THE SYSTEM IS LYING ABOUT Y2K :
Y2K Spin Control Example: GAO Report
There have been many examples of how the corporate media has "spun" the Y2k story to avoid panicking the masses. Rarely has there been such a blatant one as the following about the GAO(United States Government Accounting Office) report on the Y2k status of America's 21 largest cities. Cities like Dallas, Boston, Chicago, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Miami with tens of millions of Americans living in them. The Y2k status of vital public services like drinking water, sewage and garbage disposal, police, fire and 911 emergency response systems. The kind of public systems that impact daily life in America's 21 largest cities. Und vas is the status of our American top 21? The envelope please: Two, Dallas and Boston, are currently rated as Y2k compliant by the GAO. Let's see in my in between math, that's about 10%. For gold-eagles foreign readers you can tell the age of an American by what kind of math he uses. Old math, means you can do arithmetic in your head; new math, means you can't do it at all. Since I'm 45, I was in the in between math generation, which means I can do it on paper if I have to. That's why America can run huge "budget surpluses" when the national debt continues to increase. It's all in the new math of which politicians are expert.
Often to see a greater point you need to examine a small one in great detail. In this case our GAO top 21 report provides a perfect example of how the system is lying about Y2k to prevent the rabble from being roused. Not that the news isn't out there. The recent sewage spills in California are all related to Y2k test failures. My own personal banking disaster with WACHOVIA is another. The Bellingham, Washington pipeline explosion, which killed three children, is now being blamed on human monitors being unable to react fast enough due to a computer failure. People listen up. Y2k is real. Y2k is here. Y2k is starting to have concrete effects in real time.
The much despised Matt Drudge had the GAO report headlined as "19 out of 21 Largest American cities not ready for Y2K." This was an accurate representation of the GAO report. Recall any of the major television networks covering the story in detail? How about the newspapers? Guess what? I've found the GAO report story in my local newspaper the Oregonian, buried in the briefcase column of the Business section. In other words, buried in the back of the paper in a column about your middle finger tall and pinky finger wide. Why they call the paper the Oregonian is a mystery to me since it is owned by people from Rhode Island and the front page consists of reprints from East Coast papers.
So how did the Oregonian cover the news that 19 of the largest American cities might not have drinking water or sewage in five months? It didn't. What it did was bury it in a column composed "staff and wire reports." The headline is: "Y2k compliance still weeks away in nearly half of largest U.S. cities." Hmmm, does that sound like 90% of US cities are not compliant with time running out?
It gets even better when the spin is put on full display in the first sentence: "Washington." "Nearly half the nation's 21 largest cities won't complete work on coping with the Y2k computer bug until the final quarter of the year, according to a congressional report."
The newspaper continues on, "Two cities, Dallas and Boston, have finished their preparations to ensure their computers will continue to function on Jan. 1, 2000. Nine others expect to be fully ready by Sept. 30, and 10 cities say they will be ready between Oct. 1 and the end of the year." Yada, Yada, Yada, "The report does not include Portland, Ore., which has adopted a plan to prepare residents for potential disruptions."
A nice reassuring report for anyone diligent enough to find hidden treasure. As for the rest of us, the ones dependent on sewer and water for instance, well, don't you worry those empty little heads of yours. So let's see here. An objective government report that 9 out of 10 cities aren't actually Y2k compliant becomes a puff piece where that fact is conveniently ignored. What is stressed isn't that we only have a few months to go, but that somehow magically 9 cities will get finished by September 30th and the rest by the end of the year. This kind of corporate press disinformation campaign is why most Americans don't take Y2k seriously. This kind of corporate press lying, yeah lying is the right word, is why Y2k will be worse than it has to be.
The upshot of all this disinformation is that the residents of those 19 other cities will be lulled back to sleep. They will, assuming they even heard of the GAO report, be told by the corporate press, business and political elite that all is well. When Sept. 30 rolls around and the other 9 cities suddenly aren't ready, of course they will say they are, what then? And what of December 31st?
There you have it. A concrete, in black and white ink example of how the corporate press is slanting all Y2k news to prevent the true implications of what is about to happen. As for Portland, Ore, it's water system dates to 1899 and uses gravity to flow into the city reservoirs. Our only worry is whether the embedded chips will fail and dump poisonous levels of chlorine into our drinking water. This is the kind of objective, hard fact that is so missing in the Y2k debate. Rest assured that the residents of the other 19 cities won't have a clue until the toilets won't flush on January 1, 2000. That's the way the American elite wants it. That's the way it will be until the mass panic, the panic made inevitable by not putting the GAO story on page one, starts. Why aren't the 19 city mayors telling people to start stockpiling drinking water-now? Why aren't they telling them to prepare for disruptions in basic city services-now? Oh! We don't want to panic the city population. Well, what do you think will happen on January 2nd?
We'll see. It could be the other 19 cities will pull it off and be ready by the end of the year. It's also possible that they won't. It's unfortunate that the 19 cities populace is being denied the facts they need to make rational personal choices. But that too is part of the American elite's plan.
WHO WILLS CAN-WHO TRIES DOES-WHO LOVES LIVES
Doug McIntosh
19 July 1999
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