Just days after we posted an article on the dangers of pharmaceuticals vs. terrorism, London was hit by a terrorist attack that left 37 dead and hundreds more wounded. Headlines around the world are ablaze with news of the event. National leaders are adamant in their efforts to track down and punish those responsible. Law enforcement resources are being mobilized on a global scale in an effort to avenge the deaths of these 37 Londoners.
Meanwhile, in the United States, over 270 people died the very same day. They didn't die from terrorist bombs or fiery explosions. They didn't die as a group, all huddled together in one location. They didn't bleed externally, they bled to death internally. They died silently, in their beds, or chairs, or hospital rooms. They died individually, and often alone. But they all had one thing in common: they were killed by prescription drugs approved as "safe" by the FDA.
This very day, "safe" prescription drugs killed 270 people in the United States, and there's not a peep from the press. There are no resources whatsoever devoted to finding out who's responsible for these deaths. There are no news reporters covering this tragedy. No flashy headlines. No images on the evening news of screaming people running in fear.
Now, before you whip out your keyboard and start to write me hate mail for daring to compare terrorism to pharmaceuticals, let me explain why this comparison is worth your attention. I agree it is despicable that people exist who would plant explosives for no purpose other than the killing of civilians. Any act of such violence and lack of regard for the value of human life is beyond reproach, even in a time of war.
And yet it is, in a different way, also despicable that we have a national press that would seize upon the suffering of these people as a way to sell more newspapers... or more air time... or more news magazines. I remember news networks bragging about their viewership ratings following the 9/11 events, and there's little doubt that many news organizations are salivating right now at the prospect of revisiting the tabloid days of 9/11 journalism. You can just hear them saying, "Finally, some real disasters to cover, with great video footage to boot!"
You see, the 100,000 or so annual deaths caused in the United States by prescription drugs don't result in jaw-dropping news footage. No explosions, no gory carnage, no body parts to put on television following a "viewer discretion" warning.
Yet when the national media fails to cover this story, it insults the value of life for the victims of Big Pharma. Apparently, lives are only newsworthy when they are ended in fiery explosions, but not if they die silently in bed as victims of an overzealous pharmaceutical industry that continues to knowingly promote dangerous drugs using unethical (if not outright fraudulent) marketing practices.
So for those who might argue that by me making this comparison, I don't value the lives of the victims of terrorists in London, I beg to differ. I am one of the FEW who places equal value on human life, regardless of how they were lost.
I think the life of a person killed by prescription drugs is no less valuable than the life of a person killed by a bomb. The mainstream media, on the other hand, only believes that lives are worth covering if they were ended in a shocking way... usually one that can be edited into a single eye-popping moment that keeps viewers glued to their TV sets.
I also believe that the number of victims killed by the pharmaceutical industry continues to mount at a rate that dwarfs all those killed by terrorism in both the U.S. and the U.K. Here in the United States, we are losing 270 souls EVERY DAY. That's like seven U.K. bombing attacks every day, day after day, week after week, year after year.
It's a chemical war on the American people. And the victims are no less real (and no less human) than those killed by collapsing buildings, exploding jetliners, or bus bombs. It's sad to say it, but any terrorist group would be hard-pressed to out-kill the highly corrupt drug industry in this country. They'd have to kill 100,000 a year, and keep on killing them year after year, with no decline whatsoever, to match the fatalities caused by FDA-approved prescription drugs.
Think about it: each year, we lose twice as many Americans to prescription drugs as died in the entire Vietnam War. It's a war going on, but it's a silent war, so it gets no coverage. Meanwhile, you the viewer have been directed to focus on the things the national media wants you to focus on: big explosions and "acts of terror" that can be exploited to politically justify practically any military action in retaliation... including actions that ultimately kill thousands of times as many innocent civilians in other countries.
You know why plane crashes, terrorist bombs, and high-rise fires get lots of media attention? Because they sell newspapers and attract more viewers.
You know why quiet deaths from prescription drugs and gastrointestinal bleeding from over-the-counter drugs never make the evening news? Because there are no pictures to show. Just another dead body produced by organized medicine. That's not news, apparently.
The mainstream media apparently believes that people dying are boring. It's when people die in a horrifying way that suddenly all these lives are worth covering, it seems. And to me, the behavior of the media is so absolutely disgusting that I don't know how these news reporters sleep at night. They're covering whatever gets ratings, not what's truly important to people. To them, the Michael Jackson trial and the London bombings are all equally "good news" because both events sell lots of newspapers. It's truly sick.
They claim to be covering the terrorist events in London because those events are important. "People died!" they say. Yes, people died. And it is indeed an extremely sad loss of life for all those who were killed. At the same time, people are dying every day, in much larger numbers, all around the world, from the toxic side effects of prescription drugs.
Are those people not worth remembering? Are their deaths not worth investigating? Are these people to be written off merely because they bled to death internally (from painkillers) rather than externally (from bombs)?
For those who say how dare I compare terrorism to pharmaceuticals, I say, "How dare you consider these lives worthless and unworthy of news coverage just because they died quietly." I think the mainstream media is part of a great injustice taking place right now, an injustice that allows the ongoing operation of a system of medicine that kills a hundred thousand Americans each year, and yet goes virtually unreported.
In London, there were crimes committed against human beings. Yet in the pharmaceutical industry, crimes are being committed against all of humanity. Both are deplorable. Both deserve an investigation. And the lives of all such victims -- whether they died in an explosion or died from a stroke caused by anti-inflammatory drugs -- deserve equal respect.
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health researcher, author and award-winning journalist with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He has authored more than 1,800 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, and he has published numerous courses on preparedness and survival, including financial preparedness, emergency food supplies, urban survival and tactical self-defense. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2010, Adams created TV.NaturalNews.com, a natural living video sharing site featuring thousands of user videos on foods, fitness, green living and more. He's also the CEO of a highly successful email newsletter software company that develops software used to send permission email campaigns to subscribers. Adams is currently the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and enjoys outdoor activities, nature photography, Pilates and martial arts training. Known on the 'net as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission statements and personal health statistics at www.HealthRanger.org
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Thursday, July 07, 2005
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