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For cablers, Fox is big news. Swine flu not so much

October 28, 2009 9:00 am ET by Eric Boehlert

Greg Sargent notes that last week the inside baseball dispute between the White House and Fox News grabbed as much overall news coverage as the swine flu. You know, that thing that the president recently labeled a national emergency.

No doubt it's depressing to watch journalists spend so much time navel gazing. (BTW, it's our job and Media Matters to watch the press, what journalists' excuse?) But it actually gets worse when you break down the recent Pew Research data by media sector and see just how much time cable TV devoted to the Fox News story.

Behold:

That's right, last week cable news channels devoted nearly three times more coverage to Fox News as they did the swine flu, which has killed more than 1,000 Americans this year.

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    • Author by themidnightreview.com (October 28, 2009 9:02 am ET)
      1  
      Apparently they care more about petty squabbles between them and the White House then they do about national health emergencies. If Obama's administration acted slowly on this matter, you know Fox News would have given him the Katrina treatment.

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    • Author by John Paradox (October 28, 2009 9:52 am ET)
      1  
      nearly three times more coverage to Fox News as they did the swine flu, which has killed more than 1,000 Americans this year.

      Okay, it's snarky but... how many Americans has Faux News killed?
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    • Author by DAWUSS (October 28, 2009 9:53 am ET)
        1
      I heard that Swine Flu deaths are far less than "standard flu" deaths in a single year...


      Maybe that's why.
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      • Author by Craig (October 28, 2009 12:09 pm ET)
        1  
        You heard wrong. The CDC:

        Total influenza hospitalization rates for laboratory-confirmed flu are climbing and are higher than expected for this time of year.

        The proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) based on the 122 Cities Report has increased and has been higher than what is expected at this time of year for two weeks.
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      • Author by DellDolly (October 28, 2009 12:58 pm ET)
        1  
        I don't know how to post graphs, but if you're interested, you can find graphs of the incidence of the H1N1 flu versus standard flu and see the vast differences. You'll be able to find death statistics too.

        The most troubling part is the young people dying from this virus. Everyone's going to die eventually, but senior citizens with underlying health issues deaths are not near so troubling as the elementary school kids and pregnant women who are dying now. This fact alone, the people terribly affected by this virus, is worthy of exceptional news coverage.
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        • Author by Craig (October 28, 2009 1:59 pm ET)
             
          Yes, the high number of pediatric deaths is the worst part. Hopefully most kids will get vaccinated, but obviously the propagation of conspiracy theories doesn't help.

          BTW, thanks for the post (I think it was you) on the woman who claimed she had a horrific adverse reaction to the flu shot, noting that her claims have been dismissed by the medical community. I had a friend tell me she had seen the story on the news and was questioning whether or not to get vaccinated.
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