Letter: Media ignore details on important issues

Why does the media almost never print all that bears on a particular piece of news but limits what it does print to little nibbles at a real story?

Why must the Nevada Appeal rely on material pre-digested to obfuscate by such sources as AP and other controlled bureaus? When the Appeal office swarms with supposed graduate journalists who can't tell syntax from a sin tax, why not put a few of them to work digging up some of the readily-available informative background on the bites supplied by the networks? They - and we - might learn something.

Some cases in point from the Nevada Appeal for March 29:

There is an article that the FDA in another example of its almost infinite stupidity has banned blood donors who have lived in England because "Mad Cow Disease" is idiotically supposedly confined to the British Isles.

Obviously, this is not true; cases have been reported from other European countries as well as Australia. But the lie continues. We are told that American beef is pristine pure, clean and free of the deadly prion that causes Transmissable Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE).

But, we are not given some very important background information. The epidemic of "Mad Cow Disease" in England began after the British adopted the American method of offal preparation. Nor are we told that TSE is found in our own native wildlife such as mule-tail deer, elk and mink commercially raised for their pelts. While the captive mink are deliberately fed offal-containing food, it is believed that American ruminant wildlife pick up the infectious prions from eating offal-reinforced cattle feed, especially distributed as a supplement during the wintertime. Of course, there is no mention of "Downer Cow Syndrome", a malady that affects tens of thousands of U.S. cattle yearly and is believed that it may be a domestic variant of TSE.

And then, not a word has escaped to the public through the mass media about the FDA action in removing the GRAS (Generally Regarded As Safe) label from gelatin capsules April 24, 1997, because of the probability that the almost-indestructible prion may remain viable in beef-derived gelatin.

Incidentally, wholly safe, plant-derived gelatin capsules are available.

In the same issue of the Nevada Appeal is an article about an attack by the African "killer bees" severely injuring an elderly woman in southern Nevada.

Did the mass media ever tell the public why the African bees, so viciously unlike honey bees from the rest of the world, got that way? Early on, shortly after the African variety had been released into the wilds from a laboratory in Argentina, the truth came out. In defense of their very existence, the "Africanized bees" are believed to have evolved this strategy to attack en masse any creature, especially if it approached on two legs, because of violently brutal and destructive behavior towards them by the African.

In all, why does the media fail to present with the whole truth about the situations that are destroying our culture? Good question!

Richard Bentinck

Carson City