# Summer of the Random, Improbable Scary Thing **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 26, 2002, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summer-of-the-random-improbable-scary-thing/125645 "2002-08-26T16:35:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summer-of-the-random-improbable-scary-thing/125645/21 "2002-08-28T03:21:05Z")
[Cats and dogs **can** contract the West Nile virus.](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/qa/wnv_dogs_cats.htm/) I, too, find that I get all the news I need from TV in about five minutes. The local newspaper isn’t a whole lot better either. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summer-of-the-random-improbable-scary-thing/125645/22 "2002-08-28T03:39:59Z")
> [@](#): > > I think it reached a new low with coverage of the Jason Priestly Racecar Crash. Live press conferences with his doctors in Kentucky? Hey, I knew those doctors. His trauma surgeon was my chief resident just two years ago. One of the most brilliant guys I’ve worked under. Seriously, though, I’ve been party to far more CNN than I’m accustomed to lately, and aside from all of the above, what really gets me is their “News Alerts”. When I hear the words “News Alert”, I think of something important, or some big breaking story. However, that’s what they call their hourly headline run-down. If big, breaking news did happen, I don’t think I’d even notice on CNN. (Not that the others are any better.) Dr. J ---
**Author:** ![im2evil4u](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5ac83/32.png) [@im2evil4u](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/im2evil4u)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summer-of-the-random-improbable-scary-thing/125645/23 "2002-08-28T03:49:34Z")
The “news” people have realized that after 9/11 (or any other major event in the world) there is really nothing to talk about. So they focus on human heartstrings - Human interest =$$$$ - i.e. abducted children, people having sex in a church, babies left in cars, priests a\*\* raping little boys or gilrs - this shit would have never been aired or reported before then. This type of journalism is consistent in history. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summer-of-the-random-improbable-scary-thing/125645/24 "2002-08-28T07:20:26Z")
**dwyr** , your link takes me to the CDC’s search engine. If I remember correctly (which is open for debate) there has only been one documented case in the entire world of a cat contracting West Nile, and no documented cases of dogs. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summer-of-the-random-improbable-scary-thing/125645/25 "2002-08-28T07:38:25Z")
I was curious enough to track down the facts. Turns out there was one dog and “several” cats. Not exactly newsworthy considering it’s the entire planet. West Nile is not a threat to these animals. CDC Link: [http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/qa/wnv\_dogs\_cats.htm](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/qa/wnv_dogs_cats.htm) Quote for the lazy: > [@](#): > > Q. Can West Nile virus cause illness in dogs or cats? > A. There is a published report of West Nile virus isolated from a dog in southern Africa (Botswana) in 1982. West Nile virus has been isolated from several dead cats in 1999 and 2000. A serosurvey of dogs and cats in the epidemic area showed a low infection rate. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summer-of-the-random-improbable-scary-thing/125645/26 "2002-08-28T08:18:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Beeblebrox \* > \*\*Number of deaths inside the US from the West Nile Virus for 2001: nine. > > Number of deaths caused by influenza inside the US for 1999: 1,665. \*\* Getting all those pesky crows and bluejays out of your yard and neighborhood park: _Priceless…_ Har har. Couldn’t resist. Seriously, a friend of mine whose father is a doctor told me recently about a patient of his father’s. The guy is hugely obese, smokes heavily, eats nothing but pork chops and Twinkies, and was terrified because he’d gotten a mosquito bite. Actually here in Memphis we’ve had three people come down with it (all over 80, I believe). And I see dead bluejays every day in the park when I walk Das Mutt out there. But really, I’m more worried about getting shot by a crackhead than getting West Nile Virus. Gotta admit though, that’s a sexy name for a disease. Like “Ebola Sudan” or something. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summer-of-the-random-improbable-scary-thing/125645/27 "2002-08-28T09:27:06Z")
> [@](#): > > The “news” people have realized that after 9/11 (or any other major event in the world) there is really nothing to talk about. So they focus on human heartstrings Nice theory, im2evil4u, but I’m not convinced. The Summer of the Sharks was before 9/11 and that was, IMHO, the most ridiculous news fad of them all. If I had to guess, I’d say that the fads, fearmongering, and overall tabloid nature of modern, “respectable” newspapers are the result of the over-corporatization of newsmedia. If the SmellyTown Tribune is a good rag run by local businessmen who have vested interests in their community, it stands to reason that journalistic integrity would override the promise of a couple of extra bucks at the expense of alienating serious readers. I certainly see more honest, though-provoking work in small, weekly alternative papers than I do in the corporate-owned dailies. When the Tribune gets bought out by Knight Ridder or Gannett, profit is the bottom line. There are shareholders to please. They don’t care if Joe Schmoe in a town 2,000 miles away gets a sufficient amount of local news. They just want to see their stock go up half a point. The people I feel sorry for are the journalists, most of whom probably spent their college years fantasizing about uncovering scandals, englightening the public, and making this country a better place through the power of the pen. They knew the pay was low and the work relatively thankless, but it didn’t deter them. Now the aspiring writer comes out into the real world and finds himself rewriting an article about some guy who had his legs mangled by an aquatic creature halfway across the country. Forget investigative reporting, or if you plan to do it, it had better be on an approved subject. You wouldn’t want to uncover a corporate scandal at one of the other companies in our huge conglomerate, would you? That might hinder our primary objective, which used to be uncovering and reporting the truth, but now, of couse, is obtaining a wider reader base through any means possible so we have an excuse to charge The Clothing Warehouse an extra $25 for their ad. When author Ben Bagdikain first published his book _The Media Monopoly_ in 1983, he lamented the fact that “Fifty corporations dominated most of every mass medium.” In the 2000 edition of his book, it’s down to six. The result, of course, is the watered-down bullshit we’re seeing now. Same deal with radio stations, except it’s even worse with them. Two companies own 95% of the stations in the U.S. and they all sound exactly the fucking same. If you want to hear decent music that isn’t overplayed until it makes you want to vomit, you have four choices: 1. Be lucky enough to live in a town with a good college station. 2. Listen to online radio stations that sound like crap. 3. Cough up $12-17 for a CD you never heard. 4. Download illegal MP3s. Considering these options, it comes as no surprise that Kazaa has 1.8 million people connected right now at 4 in the morning. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summer-of-the-random-improbable-scary-thing/125645/28 "2002-08-28T14:52:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by flowbark \* > **That’s ok. You can’t get local news under a nonelitist system either, unless you consider footage of yet another “3-alarm blaze” to be “news”.** “THE RIDES, THE FRIED DOUGH, THE EXHIBITS…Channel 22 will be your source for all the latest on the Champlain Valley Expo…We will have live reports on the Expo from Bob Smith and Joe Bloe, on location at the Champlain Valley Expo” :eek: Definitely schmooze. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summer-of-the-random-improbable-scary-thing/125645/29 "2002-08-29T07:21:59Z")
Sorry about the link, I was in a hurry and cut and pasted. Don’t know what happened. I didn’t mean to imply that West Nile virus was a major threat to animals, or people either for that matter, just that it’s not impossible for animals to contract it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summer-of-the-random-improbable-scary-thing/125645.md?page=1)