"Foreign Minister Nyan Win told foreign diplomats at a briefing that the death toll could reach 10,000, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was held behind closed doors."
That is the lead AP/AOL paragraph on the cyclone in the country which used to be known as Burma.
You should read the above several times, because it is a perfect example of the "shock and awe" created by modern journalism. You have to simply marvel at the monumental STUPIDITY (if not actual evil) of the despicable Associated Press. I am reminded again of George Carlin's satiric bit about how he ROOTS for a rising death toll in natural disasters (a clear satire on the MEDIA OBSESSION with "death tolls", and with SPECULATION on same).
Even for the despicable AP, the above quoted paragraph is breathtaking. They used ANONYMOUS SOURCES to bootstrap into SPECULATION on the "death toll". Remember the DISGRACEFUL "reporting" on New Orleans, after Katrina, where the media trumpeted the mayor of New Orleans "predicting" that the death toll might be "up to" 10,000 (off by only an order of magnitude--factor of 10--as the death toll was about 1,000).
This encouragement/"reporting" of blatant SPECULATIOIN on "death tolls" truly is stupid/evil stuff. If you don't realize this, you are not paying attention.
P.S. It does not matter if the actual death toll ends up at 1,000, 10,000 or 15,000. "Journalism" should NOT be about SPECULATION. Journalism should be about FACTS, and should cut through hysteria, rather than being the mains ource and/or enabler of hysteria. No one has any real idea of the "death toll" in Burma, beyond the fact that a lot of people have died. It is absolute SUTPIDITY to suggest that filling this void with SPECULATION is the way to make up for a lack of actual facts.
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