YOUR MESSAGE FOR MASS MEDIA: Given 60 Seconds of National Airtime, What Would You Say?

The hopeful purpose of this thread is to assist reporters and journalists in preparation for the [American] Y2K media campaign which may begin to pick up speed in October or November.

Perhaps with a little wisdom, some of the many programmers, economists, and other self-esteemed intelligensia who frequent this forum can help our friends in the media make sense out of this complex and potentially life-threatening issue.

A few options are open to participants:

• Share what you would tell your nation about Y2K if given 60 seconds of airtime.
• Suggest advice, including web resources or books, for media personnel to ponder.
• Email the URL of this discussion (or simply figure.8m.com/media.htm which links to this page plus all future discussions) to as many editors, columnists, journalists, reporters, talk show hosts, magazines, radio broadcasters, TV and cable networks as you see fit.
• Print and snailmail this discussion to the same.
• Tell us who you have contacted in the media.

PRESS RELEASE: Before posting opinion(s) to this page, participants agree that all commentary is free and open to public publication or broadcast without copyright or compensation unless such permission is specifically denied or qualified in a particular post. Please do not post under another person's name or generally well-recognized and established handle. Media writers are urged to contact posters for content verification before publication or broadcast.

FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE VISITING MEDIA This forum, ominously called Time Bomb 2000, was originated by Dr. Ed Yourdon, who recently testified before the US Congress on the media role for Y2K. If you'll humor us, the operative stereotypes of this forum are: The Polly (from Pollyanna): The proverbial ostrich, eternally optimistic that either the world has no real problems or that man will always be able to solve the few that pop up, to the embarrasing jaw-dropping dismay of hoards of hysterical doomers. The Doomer (from Doomsayer): The rabid fundamentalist Rambo-style survivalist who has always believed that the whole phony world system can, should, and will crash and burn at any moment, to the helpless and hysterical dismay of millions of clueless pollies. Fortunately, with perhaps a few minor exceptions, these are just stereotypes. Thank you for your interest and participation.

-- Zach Anderson (media@figure.8m.com), October 01, 1999

Answers

I would say the following to the mainstream media:

"You suck at what you do, therefore, I have no choice but to fire you."

Oh, I already did fire you a few years ago...I get all the real news on the web anymore anyway (please don't let the government regulate this medium).

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@Y2KOK.ORG), October 01, 1999.

The Year 2000 (Y2K) Technology Problem is a software and hardware problem that is the result of a computer programming convention that used two digit numbers to denote years (such as 99 for 1999 and 00 for 2000). It can cause computers and embedded processors that (directly or indirectly) use dates to become confused when 99 becomes 00, and to function incorrectly or shut down. In the last 40 years, programmers have continued to use two digit years in new software, and many of the old computer programs were not discarded. A number of these programs became the core of todays vast, complex mainframe systems used by government and large businesses. Meanwhile, two digit years were also written into hardware that is embedded in an immense array of devices and automated systems to be found in things as common as a personal computer or check out system at a grocery store or as critical as in oil rigs, refineries, international shipping, nuclear power plants, etc.

Due to the complexity and interdependence of the modern economy and the many billions of computers and embedded chips used in every economic sector, the Y2K Technology Problem has the potential to disrupt services that we take for granted today. These services include financial services, telephone, power, water, and the distribution of food, gasoline and other goods to local merchants. The impact of failures has the potential of global recession (or a less likely depression), increased unemployment associated with the failure of organizations, reduction of wealth associated with the possible destabilization of the stock market and banking system, social unrest and riots associated with local, state, and federal government failures to provide basic services, increased crime and violence as anger, frustration, and needs combine in increasing numbers of people, and, loss of life and property.

Some progress has been made in Y2K projects, particularly by big companies and some government agencies. In many examples that are known, organizations began Y2K projects at a point in time at which (1) complete compliance of all systems was not possible and (2) deadlines for getting critical systems compliant did not allow for much error. Many organizations (including government agencies) have focused exclusively on the triage of critical systems, but some have not developed contingency plans for failures beyond brainstorming on paper. Problems have arisen. Many local governments as well as small and medium-sized businesses are still not sufficiently aware of the Y2K Technology Problem or ramifications of the problem. Other countries, including many of our trading partners, are behind the United States in their remediation efforts. As a result, it is generally agreed that all Y2K problems will not be fixed in time; failures will occur.

