Mad Cow Not Important Anymore? What??

Source: Reuters

Remember that mad cow disease thing? The one that could kill you? Well, it's not so important anymore.

CHICAGO (Reuters)--Mad cow disease is no longer front-page news at many leading newspapers which put stories of the latest U.S. case on the inside of Tuesday's editions.

One exception was financial newspaper The Wall Street Journal, which ran a one-paragraph notice of the story in its "What's News" summary of important items on page 1 and carried the story on page 2.

The move off the front pages appears to support the U.S. beef industry's claims that consumers are not as concerned as they had been that the disease is a threat to the food supply. Also, the industry claims that as consumers learn more about the disease they gain confidence in the safety measures being taken.

USA Today ran a short story entitled "Agriculture Dept. confirms 3rd case of mad cow" across five columns on page 9 of the front section. It ran a short bird flu story on page 6.

The New York Times ran its mad cow story across five columns on page 19 of the main section, but it had a notice on page 2 that guided readers to the story.

The Chicago Tribune ran its mad cow story as a short one-column story on page 6 in an "Across The Nation" summary.

The Washington Post ran a news service version of the story across the top of page 3 and the Los Angeles Times ran the story across four columns on page 17 of the main section.

I guess the whole "mad cow" buzz is yesterday's news.

I really trust the beef now that the industry says it is safe...not. People's attention span is a God-send for things like this. How unfortunate in the scope of things.

Tags: [mad cow disease], [whatever happened to mad cow disease]