Blonds get last laugh after media's gaffe - Bad reports cited study predicting extinction of blondes

The New York Times ^ | October 2, 2002 | The New York Times Staff

[MeekOneGOP]

Blonds get last laugh after media's gaffe

Erroneous reports cited study predicting extinction of towheads

10/02/2002

The New York Times

Apparently it fell into the category "too good to check."

On Friday, several British newspapers reported that the World Health Organization had found in a study that blonds would become extinct within 200 years, because blondness was caused by a recessive gene that was dying out. The reports were repeated Friday by anchors for the ABC News program Good Morning America and on Saturday by CNN.

There was only one problem, the health organization said in a prepared statement Tuesday: It had never reported that blonds would become extinct, and it had never done a study on the subject.

"WHO has no knowledge of how these news reports originated," the organization, a Geneva-based agency of the United Nations, announced, "but would like to stress that we have no opinion of the future existence of blonds."

All the news reports in Britain and the United States cited a study from the World Health Organization - "a blonde-shell study," as The Daily Star of London put it. But none reported any scientific details from the study or the names of the scientists involved.

On Good Morning America, Charles Gibson began a conversation with his co-anchor, Diane Sawyer, by saying: "There's a study from the World Health Organization, this is for real, that blonds are an endangered species. Women and men with blond hair, eyebrows and blue eyes, natural blonds, they say will vanish from the face of the Earth within 200 years, because it is not as strong a gene as brunets'."

Jeffrey Schneider, a spokesman for ABC News, said the anchors got the information from an ABC producer in London who said he had read it in a British newspaper.

Journalists in London said the source of the reports was probably one of several news agencies used by the British press, but it remained unclear which one.

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Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/100202dnintblonde2.61359.html

[MeekOneGOP]

Article as posted here on FR:

Blondes 'to die out in 200 years'

[chance33_98]

Can't have a blond thread without a pic!

[Always Right]

The 'study' did not even pass the smell test. Anyone with a 5th grade education abount genetics would know it was phoney. What idiots.

[upchuck]

Smartest lady I've seen in quite a while!!

[anniegetyourgun]

We're here, we're dear, and we aren't leaving anytime soon.

[DBtoo]

Whether it is a phoney study or not, I believe we will die out eventually because blonde hair and blue eyes are not dominant genes, and the vast majority of people on this earth have brown eyes and dark hair. At least people like me won't have to listen to dumb blonde jokes anymore. It gets old. Especially when they laugh in your face and slap their knee afterwards like it was really a great joke and you (the blonde) should be laughing along heartily as well.

[mywholebodyisaweapon]

I think a lot of dark-haired people out there suffer from "blonde envy." (apologies to Freud)

[DBtoo]

I think you need to study up on your genetics a bit. Especially long term effects on populations, especially during periods of heavy migration across the globe like what is occuring now at unprecedented levels.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Blondes 'to die out in 200 years'

Islam would like to speed up the process.

[7thson]

The main point to consider about this piece, is that once again the video media becomes a laughing stock by parrotting what the print media reports. Nobody does investigative journalism.

[Movemout]

Oh, come on. Don't you know we love you? You live in one of the most beautiful states in the union and in the greatest nation in the world. Don't feel picked on; feel proud!

[ZinGirl]

ah-HA!....so I can remove my black armband and stop mourning? (snicker, snicker)

hey, CD....how ya doin'? Didn't want you to miss yet another Blond Update. (I know, I know....you prefer redheads....!!)

[chance33_98]

Especially when they laugh in your face and slap their knee afterwards like it was really a great joke and you (the blonde) should be laughing along heartily as well.

It's because the blonde did not get the joke :)

[Always Right]

I think you need to study up on your genetics a bit. Especially long term effects on populations, especially during periods of heavy migration across the globe like what is occuring now at unprecedented levels.

Excuse me, but I think you need to study up a bit, and explain how the hundred of million blond genes out there are gonna disappear. Shoot, even if you committed genocide against all blonds, there would still be hundred of millions of recessive blond genes out there waiting to reappear.

[jpthomas]

In related news, a new political party was formed, called Friends of the Blondes, and announced that their platform would be the Save Our Blondes campaign, "to preserve these proud, magnificent creatures."

To ensure the survival of the breed, the Friends of the Blondes announced that they would attempt to interact with blondes to detail their mating habits, plumage, migration patterns and mating call ("What's your salary?").

[OldBlondBabe]

I'm blonde, blue eyes. Hubby has brown hair and eyes. Obviously, he has a gene for blonde (or red) hair and blue eyes (his dad had red hair and blue eyes) becauseall three of our children have blonde hair, 2 have blue eyes, the other brown. (If I remember from H.S. science, blonde is dominant over red) Anyway, seems to me, we had a 50/50 chance of having either, yet we ended up with 3 for 3.

[WilliamWallace1999]

I think you need to study up on your genetics a bit. Especially long term effects on populations, especially during periods of heavy migration across the globe like what is occuring now at unprecedented levels.

No, you need to study up a bit. Migration and mixing may reduce the incidence of gene expression, but will not reduce the number of carriers for the recessive genes. Cystic fibrosis is also an autosomal recessive trait and the individuals with the disease are frequently infertile. Despite the inability of the homozygous individuals to reproduce, the recessive allele has not "died out". This story did not pass the freshman biology smell test.

[DBtoo]

You have to think on a large scale. The percentage of blondes on the earth has already decreased during the past several centuries. Recessive genes do show up, but the sheer number of dominant genes will eventually breed out the blondes, although a few may continue to pop up. It also depends on our future such as potential wars, plagues, and higher/lower child birth rates which will strike certain ethnic groups more than others.

I'm sure the death of the Jews in WW2 has had a similar effect on the present number of Jews in the world today, and that probably helped to decrease their numbers forever as a result. Not that they will go extinct, but it sure put a dent in their potential population.

[DBtoo]

Thankyou Movemout!! I like you!

[DBtoo]

No, it's because they are dumb jokes!! I guess they mean well, I think.