[ RadSafe ] 60 Minutes Feature on Hanford last night

[Dick Dubiel]

I did not see the 60 Minutes feature on Hanford, but read with skepticism the messages posted on Radsafe. Having lived through 60 Minutes features (I was the RPM at Three Mile Island during the accident) as well as other media productions, I understand their approach. Truth and reasonableness are not the objective of the news magazine reports that are developed. The objective, or the message that is targeted, is pre-defined. Interviews are conducted with both audio and video of the interviewer and interviewee, but rarely together. Sound bites from the interviewer can be used anywhere in the final footage. Typically an answer to the interviewer's question is shown without the original question, but following a question posed differently to an "expert" with an alarmist's attitude. The result is a program that gets across the message intended by the producers while intelligent, dedicated and competent scientists and engineers are made to look foolish. I haven't watched a TV news magazine program from any network since 1980. I have reason to disbelieve every story that is produced. I have recently taken the time to be interviewed for a documentary on TMI that was originally presented as an unbiased documentary. Following the interview, I was asked to sign a release form. I specified that the network (PBS) could use footage only if I had the opportunity to review it before it was aired. None of my four hour interview was ever used. If any of you remember the program from a few years back, it was simply another alarmist presentation on the evils of nuclear power. Mike Nichols (I think that was his name), the author of the "China Syndrome", got the most air time.

Without seeing the program, I can still feel for the management and staff at Hanford for the way they are portrayed in the write up. I can imagine it was no better on TV.

Richard W. Dubiel, CHP
Millennium Services, Inc.