Fully blown coverage

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The Dallas Business Journal's Jan. 1-7 issue is almost entirely devoted the Y2K. While the occasional obligatory caveat about minimal preparedness was thrown in, the overal tenor of all the stories was, "Everything's gonna' be okay." Some of the facts and figures quoted by the "writers" were laughable. Texas Utilities, for example, has 113 million lines of code and "a $36 million war chest and an army of 100." We learned, too, that the retailers' biggest worries are vendor compliance--the retailers themselves are compliant. I also discovered that planes will be flying into and out of DFW because the executive director of the year 2000 program for the Air Transport Association said so. He added that "the FAA is in pretty good shape. The FAA knows what has to be done, and they're on schedule." Here's the subhead on another story: "Locally, companies say they will be ready, but global Y2K breakdowns may cost billions." Here's more good news: Prentiss Properties Trust, a Dallas property manager, has devoted $500,000 to finding and correcting software and hardware problems. According to the story, "The company has also appointed 85 employees to be Y2K coordinators." Here was another opportunity for a mainstream, well-respected publication to research and present a balanced, non-hysterical piece on something so very, very important. I labored in the newspaper industry for 17 years, and I am ashamed of the media's performance.

-- Vic Parker (rdrunner@internetwork.net), January 04, 1999

Answers

I don't know if you caught it, but on New Year's Day, CNN had a half- hour show on y2k. On the show, a spokeperson for the air-traffic control union said that they would not be flying, even though the spokesperson for the FAA said that all would be well. I thought that was was pretty bold of the air-traffic controller to say.

-- madeline (runner@bcpl.net), January 04, 1999.

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