Worn out Schtick by Paul Greenberg, editor Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Paul,                                                                            February 15, 2008

For a Pulitzer guy, your public demands more. Your schtick is much too transparent and worn out.  This morning’s edition is a classic example. Your pathetic attempt to deride the leprosy/TB threat with B grade comedy is a dead giveaway when you are running a cover up.

The Tyson’s, et al have sucker punched Arkansans again with the aid of government and shills such as yourself. 

No statements from the real medical community?  Most particularly the physician who made the announcement?  A vile attack on her credibility.

Just to be safe, why are the 8,000 Marshallese (all carriers) and tens of thousands of illegal Hispanics (also potential carriers) not subjected to physical examinations?  Especially those working in the food industries!

This indeed can only be characterized as a “quick draw” cover-up by the Arkansas Friendship Coalition, better known as the open-border, cheap slave labor crowd.  

Kindest regards,

Joe & Barbara McCutchen

Fort Smith

Outbreak! Leprosy! Not!

How the news cycle works today-and doesn’t

By Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

LITTLE ROCK — WE HAVE this thing against armadillos. And not just because they dig up pastures and yards-or ruin a perfectly good squirrel hunting trip when somebody twists an ankle in one of their holes. In their nocturnal raids, they’ve also been known to ruin undercarriages of perfectly good trucks and cars. But mainly armadillos spook us because every one of them can give you leprosy. At least that’s what mama always said.

Okay, okay, so mama-even mama!-could be wrong on rare occasion. But why take achance? Stay away from armadillos! You may have only a one-in-a-million shot at getting leprosy-even if you exchange hankies with Br’er Armadillo-but this is leprosy we’re talking about. A nasty disease dating back to antiquity. Just saying the word “leprosy” in the South is akin to shouting “Shark!” at the beach. People pay attention. Maybe it was all those Bible lessons, but we’d still prefer not to get that bug, thank you very much.

That’s why you’d be forgiven, Gentle Reader, if you panicked, just a little, last Friday.

A television news station somewhere in northwest Arkansas broadcast a story on Thursday that said Springdale’s “medical community” was warning folks that a leprosy outbreak “could blossom into an epidemic.”

Run for your lives!

Naturally, the story made it onto Drudge. That website has a knack forpicking up strange stories from around the world and blowing them up into panicky proportions. And the site is read by so many people that a certain percentage of them were bound to take the Great Leprosy Scare of ’08 all too seriously.

People were calling the state HealthDepartment. Also the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. And the governor’s office. And their congressmen. And Springdale’s mayor. Holy panic attack, Batman.

Chamber types scrambled to dispatch news releases denying the outbreak. Because, of course, there wasn’t one.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s story about the rumor/controversy/nonstory said that, on Friday, the TV station had attributed its previous report on Thursday to bad info from local doctors.

Our story ran Saturday.

On page 3B.

Inside the Arkansas Section.

After all the facts were in and the Crisis had blown over.

If you can’t believe everything you read, you can’t believe everything you see on Drudge, either. Or, for that matter, TV reports that say some outbreak “could” happen. Of course it could happen. Anything could happen. Aliens could land tomorrow to steal our armadillos and stare luridly at our daughters.

Newspapers are far from perfect, as you may have noticed. But they can restore some perspective. And calm.

This article was published Friday, February 15, 2008.

Editorial, Pages 20 on 02/15/2008