2002-04-08 Why didn't they interview or report on any of the businesses that are metric? Or on the businesses that buy and use metric products? Or the metric products we as consumers use daily? And to report on the value of these products, both industrial and consumeral. And even to report on the losses to American industry that isn't metric. Are they afraid they would find something upsetting to the general public?
I wonder how many Americans would be shocked to find that the metric system is used a lot more than they think. And if the country is flooded with billions of dollars in metric products, that would have to show that the "experiment" of the '70s did not fail, but is just hidden from view. It seems they go out of their way to provide a biased report of metrication being an old idea from the '70s that completely failed instead of showing a more balanced report showing where it succeeded and the economic effect of those successes. This is nothing more than yellow journalism. John ----- Original Message ----- From: "Nat Hager III" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, 2002-04-08 13:36 Subject: [USMA:19338] RE: CBS - SUNDAY > Here's the transcript.... > > Nat > > ----------------- > > > Burrelle's Information Services > CBS News Transcripts > > SHOW: Sunday Morning (9:00 AM ET) - CBS > > April 7, 2002 Sunday > > TYPE: Commentary > > LENGTH: 398 words > > HEADLINE: The Osgood file; trying to bring the metric system to America > permanently > > ANCHORS: CHARLES OSGOOD > > BODY: > THE OSGOOD FILE > > CHARLES OSGOOD, host: > > It was 207 years ago today that the leaders of the French Revolution decided > to go whole hog in their campaign to reform the world and adopted the metric > system of weights and measures. In the years that followed, country after > country followed the French example, until even England largely stopped > using English measures. Now the United States is among the few holdouts, > along with Liberia and Myanmar. And the reformers are still hard at work, > trying to get America to put our best foot forward and to go metric, too. > Unidentified Man: Let's start our lesson today, and we're going to talk > metric today, OK? > > (Footage of children learning metric system; metric posters; road signs; > various food and beverage packages with metric systems measurements; beef) > > OSGOOD: (Voiceover) We've been talking metric and seeing pictures like this > for years now. Earnest school children learning meters and kilograms, > helpful posters explaining metric's many merits. Erratic efforts to rewrite > road signs, so that you no longer know how far you're going. Foods and > beverages relabeled to the point where it seems like we must do most of our > wining and dining in liters and grams, rather than in quarts and ounces. > > Unidentified Woman: What is a liter, and what does that amount to in the > metric system? > > (Footage of people pumping gas; conversion chart; road sign) > > OSGOOD: (Voiceover) The import of all these metric messages is all too > clear: Metric is the wave of the future. Stay with the old, and you'll be > left many kilometers behind. > > Or so they tell us anyway. What strikes us about the metric images we found > is how many of them date back to the 1970s. They are as much artifacts of > that time as sideburns and leisure suits. The drive to metrify America > strikes us not so much as a bright new vision of the future, but the same > old one we never took to, just as we never took to speaking Esperanto, which > was supposed to be the common tongue by now. Of course, no country speaks > Esperanto, but almost everybody uses the metric system. Maybe America will > end up being all metric someday, but it could take another 207 years before > that happens. Which, of course, is the same length of time in either system. > > Ahead now on SUNDAY MORNING, Bill Geist. > > BILL GEIST: You've parked your car. Now read the book. > > (Announcements) > > LOAD-DATE: April 8, 2002 > > >>> > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On > Behalf Of Carter, Baron > Sent: Monday, 2002 April 08 8:29 > To: U.S. Metric Association > Subject: [USMA:19330] CBS - SUNDAY > > > Anybody see the CBS 'Sunday' program where Charles Osgood reported on the > metric system that wasn t? > > Baron Carter > > > Compute Against Cancer > http://www.parabon.com <http://www.parabon.com/> > > >
