48 HOURS BINGE

[Jerry D Mead]

Don't know if you saw the awful episode of CBS' 48 Hours titled "Binge" last night, but it was an unwavering anti-alcohol diatribe with zero balance. The attached is a note I posted to 48 Hours on the Internet:

I'm 30 minutes into the episode titled "Binge." Absolutely zero balance. Not one wine, beer or spirits industry spokesperson, no one from the retail or hospitality industries, no interviews with moderate, responsible drinkers and no quotes from journalists specializing in the subject. You even included a girl who fell 6 stories to her death, with admittedly way below legal intoxication level and who was on drugs, with the implication that the alcohol was responsible. An unbelievablly irresponsible report that might have been scripted by one anti-alcohol fanatic group or another...certainly not by unbiased reporters.

Shame on CBS. Shame on 48 Hours. Knowing the flaws in this episode, I will never watch 48 Hours again with quite the same reliability as in the past.

Jerry D. Mead
Publisher & Editor
The Wine Trader magazine
Author, Syndicated column, Mead On Wine
Box 1598
Carson City, NV 89702
(800) 845-9463
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E-mail: winetrader@aol.com