Given the nature of the Y2K technology Problem and our profound dependence on unseen technologies that can be effected by this problem, what is at risk? Our lives, our property, and our way of life is at risk. Life, property, and way of life are all goods which can be said to be serious to us. In this way, it can also be said that the risks are serious. Whether the probability is lesser or greater that these goods are at risk, does not make what is at risk less serious. No one may know what disruptions may occur and where on January 1, 1999. No one may know how how these disruptions will impact those near and far to the points of failure. We know, however, what is at risk and, that any risk to these goods are serious risks. Therefore, personal preparations are advisable.

In January of 1999, the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion proposed a general public advisory recommending two weeks (14 days) of personal preparations. The community action work group would not support such an advisory as they felt a general advisory recommending three weeks or longer of personal preparations was more appropriate. With less than 90 days to prepare for Y2K, we must return to common ground: government, community, and media should join together and fully and cooperatively support an effort to get every American to prepare for a minimum of 14 days as they would for a local disaster that includes the temporary loss of electricity, natural gas, potable water, and waste treatment.

-- Stan Faryna (faryna@groupmail.com), October 01, 1999.

Got 14 days of preps? If not, get started now. Click here.

-- Stan Faryna (faryna@groupmail.com), October 01, 1999.

Stan where would we be without you?... Thankyou...yet again

-- matt (matt@somewhere.nz), October 01, 1999.

Too little too late.

-- R (riversoma@aol.com), October 01, 1999.

I guess I would ask them to stop and seriously think about what they are doing with the subject of Y2K instead of treating it like another "news story". Y2K is not just another story that you nonchalantly manipulate in order to get the desired results.

It is a REAL problem, and despite the illusion that it is a tiny thing that exists in computers, if they were to do some SERIOUS research and investigation they would find that it is the BIGGEST problem that mankind has ever encountered because it affects our entire technological infrastructure that we have become dependent upon for nearly all aspects of our lives.

Instead of laughing it off and telling the public that everything will be fine even though they have absolutely no concrete evidence on which to base this assumption, they would be far wiser to advise the people that this issue should be taken VERY seriously.

They should recommend that all people get themselves as prepared as possible for the possibility of multiple and simultaneous failures of systems which support any and all aspects of their lives.

They should investigate government contingency plans with respect to provisions that will be available nationwide for those who cannot afford, and make a statement to this effect that will ensure the people that everyone will have what they need to survive, instead of leading them into a false sense of security by publishing speculative information.

This is not another Monica Lewinsky story, it is a POTENTIALLY LIFE THREATENING SITUATION ON A GLOBAL SCALE!

-- @ (@@@.@), October 01, 1999.

I think it could be done. I picture someone like James Earl Jones reading a list of the scariest quotes from CIA, FAA, FBI, State, Yourdon, Soros, Yardeni, Greenspan, Gordon, Volker, North, Hamasaki, Milne (well...maybe not Milne) along with the text on the screen and omnious music and pictures in the background. It would go completely over some folks heads, though, as they are completely desensitized to frightening things on the tube.

The bigger question is - since it would trigger the panic we are all now waiting for, at this late date, why would you want to? See Puddintame's "Forget Milne - Koskinens you man now" thread.

-- a (a@a.a), October 01, 1999.

I would show rapid film clips of the LA riots, starving children, long bank and gas lines, empty store shelves, blacked-out cities with snow falling in the background, garbage and sewage in the streets, dead bodies laying here and there, and at the end of the clip in big letters going across the screen flashing continuously the words "Are You Prepared For Y2K?" No commentator, no music, just complete silence during the clip.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), October 01, 1999.

I would ask them to get off their prozac and face reality. On second thought maybe I just don't care what they think anymore.

-- Betty Alice. (Barn266@aol.com), October 01, 1999.

