-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.26/pageone.html <A HREF="http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.26/pageone.html">Laissez Faire City Times </A> ----- Laissez Faire City Times June 28, 1999 - Volume 3, Issue 26 Editor & Chief: Emile Zola ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Boob Job by Don Lobo Tiggre In this week�s news, we saw yet another report�this time from the Institute of Medicine�that breast implants don�t cause any serious illnesses. These reports come as no surprise to those of us who thought the whole flurry of lawsuits against companies like Dow Corning (currently paying a $3.2 billion settlement to women who had silicon breast implants) was a junk-science and hysteria-driven boob job aimed at "soaking the rich." Only, this sort of legal fleecing doesn�t just makes boobs out of the duped women, but everyone who thinks that newspapers and TV broadcasts are accurate sources of information. Conspiracy theorists may suspect that such crises are manufactured for the express purpose of creating the public will (read: hysteria) that will push new regulations and other draconian controls through the federal and state legislatures. A simpler explanation is that the greed of trial lawyers functions in a system that gives them no incentive to be on the side of right in such matters. "Loser-pays" tort reform wouldn�t guarantee this either, but at least it would give many lawyers a good reason to hesitate before suing restaurants on behalf of women who spill hot coffee on themselves. Whatever the explanation, the main result of such adventures in legal entrepreneurship�besides fattening trial lawyers� billfolds�is an incremental loss of freedom over time for everyone living in the country (boobs and non-boobs alike). Boob Tube Jobs In bed with the trial lawyers are the slavish statists in the media. Again, it may seem to suspicious folks that most American newspaper reporters, talking heads on television, and their editors have never seen a new tax or regulation they didn�t like, and that they are pushing the statist agenda. (And obviously they often are.) However, editors don�t need to be closet communists in order to seize upon every excuse to dramatize the evil, sick, twisted, ugly, destructive, scary, murderous, salacious, and generally negative from the flow of news that crosses their desks. It�s what sells copy. The media helped fan the flames of fear that gave the trial lawyers a constituency to go after the makers of cosmetic surgery supplies, just as they went after big tobacco, and are now going after gun manufacturers. Consider a case on a smaller scale, the new speed limit in Montana: After the U.S. Congress repealed the nationwide 55 m.p.h. speed limit in 1995, many of the more socialist eastern states kept their speed limits low, while large western states (where many people have to drive very long distances on a daily basis) immediately raised their speed limits. Montana adopted a "reasonable and prudent" "basic rule"�i.e., they had no daytime speed limit, as long as people were not driving recklessly. Montana is 500 miles wide, and for many Montanans, the speed limit was a steep tax on their time. It was even dangerous, as it kept them on the roads longer, increasing the incidence of drowsiness behind the wheel and other hazards. Most Montanans welcomed the new rule and drove at reasonable speeds, given the type of car they owned and the road conditions. In 1996, the first full year after the "basic rule" was adopted, highway fatalities dropped dramatically, from 216 to 198, the lowest rate since 1989. But that�s not the way an editorial from a major Salt Lake City television station portrayed the "basic rule". According to KSL spokesman Duane Cardall, "Montana tried it and it didn�t work. It is a good lesson for us all." It�s not just the opinion that�s disturbing, look at how Cardall carefully presents the facts: "While many motorists approached the �basic rule� law with responsibility, far too many abused the privilege, endangering not only themselves, but other motorists. The fatality rate skyrocketed, from an average of 200 traffic related deaths per year for the previous decade, to 267 in 1997." Besides the disturbing reference to the right to travel as a "privilege", note that, instead of documenting the initial decrease in fatalities, we are told that the death rate "skyrocketed." This is yellow journalism of the lowest order; the statistics are correct but the impression created is misleading. How can this be anything but a deliberate attempt to mislead the public? Well, perhaps it is, or perhaps it�s just the result of an editor who knows that "fatality rate skyrocketed" will sell more copy than, "in a complex interaction of alcohol, out-of-state drivers, and other variables, the mortality on Montana highways has fluctuated greatly since the repeal of the speed limit." Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc As it turns out, the 25 percent increase in deaths in 1997 was accompanied by a 40 percent increase in alcohol-related crashes, making it at least possible that the increase in fatalities had as much to do with an increase in drunk driving as anything else. Even the post-speed limit study commissioned by the Montana Department of Transportation h esitated to draw any conclusions. In a telephone interview, however, an MDT spokesperson did say that most of the trouble came from out-of-staters who came to "joyride" and killed themselves. The total number of crashes in 1997 actually decreased�it�s just that more joyriders came in and removed themselves from the gene pool�Cardall�s claims about danger to other motorists not withstanding. So now Montana has a new speed limit law�75 m.p.h.