Bad Journalism Wall of Shame
Japan got hit by a magnitude 9 quake, then followed by a terrible tsunami of +10 meters causing an havoc and destruction on a scale too difficult to imagine. Yet the bulk of the focus and on the Japan coverage went to a nuclear plant, one of the older ones operating in Japan and the only one having problems. And even that one considering the double whammy far exceeding the design specifications, 7 times larger insofar the quake was and almost twice as high for the subsequent tsunami, behaved surprisingly well: with timely automatic shutdown, battery operated pumps doing their service till they ran out.
What followed was a set of events no doubt played out by a prepared action list with operators struggling to first prevent damage to the installation, then to limit the scope of the accident. So far they are doing a terrific job considering the general chaos the natural disaster had caused around them. Certainly it can be done better and lessons will be learned & propagated to other installations, but the media’s portrayal of this event is clearly lacking. Most people don’t understand radiation, their apocalyptic fears are way blown out of proportion. The media instead of making use of this fear to capture most readers, should instead educate.
That means no articles without at least an expert’s opinion. And by expert I mean someone with an actual degree in nuclear physics instead of Greenpeace facilitators specialized in nuclear criticism whose credentials are a BA from Wageningen Agricultural University in environmental communication sciences. Come one BBC sure you have higher standards and can do better! I would have also expected Greenpeace to do better, but I’ve long lost faith in honesty of their organization.
And btw when you have an expert, don’t try to downplay the voice of reason with with linguistic butchery. Watch the headlines and stop comparing to Chernobyl. By the way when Chernobyl happened the constant fear-mongering had caused a spike of tens of thousands of voluntary abortions in Western Europe as documented by latter medical journals. Experts agree that all of these were unnecessary … just in case you thought shabby journalistic practices have no lasting effects.
Andrew Woolner, a long time resident in Japan, took similar outrage a bit further and started to a list with all instances of subpar reporting in recent days:
This Wall of Shame is being assembled by various people, many of whom are on the ground in Japan as residents, not temporarily assigned journalists, who are sick of the sensationalist, overly speculative, and just plain bad reporting that has gone on since the Tohoku quake in Japan last Friday (March 11). We feel that contacting each and every publication and reporter every time a bad report shows up is not effective, and it is our sincere hope that this will encourage journalists to aspire to a higher (some would say minimal) level of responsibility in their reports. If you would like to add a report of your own, feel free.
Take of your nuclear glasses and observe & report on the very real human suffering caused by nature!
