Sadly, the end-of-the-year news coverage trickles down to a steady stream of depressing media posts highlighting the many challenges humans have failed to solve in the previous year. Regardless of whether it is a printed newspaper, daily news show or radio highlights, the focus is the same--a litany of barely resources articles aligned more with personal perspectives than real life concern. As I scrolled through coverage by TIME, The Daily Beast, NPR (National Public Radio), The Hill, NBC and others, a thought came to me. Would Lois Lane Approve of Modern Reporting?
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| Original Cast Superman TV Series |
While the iconic character has changed with the times (no flowered hat, tailored suit with floral hankie in the pocket and cute pumps for the CW's version in Superman and Lois), Lois Lane represents what good journalists once aimed to become. From the time she first appeared in DC comics in June 1938, Lois might have been a hapless damsel in distress but she was anything but lacking in her skills as a reporter. Often rescued because she did her job without fear, Lois shows a tenacity for the truth modern journalism rarely has. With nothing more than a note pad and her own brain, Lois not only wrote her own copy but did the research and interviews necessary to check and double check the facts before going to press. She understood her topic on more than a cursory level and would never have submitted a story that she, herself, could not defend.
My guess is that she would be greatly disappointed in an industry that now depends so heavily on TikTok, Facebook, and marketing press releases for content. She felt an obligation to the public and she would expect today's reporters to explain instead of repeating a political or socially accepted perspective. She would expect reporting--not hearsay.
As the year ends, I can only imagine how Lois Lane would cover topics related to climate change and the pandemic. Nevertheless, here are a few notes that might be in Lois Lane's notepad if she were reporting today.
Covid -19
- Computerized records cannot tell the difference between a patient admitted for elective surgery or one needing treatment for Covid symptoms if both test positive for the virus. This means hospitalizations based on simple data act as exaggerations of the pandemic and look worse than they really are/were.
- There are 113 COVID-19 vaccines currently being developed worldwide.The three versions used in the US may not be the most effective, just the ones this administration has approved.
- As of December, 2021, the actual amount paid to pharmaceutical companies for pandemic supplies is unknown. In support of an already lucrative business, government expenditures to drug companies will likely rival the bank bailouts of 2008-2010 with no strings attached.
- The Pfizer shot is nearly 4 times as expensive as the Johnson&Johnson shot but does not show any significally better control of the illness.
- There is no way to specifically tell how a person becomes infected with Covid. An air borne virus is just that--air borne. Persecution of the unvaccinated is like all prejudice--rooted in political hype and personal fear.
Climate Change
- A 1.5 degree C difference is less than 3 degrees F. The rate at which ice melts at 35 degrees as opposed to 32 degrees is extremely slow. (Remember that Thanksgiving turkey that took a week to thaw out in your 38degree refrigerator? Enough said) Keep in mind that most of the world's glaciers and ice packs do not even reach 32 degrees-ever.
- Bill Gates wants you to believe the 150 year old notes of a college profession as proof of global warming. He fails to mention that 2+ billion computers, which did not exist in the 1950s (climate change baseline), are giving off heat every time they are used. Which makes more sense--a tiny molecule of gas that has been around since the beginning of time or computers generating heat that has nowhere to go?
- According to product testing guides, an electric stove is less efficient and gives off more heat into the surrounding air than a gas stove. And yet, gas stoves are being banned.
- There are an estimated 300 million street lamps which give off heat every night even if they are solar powered. Each gives off some heat increases the air temperature of the World.
- Any moving part causes friction and heat regardless of how it is powered. This heat dissipates into the surrounding air and raises ambient temperature.
- An iceberg that breaks off from a glacier might not cause sea levels to rise because water takes up less space than ice. Since most of the iceberg is below water level it may simple disappear into the sea as it melts with little or no change in sea level.
- Wildfires started by poorly maintained electric lines, arson, or any human activitity are not climate change. Where electric lines have been put underground the incidence of wildfires and power outages have dropped dramatically
- Air conditioning and refrigeration work because they funnel heat to the outside. Sounds like every time someone cools something they heat the outdoors.