-Caveat Lector- X X X X X XXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1999 18:01:22 ET XXXXX WHITE HOUSE Y2K BUNKER COSTS $50 MILLION; WILL SHARE INFO WITH UNITED NATIONS The WASHINGTON POST is first to describe the White House's $50 million Y2K nerve center -- a futuristic bunker known officially as the 'Information Coordination Center' (ICC). This high-tech operation will collect and analyze reports of Year 2000 computer problems and distribute the information to government policymakers, governors, mayors, the United Nations, the news media and others. MORE... POSTIE Stephen Barr reports that "high definition, flat-screen television sets hang from the walls, scattered through a large room. Desks -- equipped with flat-panel computers and small, egg-shaped cameras for video conferencing... Inside the room, behind glass walls, are two rows of desks for senior government officials and a bank of TV screens that can be tuned into network and cable channels." The ICC is organized specifically to monitor these Y2k sectors: economic, infrastructure (electric power and telephones), government operations, public health and safety, environmental (water and chemicals) and international. The POST quotes John Koskinen, the White House's Y2K czar: "[W]hen the president or the public or the media wants to know what's happening, what they mean by what's happening is what's happening everywhere in the world at one time... This will be the one place in the world with complete information." Inside the ICC, top government officials will receive and interpret Y2K data culled from around the world -- assuming the computers, networks and electricity feeding the ICC are still working. The ICC will begin around the clock monitoring on December 30, continuing through the first week of January. X X X X X XXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1999 18:01:22 ET XXXXX NBC'S Y2K SCARE MOVIE SET FOR AIR; NETWORK PRESS RELEASES BLUR NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT Anticipation is building for NBC's upcoming Y2K scare movie, now set to run during a sweet November Sweeps spot. The fuss film, set to air on November 21, has been criticized for exploiting and cashing in on the nation's Y2K fears. Last month a lawmaker on the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem blasted the project: "This is one of the most irresponsible things to ever come out of Hollywood! Why is NBC doing this? There are going to end up scaring people into a complete panic. Shame, shame, shame on them!" Even though NBC is planning to run a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie -- "This program does not suggest or imply that any of these events could actually occur" -- producers of Y2K now admit that they set out to exploit the situation. "My slogan while making the movie was, 'Paranoia is our most important product,'" said Y2K executive producer David Israel. Plot line of NBC's Y2K: It starts with a news flash: An F-18 falls out of the sky at 12:01:40 somewhere in the South Seas. Soon ATM glitches show up everywhere. Machines limit angry customers to $20 a pop. The lights go out in Paris. The Times Square blacks out; so do Philadelphia and Scranton. 911 is cut. A 72-year-old woman dies on the operating table, becoming the first Y2K death. A nuclear meltdown in Sweden kills all plant workers. Soon, a nuke plant in Seattle teeters. "As the millenium dawns in North America, most of the Eastern Seaboard suffers a major power outage," NBC said in a press release. "But the worst is yet to come. Nick [a complex systems failure expert consulting the government played by actor Ken Olin] must stay ahead of the unpredictable Y2K bug as it spreads across the United States threatening everyone, including his own family on the West Coast." "Drudge, this is a movie, this is entertainment," an NBC executive said over lunch in Burbank on Friday. "No one is going to run to the banks on Monday morning after watching this film." The executive conceded that the network may have gone too far this week when it issued a press release suggesting that Y2K was a game. "PLAY THE 'Y2K' DOOMSDAY MOVIE QUIZ" blasted NBC in a flash on the ASSOCIATED PRESS EXPRESS wires. A press pusher named Cathryn Boxberger in NBC's "Entertainment Publicity Department" also issued a press release on Wednesday titled "Y2K' BITES AND BYTES" to hype the film. Boxberger reported: "The State Department is advising against travelling abroad during the days following December 31st. Sources quoted in Washington expect telephone and power failures as well as water shortages in many foreign travel destinations." Boxberger continued: "Citizens who fear that their savings are in jeopardy due to the bug are expected to withdraw heavily from their accounts in the days leading up to the new year. However, the government warns, the greater millennium risk is of being robbed of all that cash." Boxberger appeared to be using recent NBC NEWS Y2K items -- twisting them into scare flashes to hype the film. "Report after report has come out telling us that the biggest Y2K fear is fear itself, and GE, of all companies, pulls this stunt!" said a news executive from a rival network. Developing... ----------------------------------------------------------- Filed by Matt Drudge Reports are moved when circumstances warrant (c)DRUDGE REPORT 1999 DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. 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