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'Tis the season for trend stories, and Santa's struggle against H1N1 could be the gift that keeps giving for local news channels. Some mall Santas' unions have asked that their members be put on the federal government priority list for swine flu vaccine thanks to their frequent contact with children, but it hasn't happened yet. As one Wisconsin channel put it, "as opposed to coming down the chimney flue, it's coming down with swine flu." (more...)

So it's Halloween, and you don't have a costume. You were going to be Kanye West, but the friend you were counting on to be your Taylor Swift got swine flu at the last minute. Then, it was going to be Sarah Palin, until you remembered that that's what you were last year. Then, you were going to dress up as Balloon Boy, but you realized that all of your friends, neighbors, and extended family members were planning to as well. What to do?

Fortunately, Mediaite has come up with some costume suggestions for you. Pulled straight from the headlines, these are guaranteed to be hits:

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Is Smashing Pumpkins lead singer Billy Corgan trying to get into politics or perhaps auditioning for a leadership role in a right-wing conspiracy group? Because judging by the current political temperature his latest blog post might make for a quick entree into the world of birthers and death panelists. That said, one supposes it was only a matter of time before someone made the leap from Glenn Beck's sort of assertion that the Government is looking to create swine flu concentration camps to the idea that swine flu is part of some Barack Obama conspiracy. This from Corgan's blog. (more...)

Has Matt Drudge stumbled upon the Mayan code for the rumored upcoming 2012 apocalypse? A quick click on this morning's Drudge Report might lead you to think so. (Plus, if there was such a code, Drudge no doubt, would be an early adopter). Alas, no. Today's ominous, numerical headline is actually Drudge's way of letting us know that over the weekend the President declared the swine flu outbreak to be a national emergency. Meaning, one supposes, that H1N1 is the new 9/11? Or just that the country needs to call 911. Probably the latter, come to think of it. From the somewhat less than apocalyptic article. (more...)

exclusive It happened to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta. It may have happened to Anderson Cooper. After a summer of Celebrity Swine Flu Watch, Mediaite has learned Fox News White House correspondent Major Garrett is the latest reporter to contract the H1N1 virus, or Swine Flu. (more...)

Though the Power Grid is often a lesson in maintaining influence over time (see: Anna Wintour), due to its automated algorithm, movement in the ranks can often be traced directly to a piece of news or media event. In this sense, it serves as a barometer for any given category, and it's not the movement that is interesting in and of itself, but the reasons behind it. (more...)

It's no secret that we're obsessed with competition and we get our kicks from big movement on the Power Grid. Recently sickness has been responsible for much of the movement in the rankings, as Dr. Sanjay Gupta -- who recently announced he had swine flu -- jumped from #12 to #4 in the rankings among TV pundits, with his Google buzz peaking at #1. The third search result? "I went to Afghanistan and all I got was H1N1." (more...)

Yesterday we reported how CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joined a growing and star-studded flu victims list, including MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, Rupert Grint, and most recently, goth rocker Marilyn Manson, who shared his diagnosis Monday through a MySpace blog post. During last night's episode of AC360, host Anderson Cooper raised the Swine Flu bar by realizing that he had the H1N1 virus live on air! (more...)

This morning, CNN chief medical correspondent (and onetime candidate for Surgeon General) Dr. Sanjay Gupta revealed that he had H1N1, better known as swine flu. The high-profile doctor joins a star-studded flu victims list, including MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films, and most recently, goth rocker Marilyn Manson, who shared his diagnosis Monday through a MySpace blog post. (more...)

In case you haven’t already been informed by your television via the countless commercials for half priced Old Navy denim or extra durable Five Star notebooks, it's back to school time kids! And along with the annual advertisements from companies trying to hawk everything from butter to laundry detergent with a “back to school slant," looks like the H1N1 flu virus has also got a sneaky publicist on its side. The H1N1 flu virus, or swine flu, seems to have had a more up and down and up again career than Britney Spears in the past six months. (more...)

It's been a rainy summer in New York, but so far there's been a drought of news this August. Aside from the health care debate and the bad behavior it's spawned, it's slim pickins. According to The Guardian, even "silly stories" about sharks, dubious surveys, and animals with prosthetic limbs have been in short supply. What can the media do when there's either not much to talk about or nobody's paying attention? Get people scared about the weather! (more...)

Want to protect yourself from Swine Flu? A deep-cleansing enema might be you best option -- that is, if you get your health advice from Arianna Huffington's network of friends/bloggers. According to HuffPo blogger Kim Evans:

t's my understanding that many people who took regular enemas instead of vaccines during the 1918 pandemic made it out on the other side as well ... That said, my opinion is that the most effective cleanses involve enemas or colonics to get in there and physically clean out the filth.

This is just one piece of HuffPo "health advice" scrutinized by Salon’s Vital Signs columnist Rahul K. Parikh yesterday in “The Huffington Post is crazy about your health.” In addition to disapproving of this method of flu prevention ("This is not exactly first-line advice on influenza prevention...Evans' notion contradicts basic germ theory"), he isn't a fan of much else in the way of HuffPo's health content.  Parikh takes a close, critical look at the site's Living section, and notices that: (more...)