never has been solidly a NEWS program. It's a news-centered "magazine", with features that wander from that subject center, just as most special interest print magazines do. This was a "feature story", with the "news" connection that it was a current public announcement of an upcoming little "event" called "the end of the world". All Things Considered and its sibling, Morning Edition, would not be nearly so interesting if all they covered was hard news, in my opinion. Dave Oesterreich |
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13 May 11 - 10:24 AM (#3153334) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: Bettynh Yikes, it wasn't a Monday. Anyway, a slow news day, I guess. They at least approach it with respect and research. More than we get from FOX anyday. |
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13 May 11 - 10:36 AM (#3153337) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: Rapparee Buy more bullets. That seems to be the answer every time the end of the world is predicted. Me, I'm stocking up on toilet paper -- I'll make a killing, man! |
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13 May 11 - 10:51 AM (#3153351) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: Rapparee By the way, it WAS news to me. I didn't realize what was gonna happen on May 21. I always believed what Yeshua of Nazareth said in Matthew 24:36: "Ain't nobody knows when the End is comin' 'cept Big Daddy, and he ain't tellin' nobody." (I paraphrased it slightly.) Personally, I'm expecting Garmr to break loose and then Brœðr muno beriaz ok at bǫnom verða muno systrungar sifiom spilla. Hart er í heimi, hórdómr mikill —skeggǫld, skálmǫld —skildir ro klofnir— vindǫld, vargǫld— áðr verǫld steypiz. Mun engi maðr ǫðrom þyrma. Especially the part about hórdómr mikill. |
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13 May 11 - 12:12 PM (#3153401) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: GUEST,leeneia Well, if you have children or grandchildren, you might want to make sure that nobody on the playground is scaring them with rumors of doom. The same applies to others who are vulnerable in some way - naive, uneducated, retarded, perhaps. We snicker, but think how many people were truly worried about the Y2K catastrophe, which turned out to be nothing. Remember when some jerk said that SE Missouri would suffer another terrible quake on such-and-such a date, and the average person didn't know enough to say "What an idiot!" |
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13 May 11 - 12:18 PM (#3153411) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: Jack the Sailor Keeping in mind that their defacto objective is to maximize donations with a combination of entertainment and conscience alleviating "News", NPR is as likely to "report" on "Lady" Gaga's new album as they are on the civil war in Lybia. This story is somewhere in between. |
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13 May 11 - 03:03 PM (#3153534) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: McGrath of Harlow There are always going to be people who come up against this kind of "doomsday date" rubbish and get worried by it. That piece seems like a reasonable attempt to reassure them. Mind, if that statistic is true - "Some 41 percent of Americans believe Jesus will return by the year 2050, according to a poll by The Pew Research Center" - it's a pretty uphill struggle trying to counter that kind of thinking. Never mind - Americans are lovely people by and large, but there aren't really so many of them in the world that you have to despair about stuff like that... |
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13 May 11 - 06:41 PM (#3153645) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: Don Firth 41%?? They gotta be kidding!! I wonder where the Pew Research Center chose their research sample. New Nazareth, Alabama? Canaan, in east Texas? Total Immersion, Mississippi? There are some five Christian churches within a mile of where I live—Lutheran (Missouri Synod), Lutheran (ELCA), Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Baptist—and I'll bet a cookie—a whole gross of chocolate chip cookies—that, were I to take a poll of the congregations of these churches, I'll wager that I would be hard-pressed to find as many as five people who believe any of that! As a matter of fact, I know of one church that held a couple of adult forums on the "Left Behind" series of books and its prophesied "Rapture" and the subsequent Battle of Armageddon. The discussion pretty well established how there is absolutely nothing Biblical about any of that, and revealed that Tim La Haye, who authored the books (and movies) had, as of several years ago, netted himself some $60,000,000 in royalties by trying to scare the crap out of ignorant and gullible people. I wonder how these folks who are defaulting on their bills and quitting their jobs and doing all sorts of other things in preparation for ascending to Heaven on May 21st are going to feel when May 22nd rolls around. Well—if that doesn't get them, there's always December 21, 2012. According to Biblical prophecy (What!? Again!?), Nostradamus, Art Bell and a couple others like him on late night radio, and interpretations of the Mayan Calendar, on 