Public opinion about national or international crises, concerning political, economic or health issues, is often shaped accurately or inaccurately by the news media. The recent Ebola epidemic affecting West African countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea among others is a case in point. In his recent article “Six Reasons to Panic,” published in The Weekly Standard, Jonathan Last observes that perhaps the panic alert portrayed in the media should not be taken lightly.1 He cites six reasons to support his assertion. These reasons are summarized below.
The first reason the author cites is that knowledge of how ...
