Swine Flu Spin

Sometimes a news story can get out of hand. There's no telling why, it could be anything--people who believe anything they read to a bad spin on a subject thanks to some public relations professionals who still practice the dishonest, outdated, and one of the reasons PR pros have a false bad name, spinning technique. 

But for whatever reason, things can get blown out of proportion and the Swine Flu, excuse me, H1N1, is the latest victim. 

I just went to the Wall Street Journal site and saw they had added a tab titled "Flu Outbreak". I log onto Facebook and am bound to find at least 10 new status updates exclaiming their fear of the Swine Flu. The Fort Worth public school system closed schools for several days a few weeks ago. Parents are keeping their kids at home. People are walking around using hand sanitizer every few minutes. My parents called me, panicked, telling me to avoid crowds for several days. 

It's gotten a little over the top. While there definitely is a flu going around, it's not the first, and certainly not the last. I like Bret Stephen's take on the whole ordeal in today's Wall Street Journal. 

Sometimes it is quite valuable, if not always, to get an unaltered point of view from someone not affected by any hysteria in the news and public. Hopefully the people who are 'spinning' the Swine Flu out of orderly control will take note of Mr. Stephen's argument. 

Until next time, 

Sloane and Chelsea