�what a slap in the face to all the responsible Montanans who were able to get where they were going more quickly without troubling anyone else! Now let�s look at the same tactics applied to a larger issue: the onslaught against the right to keep and bear arms. Immediately after the school shootings in Littleton, CO, a number of television networks began showing footage from various gun "studies" purporting to show how dangerous guns are to or for children, even when they have been "educated" about the dangers of firearms. For example, ABC�s 20/20 conducted one such exercise on a classroom full of young children. The children were told how dangerous guns are by a police officer, who then left the room. Several disabled guns were left mixed in with the other toys, and to the horror of parents who watched the tapes, many of the children picked them up and played with them�even pointing them at friends and saying "bang", and trying to load them with crayon bullets. The commentator informed viewers that, by counting up al l the times the kids aimed the guns and pretended to shoot other kids, more than thirty children would have died, had the guns not been disabled. This also is yellow journalism of the lowest order. In the first place, having a cop tell kids not to play with guns is not a real gun education. (I�ve helped my sons hold my .44 magnum while they pulled the trigger and exploded a milk-jug full of water, spattering themselves with water in the process; they have felt the recoil, heard the roar, and know what would have happened had that jug been someone�s head!) Also, leaving the guns mixed in with known toys in a familiar environment is bound to reduce the fear any child might have of them. And finally, had the guns not been disabled, and had they been loaded, and had rounds been chambered and safeties left off of the autopistols, and had one of the children in this case had the strength to pull the trigger, and had the child actually managed to shoot a classmate (those of us who spend a lot of time trying to hit targets know that it�s not as easy as pointing and pulling)� If all of these things had happened, it�s ludicrous to imagine that anything other than a wholesale stampede from the classroom would have resulted, after the recoil of the gun twisted it from the hand of the shocked kid who pulled the trigger, possibly giving him a black eye in the process. Yellow Journalism at NBC A related report that was posted on "letters to Drudge" reads as follows: Dear Mr. Drudge, Howie Carr and The Howie Carr Show had an interesting experience with NBC�s Nightly News with Tom Brokaw on Tuesday. NBC called us and asked if we would discuss the topic of the effect of the Littleton shootings on our listener�s attitudes towards gun ownership. Lisa Myers had a piece scheduled for that night�s news broadcast and she wanted popular reaction footage to complete her piece. We agreed. In the first hour of the show Howie asked the listeners how they were effected if at all while the NBC cameras rolled. We took 33 calls. 30 of those calls said the effect of the shootings was to make them want to own a gun for protection and not tighten up the laws. When the story aired on NBC that night Lisa Myers said that according to polls (which ones she never identified) and popular reactions on talk shows most people were in favor of stricter gun laws and were against gun ownership. She went on to play one of the 3 anti-gun phone calls from our show completely ignoring the 30 calls which did not agree with her premise. This manipulation and skewing of the actual poll results from our show has caused quite a stir among our listeners who [had] heard the gun hour and then witnessed the blatant misrepresentation of what the majority response was on NBC news. It has left much of our audience feeling mistrustful and angry with network news in general and NBC specifically. (By the way, this gun control feature led the news while China and the Cox report was buried 11 minutes into the broadcast.) Thanks for letting us vent. Nancy Shack Executive Producer The Howie Carr Show Yes, this sort of thing is enough to make even the most na�ve and forgiving of us suspicious, but it is still possible, and perhaps even probable, that the profit motive is as much at work here as any political motive, if not more so. So what can be done about it? Here are some initial thoughts. As mentioned earlier, "loser pays" may be a step in the right direction, at least as far as tort reform goes, but that doesn�t cover all the trouble with lawyers�and doesn�t begin to address the problem with the media. The real free-market solution that might flourish in the absence of legal creatures of the state that limit liability could well be increased personal liability. Do we not often say, as advocates of the freedom philosophy, that freedom requires personal responsibility? Why not extend that reasoning to public figures, especially ones who claim to represent the interests of classes of people, or who claim to be purv eyors of factual information (news)? If KSL, ABC, or NBC wants to peddle reports that raise the hair on people�s napes (and ratings), fine�but if that information is inaccurate and leads to the loss of life, liberty, or property, the broadcasters who spewed their skewed information should be held personally liable for the harm done. If a trial lawyer wants to go after a company based on the latest junk science, fine, but if he succeeds in removing life-saving products from the marketplace based on information later found to be false or inaccurate, he ought to be held personally liable for every life lost. Such personal liability might have a rather chilling effect on certain aspects of our economy�but those purveyors who survive will be the ones with the most impeccable track records of honesty, integrity, accuracy, and fair dealing. Wouldn�t that be a good thing? Market discipline is harsh, but that too is a good thing. Why cultivate boobs when we can foster achievers? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Don Lobo Tiggre is the author of Y2K: The Millennium Bug, a suspenseful thriller. Tiggre can be found at the Liberty Round Table. -30- from The Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 3, No 26, June 28, 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Published by Laissez Faire City Netcasting Group, Inc. Copyright 1998 - Trademark Registered with LFC Public Registrar All Rights Reserved ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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