Cosplay Convention Top Story on CNN
I know, I know. H1N1 is Serious Business! That fucking miniseries adaptation of The Stand terrified me when I was growing up, so I shouldn’t making light of this situation. OK, screw it: let’s reflect on how utterly surreal the official news coverage of this virus has been. I thought nothing could top SARS, but it’s like CNN, BBC, and even the Huffington Post have turned into one large gallery of Alt Photo Cliches. Case in point: cute surgical masks from Japan are to be expected, but I never thought I’d see this pop up on FOX NEWS.
I imagine the colorful swine flu parade coming from the news media to be the product of journalists/photographers bored to tears from framing recession-related stories. I mean, you can only stand covering so many Sad Guys on Trading Floors before you start to lose it a little bit. They’re excited to be reporting on something completely new, and I think that this giddy, liberated feeling is actually affecting the coverage. The best thing to come from all this is that news sites keep churning out photos of couples kissing in surgical masks, which is really sweet and romantic. Here’s my favorite new take on this theme, which has its roots in the following 50s image/erstwhile Torture Garden flyer photo (photographer unknown):
May 3rd, 2009 at 12:24 pm
“I imagine the colorful swine flu parade coming from the news media
to be the product of journalists/photographers bored to tears from framing recession-related stories.”
It is either that or a giant marketing conspiracy of the mouth cap industry. If you look at the mortality rate in other flu epidemics, this one is hardly special. http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content-nw/full/289/2/179/TABLEJOC21709T3
May 3rd, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Those FOX News images are total rich-white-businessman pr0n. If you’re using a flu epidemic as a means to “express your individuality”…you’ll probably be willing to buy ANYTHING.
May 3rd, 2009 at 4:58 pm
You keep waiting and waiting for the end of the world only to get nothing. The Apocalypse is suck a cock tease.
While the issue itself is serious, the handling of it at this point has totally been overkill to the point of doing more harm than good. It’s making some see it as “no big deal” and others panic to the point of actually making themselves sick.
DAMN YOU CABLE NEWS MEDIA!!! Can’t you guys get anything right? Then again they can’t even handle the murder of a little girl with taste and professionalism so maybe we’re expecting too much?
I’m off to my bunker with a shotgun, decade supply of dried food and water, and my many How To Kill Zombie manuals…cause you top dwellers are all screwed man.
May 3rd, 2009 at 5:08 pm
I remember seeing that kiss image a year or so ago and just…swooning over it. Automatic right-click-save, that one.
Can’t say I’m sad about the possibility of medical masks becoming a more acceptable day-time accessory, though. Especially since a package of 50 just arrived for me in the mail (ordered for completely non-H1N1 reasons)…
On a side note, do masks like these (i.e., ones without any actual filter mechanism) really do much in the way of disease prevention?
May 3rd, 2009 at 6:52 pm
strange indeed. I enjoyed this disregard of the whole thing
http://KuroGato.deviantart.com/art/air-conditioning-120858514
May 4th, 2009 at 6:44 am
“90 people get swine flu and everybody wants to wear a mask. A million people have AIDS and no one wants to wear a condom.”
Read that in my twitterstream yesterday. Says it all, somehow.
May 4th, 2009 at 7:47 am
Virus Chic! Yeah!
On a more serious note, remember that the most likely apocalypses are the ones you never see coming.
May 4th, 2009 at 8:49 am
@Mer: We should shape condoms like pig snouts, make pictures of Japanese hipsters wearing them and send those to Fox news. Humanity can still be saved!