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Balanced News

I listen to the all-news radio station for the traffic reports. But as a bonus, I get to hear about murders. Every day. Is the news skewed that way?

Look below for a full transcript of this video.

Transcript

All News Radio

I listen to the all-news radio station for the traffic reports. But as a bonus, I get to hear about murders. Every day. Now, in real life, I’ve never seen anyone stabbed or shot. I saw a friend get punched once. And yet on the radio I get murders every day. Well, actually, about once a week. Toronto has a pretty low murder rate.

There’s three million people in the city. Every day 2 million, nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine take care of their kids, go to work, come home make meals, talk to friends. Except one person who stabs another.

Calculating Odds

So if I calculate the odds….


… Zero point zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero 3 percent of people got Stabbed. So to give us a real perspective on what happened today, zero point zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero 3 percent the news should be about the stabbing.

So how much of their 24 hours of news should be dedicated to the murder? 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes per hour, sixty seconds in a minute. So one day has eighty six thousand, four hundred seconds.

So the coverage of the stabbing should be one three millionth of that…. Zero point zero two eight… About a thirtieth of a second. Oh, since this camera fires off 30 frames a second, then the news would be 24 hours of good news and then one frame of the stabbing. Like this…

Two million, nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine people were not stabbed today….

Why do I bring this up? Well, it’s actually about medication for ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) sometimes called ADD.

When we made the documentary ADD & Loving It?! we heard from a lot of people that medication turned people into zombies, and doctors were handing it out like candy and teachers were getting kids on Ritalin and parents were dosing up the kids… When we spoke to people … It was all bad news.

Imagine if we’d managed to interview Tom Cruise as well. Mind you these were all people who didn’t have ADD, had never taken medication, didn’t know a thing about the research and the studies and the statistics.

When we spoke to people who had tried medication, mostly what we got was this…

Hey, I know there are still some doctors out there over prescribing. Unscrupulous pharmacists are doing all kinds of nasty things. But here’s the thing…

I’m not suggesting you take medication for your ADD. I’m not promoting it. In fact, you shouldn’t try it. Don’t! Could make you a zombie. I forbid you to!…

All I’m saying is you want to hear both sides. Make an informed decision. It’s not three million to one. But it’s not Planet of the Zombies. I know.

Rants and Raves

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