I know that it's often rather eye-rolling to see controversial political advocacy, but I'd really recommend checking out what Fareed Zakaria has to say in this report. I think he does a good job of putting the issue into context. I don't think he goes far enough in terms of alleviating concerns over the Fukushima accident, nor in supporting the idea of clean nuclear energy, but he's one of the first Western reporters covering the story that I've been able to nod my head with.
For the last week I've been in quiet despair over the baseless fearmongering and sometimes stark racism that seemed to afflict Western media covering the disasters in Japan. Some of my favorite news agencies - ProPublica, NYT and NPR among them - were not unaffected by this seeming free-for-all of dire speculation that has caused so much panic. I was glad to see that at least one reporter has managed to retain some level of journalistic reserve and perspective on such an explosive issue.
2 comments:
I trust your journalistic integrity implicitly. Thank you for pointing out this quality reporting.
Thank you for your opinion. As a retired nuclear safety analyst and alternate energy investigator, and basically, engineer, I've been having a hard time with the reporting. There have been few facts, and the TV reporting especially has focused on:
People's fears.
What's the worst that can happen?
Are they lying to us?
Tokyo Power press releases are reduced to a single scary word or element, while context and quantitative elements are omitted (100,000 times normal is not a quantitative phrase; it's a sensational one when unqualified.)
Having seen reporting on several subjects over the years about which I had some knowledge, I have concluded that journalists have a hard time, harder than they are willing to undergo, to report on stories about physical reality.
I have 3 members of my family in some form of journalism, so I've responded to your post because you seem to be concerned about how to get these kinds of things right.
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