Drop those guns. Don't try to steal from your neighbors. Face death with dignity. You'll have a better reincarnation.

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), October 01, 1999.

Thanks for all the great comments so far. . .

Okay, here are a few leads for ya. If you have 2 minutes, maybe you can make an impact. Everybody should be able to chip in.

Dateline NBC ---- dateline@nbc.com

Meet the Press ---- mtp@msnbc.com

NBC Nightly News ---- nightly@nbc.com

The Today Show ---- today@nbc.com

CBS Feedback Form

Jimmy Carter Live Chat on abc.com this morning! Post your questions now!!

CNN Feedback: http://cnn.com/feedback/

-- Zach Anderson (media@figure.8m.com), October 01, 1999.

The Lessons Of History The Soviet Union established gun control in 1929. From 1929 to 1953, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. Turkey established gun control in 1911. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. Germany established gun control in 1938. From 1939 to 1945, 13 million Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, mentally ill people, and other "mongrelized peoples," unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, 1 million "educated people", unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

-- paranoid tinfoiler (y2knut bag@y2kchaos.com), October 01, 1999.

we have seen from the aftermath of hurricane floyd and from several recent earthquakes that the effects of storms and natural disasters can't always be cleaned up in three days. while much has been done to lessen the impact of y2k the true impact will not be known until its arrival.

each individual must take it upon themselves to prepare for interruptions in food, water, heat and the disposal of human waste. assume that any help you may need after the turn of the year will come from your immediate neighbors. get to know them. may god bless us a

-- corrine l (corrine@iwaynet.net), October 01, 1999.

UNBELIEVABLE UNSPEAKABLE UNBEARABLE!! Sensationalism is just the lure we use in order to communicate in all sobriety certain awful histories and secret fate for the Earth so unspeak- able that it may take several books to prepare you just to read it. Because if you are reading this in the late 20th Century, EVERYTHING YOU KNOW REALLY IS WRONG. You are an uncivilized, ignorant, BARBARIC peasant that will be looked back upon by future generations with every bit as much pity as you regard the plague-ridden wretches od Downtown Medieval Europe. Your "civilization" got off so heavily on the WRONG FOOT, is so far OFF THE TRACK, and will keep going SO FAR from where it is "meant" to be, that YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT SLACK IS and the only way you can reopen your primitive mind, your buried gene-memory of SLACK, is to roll up your sleeves and GET DOWN with "Bob." If you're worried about getting your hands dirty, DO NOT ENTER. If you want to keep thinking "science" is right, DROP THIS BOOK NOW. If you want to remain agnostic about The Forces, GET THE BOOK OUT OF YOUR HOUSE. If you don't like the cold, get out of the freezer. If you are, say, a hopelessly intellectual Conspiracy dupe (or "Judge- Head") with just enough verbal skills to think this is "funny" but lacking the intuitive scar tissue that lets you see where it's ALL TOO REAL, then your naked, tame soul risks getting SCALDED by the white-hot Truth of "Bob." If you THINK you're a Christian, but AREN'T, then you're going to see DEMONS in this book. Your belief system is paranoid, so it whips up reasons for paranoia. You see what you want to see. So you have to pay to know what you think. You pay Them. They've got you so closed off from what you're REALLY SEEING, and have made your most instinctive hopes and desires seem so "impossible" or "impractical" in the quote "real world" unquote, that you're still looking where they're pointing rather than just looking around. You can SEE what CAN lie ahead if you'll just slow down. Don't pay them to know what you really think. Pay "Bob." It's much cheaper. Besides, you owe "Bob" a living. But then, the entire WORLD owes YOU a living. YOU ARE OWED SLACK. YEAH BUT...

