[YOURDON] INTERESTING! Background of ABC interviews
In the meantime, if you have any "smoking gun"
information, or if you know any "Deep Throat" contacts,
please let me know (use an anonymous email, if you
want, which you can obtain through hotmail or juno or
any of the other freebie email services), and I will help
put you in touch directly with Mr. Walker at ABC.
________
'NEWS ALERT
asked in the TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) Q&A Forum
ABC News is doing a story tomorrow on Y2K
"escapists." I wonder how they'll attempt to make those
people look. Like NUTS perhaps?
Asked by zered (zered@my-dejanews.com) on May 20, 1998.
Answers
Yes, the story did run on the May 21st edition of the
"ABC News with Peter Jennings" national news program.
The reporting was done by James Walker, who also put
together ABC's first major Y2K story a couple months
ago -- the one that opened with a video clip of a
premature baby in a hospital, and the ominous news
about Y2K problems in hospitals, etc., and which
featured Ed Yardeni's comment on the possibility of a
Y2K-induced recession.
The story behind last night's brief (2-3 minutes) news
segment is interesting: Mr. Walker and his crew travelled
to Missoula, MT to interview Steve Hock about the
murkey Y2K disclosures that have been mandated by the
SEC; then to northwestern Arkansas to chat with Gary
North; then to northern New Mexico to talk to me. They
spent nearly 3 hours with me, and taped enough material
to fill the entire 30-minute news program; I assume they
did the same with Hock and North, too. All of it was
then boiled down to the few minutes of material you saw
-- all in all, a very expensive and time-consuming activity
on the network's part, in order to present a brief
sound-bite to the general public.
For what it's worth, James Walker is very
knowledgeable, very informed, very ethical and
professional, and very determined to get the "real" story
on Y2K in a form that can be presented to, and
understood by, the general public. He has been all over
the country, and has interviewed just about everyone you
can imagine -- from Senators and Congressmen, to
CEO's of corporations, to people like Gary North and
Ed Yardeni and others who are voicing concerns about
Y2K. On camera, he does his best to be scrupulously
objective, neutral, and even-handed (so that viewers can
make up their own minds), but on a personal level, I think
he is fully convinced that there will be serious Y2K
problems.
His biggest frustration, which other journalists share, is
that they haven't yet found a "smoking gun" (to put it in
Nixon-Watergate terms) which they can use to "prove"
the seriousness of the Y2K problem to a non-technical
audience that doesn't understand abstract issues about
computer software. Everything they've got, so far, is
"could be", "might be" kinds of warnings about Y2K
problems. They hear that Y2K could be a serious
problem at XYZ Corp, but when they interview the CEO
of XYZ, they get stonewalled; they hear that various
agencies of the US Federal Gov't are far behind schedule
on Y2K repairs, but when they interview all of the official
spokesmen, they get official statements of optimism and
confidence that Y2K will be fixed in time. Those
expressing concern -- e.g., Congressmen Horn and
Morella, and Senators Bennett and Moynihan -- are
unable to "prove," with 100% certainty that Y2K will
cause a serious problem.
The TV people would love to find a "Deep Throat"
source within a major company or government agency
who could help them establish some credible proof of
impending disaster, but their attempts thus far have been
unsuccessful: most programmers are still scared of being
fired or sued. I have a similar problem, and I'm sure that
people like Peter de Jager and Bill Ulrich and Leon
Kappelman and others do, too: we are privy to
confidential information, which we've received only after
signing tight non-disclosure agreements. We are ethically
and legally constrained from discussing details, and we
would be sued into oblivion if we did ...
I suggested to Mr. Walker that as long as the Y2K
problems are confined to private corporations, and are
relatively modest, the general public won't care. Even the
big satellite problem of this week (the one that knocked
out 90% of the pagers) occupied public attention for only
a day or two; now it's history, replaced by the awful
news of the school shooting in Oregon.
But if/when Y2K problems begin affecting the delivery of
services from the government, THEN we'll see a reaction
from the general public. I think there is a good chance of
this occurring on April 1, 1999 -- for the simple reason
that the State of New York, the government of Canada,
and the government of Japan all begin their 1999-2000
fiscal year on that date. On July 1, 1999, another 46
states begin their 1999-2000 fiscal year; then there's
Texas on September 1st, and the U.S. federal
government (plus the states of Michigan and Alabama, I
think) on October 1. If any one of these states fails to
send out pension checks, or unemployment checks, or
welfare checks, etc, then I think you'll see large mobs
marching on the state capitol -- and the TV crews will be
right there with them.
In the meantime, if you have any "smoking gun"
information, or if you know any "Deep Throat" contacts,
please let me know (use an anonymous email, if you
want, which you can obtain through hotmail or juno or
any of the other freebie email services), and I will help
put you in touch directly with Mr. Walker at ABC. I trust
Mr. Walker, and intend to do the same myself, with
whatever appropriate information I come across.
Ed
Answered by Ed Yourdon (yourdon@worldnet.att.net) on May 22,
1998.
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