What really bothers me about this program is not that it is stupid and
inaccurate (I have gotten used to that from Hollywood), but that it can do
some real harm.  If anyone is hurt, looted, killed, etc., it will be because
of the rampant fear, not because of any significant breakdown of
infrastructure.  NBC, it seems, long ago abandoned any sense of
responsibility for its actions.

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Cesario [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 1999 10:16 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: OT: NBC fans the flames of Y2K hysteria


Fellow listmembers:

This morning I was given a bit of news that I thought would be of interest
to all of those out there who have been involved in the task of ensuring Y2K
integrity and compliance within their organization.  The following info is
from http://www.nbc.com/y2k/show.html :

<webclipping>
Sunday, November 21 on NBC (9-11 p.m. ET)
"Y2K," a two-hour suspense thriller starring Ken Olin ("L.A. Doctors," "Easy
Streets") as a Y2K trouble-shooter trying to save the world from
catastrophic disaster on the eve of the new millenium.

<snip>

Nick Cromwell (Olin) is a complex systems failure expert, an independent
consultant working on the government's "Z2" (think zero, zero) project to
insure that the country is Y2K compliant. As the minutes tick down to the
new millenium, a concerned Nick counsels caution, persuading his boss,
Martin Lowell (Morton), who heads up the program, to ground all planes
before midnight. As Nick watches and waits, clocks around the world begin to
strike 12 a.m., bringing the United States closer to learning what the Y2K
bug is all about.

As the millenium dawns in North America, most of the Eastern Seaboard
suffers a major power outage. But the worst is yet to come. Nick 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. While
simple computer error is at the heart of the potentially catastrophic
problems, Nick must use old-fashioned ingenuity if he is to save the day in
this race-against-time action adventure.
</webclipping>

You do all this upgrading, testing and retesting to make your systems and
applications Y2K compliant. You do your best  to alleviate the FUD of your
customers as best you can.  And then the folks at NBC foist this
sensationalist garbage upon a populace that's already skittish about Y2K .
Why?  I can't think of any good reason to air this program, except to play
upon people's fears in order to make a buck for NBC and the program's
sponsors.

Perhaps I'm overreacting; I still find it incredible, however, that NBC
would even air something like this.  Since the program is already "in the
can" and ready to go on Sunday night, I don't suppose there's much to be
done about it now, but if anyone else found this as outrageous as I did,
they could let 'em know at [log in to unmask] .




(Disclaimer: The ideas and opinions expressed above are mine and mine alone,
and not those of Member's 1st Federal Credit Union.)

Paul Cesario
Members1st Federal Credit Union
Mechanicsburg, PA. 17055
[log in to unmask]
http://www.members1st.org