That's confusing

[mbarker]

The morning news shows here in Japan seemed to be having a split personality today. On one hand, they were viewing the possible influenza pandemic with alarm, complete with warnings to avoid crowds, be careful about eating food that might have been breathed on, wash your hands, stay home, get lots of rest, don't breath too hard, and all the hints about how to avoid the flu. But...

It's also the (real) start of Golden Week -- May 3, 4, and 5 are holidays, and whichever week they end up in is a serious vacation period here. April 28 was also a holiday, so some people started celebrating early and took last week off too, but this week is definitely the main one. So the news shows were also publicizing all the great places to get out and join the crowds, eat piles of food cooked on common grills and such, and otherwise do stuff that sort of runs counter to the warnings about avoiding the flu.

I kept expecting the newspeople to comment on how you can't do both at once, but they didn't even seem to notice that today's headline advice about the flu and the scheduled advice about enjoying Golden Week are at odds with each other. Maybe they don't listen to themselves?

Comments

Wrong dates

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Make that 4, 5, and 6 -- Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday this year.

Re: Wrong dates

[jinkang.livejournal.com]

I think it's media at work.

You can't just 'ruin' the weekends by telling them to stay home now can they? Yet the news corp can't just ignore the public health issues either.

And thus, mention both but try not to link them. After all, vacationers need to be out and about and spend money in this 'hard' times. :P

Re: Wrong dates

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Good point. Their position requires them to do both, even if they are in conflict. So just pretend not to notice. Although I'm also a little bit suspicious that some of the vacation pieces were prerecorded -- at least that's how I would handle some of them if I was running the news show.