Michael J. Bowers, a copy editor and page designer at a suburban Chicago newspaper called The Star, wrote a great piece today called, “Global warming: The media falling for a tale of gloom.”
He writes about the overblown heterosexual AIDS scare in the 1980s and how the media betrays its bias by the way it chooses to report stories. The evidence clearly showed the disease was not becoming an epidemic among heterosexuals, but they chose to ignore facts and write sensational stories about the general population’s purported risk of contracting AIDS:
The disease emerged in America in 1981 as one that was mainly restricted to homosexual men. In fact, it was first called GRIDS: gay-related immune deficiency syndrome.
Then a few other groups started contracting the disease. For example, drug users who employed dirty needles, and unwitting people who received a transplant of contaminated blood.
It was only logical that people in these two unfortunate situations would be at risk. At the same time, it was quite illogical that a straight American who did not use drugs would be at risk. But the press couldn’t abide this truth. To progressive reporters, it wasn’t right that AIDS should be restricted to homosexuals and drug users. It wasn’t fair to stigmatize these groups. They needed to be protected.
And so they rolled out one of the biggest hoaxes of the century. For some five years, they issued a drumbeat of warnings that it was only a matter of time for straight people: Soon we too would start dying in large numbers.
By the way, the writer makes some good points, but the title of his op-ed is misleading. The title implies he believes the media fell for a hoax, but the piece is really about the media’s complicity in a hoax. I agree with everything in the op-ed; I’m just a stickler for clarity!
