This Just In!!!!!!

I was READING the other day, in search of more nuggets of information, when I stumbled across some interesting tidbits. It was an eye opener, giving an example of just how much the media influences our lives.

In a study of the New York Times front page coverage, it was discovered that airplane accidents were reported sixty times more often than say, auto deaths, HIV/AIDS, cancer, or heart disease. Despite the fact your odds of being killed by a domestic flight is one in sixty million.

So how many people do you know that are frightened, or just plain uncomfortable while boarding a plane for a trip? Isn't their phobia fueled by media sensation? By rights, they should be more concerned of dying in the car on the way there, or contracting the HIV virus while on the plane, because the odds are better of that happening then dying in a plane crash.

Here's another little known fact, securely avoided by the media. The European Transportation Safety Council also adds forty percent of those who perish in a plane wreck, are avoidable. They either freeze in fear, or are ignorant of escape avenues necessary to save their lives.

So like other unlikely causes of death, shark attacks, lightening strikes, or meteors falling from the sky to obliterate you, death by plane flight is sensationalized by the media, whipping up fears that shouldn't exist. Which is a cause for reflection,

How many other issues are heightened by reporters looking to sell advertising space? Does this also apply to our political opinions? How about our feelings on faith, child rearing, marriage, sex, global warming, fidelity, etc, etc. The media has an influence in our lives, but only if we allow it!

God Bless!
Capt. Bill