12/21/12, the earth will come to an end by various violent means. It will swap poles, flipping over 180 degrees, causing massive earthquakes, thousand foot tsunamis, and unimaginable winds. This will be caused by the earth crossing the Galactic Equator (arbitrary line that astronomers don't agree on as to location, nor do they pay much attention to). The Galactic Equator is supposed to be 110 light-years due south (galactic coordinates). Since that appointment is supposed to take place about a year and a half from now, we'd better get a move on! Now, if that isn't bad enough, as all that is happening, the earth will be struck by a large asteroid, just before it's sucked into a black hole which will just happen to be passing through the solar system at the time. I'm not making this up! It's all prophesied! Make sure you have enough beer in the fridge. Don Firth |
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13 May 11 - 07:44 PM (#3153672) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: Rapparee Toilet paper is the answer. Lots and lots of toilet paper. You don't want to be sucked down a black hole without it. You know, I think some folks were having some fun with the Pew people. Besides, how many of those questioned will be around in 2050 to care? I'll be 105, for goodness' sakes! Well, maybe I should worry...okay, that's done. |
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14 May 11 - 01:11 AM (#3153797) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: Don Firth Okay, beer and toilet paper. It's on the list. Don Firth |
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14 May 11 - 02:52 AM (#3153818) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: Joe Offer I predict that one of these days, somebody is going to predict the correct date of something. More than that, I cannot say.... |
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14 May 11 - 06:28 AM (#3153876) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: GUEST The American news media has taken over where the Gong Show left off... B~ |
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14 May 11 - 06:48 AM (#3153882) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: GUEST Opps, sorry... That was me... Bobert |
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14 May 11 - 07:06 AM (#3153896) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: GUEST,Alan Whittle I think the reason our generation can laugh at it is because we lived through a period when we really wouldn't have been surprised if the world ended up in complete conflagration. The time of the Cuban missile crisis. Its really odd how some people seem to need the end of the world. Are their lives that bad? certainly they must be unsatisfactory in some way - that they need to comfort themselves with this stuff. I think it must be a bit like the way some people decide to be serial killers. They can't accept reality as a nobody much. So they select a sea change into something strange and terrible. Just total detachment from the experience of being a human being. |
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14 May 11 - 08:01 AM (#3153926) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: McGrath of Harlow The notion of people sitting down and deciding to be a serial killer as a kind of comfort blanket... Well, it's a theory. I'd have thought it's the kind of thing that would creep up on people rather than involving a decision. "Oops, I seem to have killed rather a lot of people. I think I must have become a serial killer. Well, that's a turn-up for the books..." |
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14 May 11 - 03:16 PM (#3154127) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: Charley Noble I don't know about the rest of the world but I'm planning to go to the Press Room next Saturday for the Sea Music Rapture Session. Now Stormy was a good ol' man, Away, John Stormalong! He'd drink his grog from an old tin can, Way! Hey! John Stormalong! For Rapture Day he could hardly wait, Away, John Stormalong! To swing on through that Pearly Gate, Way! Hey! John Stormalong! But when he got there the gate was barred, Away, John Stormalong! So now he's swinging from a star, Way! Hey! John Stormalong! Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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14 May 11 - 07:29 PM (#3154217) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: Jack the Sailor A lot of evangelical preachers try to to scare people to Jesus. "Repent now! The Time is at hand." is a statement that comes to mind. Then there is the popularity of the "Left Behind" series and all of the 2012 stuff in the media. 41% seems high but not impossible. |
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14 May 11 - 07:31 PM (#3154218) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: Jack the Sailor Large US media outlets such as AFR seem to be preparing for a fight with Islam as if that will be the final battle in Revelations. A lot of people believe that we are in the end times. |
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14 May 11 - 07:50 PM (#3154224) Subject: RE: BS: Is This 'News?' I Mean, Really? From: andrew e I read somewhere [A Course In Miracles I think],that this world never existed. |