Right. You want to know, "JUST EXACTLY WHAT IS THIS CHURCH OF THE SUBGENIUS?" That question is asked a thousand times a day, every day, some- where. And it's a good thing, because that's the most pertinent question to ask in this modern age. There is no description. Words do not suffice; one must "SEE." We let you see a little at a time until you are led gradually to TOTAL CLARITY. It is the Nameless Mission[3]. The true mission is always nameless. To name it is to doom it....and alert the enemy. THE SUBGENIUS MUST HAVE SLACK! But as the million-legged Church crawls around inside your cranium, there is one point it keeps returning to. It the the very point of the Church. The point is "Bob." "Bob" is, was, and ever shall, "Bob" is you, "Bob" is me, "Bob" is the Kama Sutra, the Id, the light that glows in the heart and mind of EVERY free-thinking SubGenius. And "Bob" is a man. It's "Bob." It always comes down to that. Because "Bob" is SLACK. And SLACK is what you want. SLACK is what you need. As the Pope of All New York[4] told the multitudes, "With the FULLNESS of Slack a CHANGE will come; Slackness will ENTER your life, Slackness will MAKE YOU SEE, Slackness will SET YOU FREE! Slackness IS! Slackness LIVES, Slackness WAITS FOR YOU and YEAH! send $20." Slack is what was taken away; Slack is what "Bob" gives BACK. That's as simple as we can ever make it. From here it just spirals off into stormier and stormier complications but in the MIDST of that storm there are two anchors you can always get back to, and those "Bob" and Slack. Now, you do not just sit and wait for Slack. You do not "work" at it either. This is an exact science of ways to achieve Slack through "seeing." You will be taught by someone you can trust completely. By "Bob." The fact that you have gotten this far - procuring this Book - indicates that you haven't been completely "asleep." You haven't been totally taken in by Them. Not yet. But they can still trick you. As bait they feed you too much of the wrong kind of Slack - the FALSE SLACK of The Conspiracy. The "Conspiracy" is Them. It was They who took away your real Slack. THEM. YOU are not one of Them, and never were, not even when They made you want to be. In fact, that's why They wanted your Slack. It's why you had Slack in the first place. They did manage to steal most of your Slack. But they obviously haven't got it all, and they haven't got "Bob," and as long as there is ONE FREE MAN among us their system cannot be complete, because it is by nature a closed system, and if we can keep their system incomplete, it will close down of its own accord. By Their own Law. Their Law of Normalcy. Yes. They wanted you to at least want to be "Normal." Well, you may look normal. You may Act normal. But you aren't normal. YOU JUST AREN'T

-- PRAISE "BOB" (rev ganja man@subgenious.com), October 01, 1999.

um, i second the above.

-- corrine l (corrine@iwaynet.net), October 01, 1999.

My message would be:

With only 90 days to go, it's too late to save the nation. We have squandered the 7 years of plenty and there has been no Joseph to help us prepare for the famine to come. Use the next 90 days to prepare your family as best you can.

P.S. Have a nice day! :)

-- rob minor (rbminor@hotmail.com), October 01, 1999.

You, the media, have seriously failed your world at a time in history when your contribution could have saved untold millions of lives, and to have helped to avert a calamity such as this world has never seen. It is not too late to redeem yourselves somewhat, if you will just follow the advice of the good folk on this forum who have posted before me. However, if you do not do some deep soul-searching and truly honest reporting in great haste, then when the fires are out and the dust has settled, the public will remember you and your failure. Where will you hide then?!

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), October 01, 1999.

My 60 Second Message on Prime Time:

Text: A Year 2000 Good Bye: So Long and Thanks for the Heartbreak!

Sound: NA

Back ground image: NA

-- good bye (ta@ta.ta), October 01, 1999.

60 second message, broadcast in a soft female voice. Plain black letters on a white screen:

Due to circumstances now beyond our control, America will be closed from 12 a.m. on January 1 2000 for an indefinite period of time. We apologize for any inconvience this may cause. Thank you and have a nice day.

-- Kevlar (squeeze@triggerslowly.-), October 01, 1999.

Kevlar - if goosebumps win awards - your post just got my vote for honors.

whew - heavy.

-- justme (finally@home.com), October 02, 1999.

All you sheep who have ignored for decades pleas to inform yourself in some other way (about everything, not just Y2K) than watching Dan Blather and/or reading the NewYork/LosAngeles Fascist Times, get ready to plunge off the cliff. And in the immortal words of Paul Milne:
Bwaaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaahaa!

-- A (A@AisA.com), October 02, 1999.