CNN's Africanized "Killer" Bees Tolerance Roadtrip Backfires Tragically

 

September 1, 2010

  

CNN has decided to take on the task of helping people learn about and be more tolerant to Africanized "Killer" bees.  One way to do that was send a journalist and a photographer on a roadtrip with two beekeepers who had planned to visit 30 hives in 30 states on some kind of "dare."  However, I don’t think CNN expected that the only hive they would end up visiting would have such a strong aversion to them stopping by for tea.

The "tolerance tour" is part of a series of "tolerance tours" CNN is promoting to try and bolster their horribly sagging ratings. The bee-tolerance roadtrip follows on the heels of the equally unsuccessful "Mosque-Tolerance" road trip that, incidentally, only served to spark a general jihad fatwa upon all "unbelieving" Americans.

  

Amateur beekeepers Ricky Cresswell and Drake Shatzer decided they would blog about their planned 30 hive visit to teach people that furious Africanized bee attacks aren't how they're portrayed in the media.

Unfortunately, they are exactly how they are portrayed in the media.

Just seconds from disaster. The hive of Africanized "Killer" bees in New Mexico visited by CNN's "Tolerance Tour" (photo courtesy of Faces of Death XXVII)

  

We’re trying to mollify the bigoted Killerbeeophobia that Americans seem to have and give them a three-dimensional experience of what Africanized bees are really like. – Ricky

CNN interviewed the duo in Atlanta and decided to go on the first leg of the journey with the two men.  The two beekeepers and the two guys from CNN all were convinced they’d see a lot of fear and prejudice against the bees from anyone within miles of a hive, and they were right. But true to their mission of tolerance, they ignored the impassioned warnings of locals and area natural resources officials.

We see this huge, massive hive in a tree and Ricky went right up to it to say hello to the bees. Sadly, I never got to tell Ricky how much I always appreciated his friendship. - Drake

The firemen and EMT's who were standing by could only watch in petrified horror as the bees, obviously misunderstanding the beekeeper's tolerant intentions, greeted him in the way that any reasonable, clear-thinking American would expect them to.

Beekeeper Ricky Cresswell (1949 - 2010)

  

CNN is currently in the process of filming their next tolerance-tour, the "30 Rabid Raccoons in 30 days" junket.

We would give you a project update, but for unknown reasons no one has heard from the crew or the varmint-whisperers involved for some days.