[ RadSafe ] How to contest tilted reporting? An endless battle that must be fought.

[dckosloff at firstenergycorp.com]

Fellow crusaders for truth and justice,

I would be happy if reporting were merely tilted.

Punishing the messenger is entirely appropriate and is often beneficial to
mankind, IF the messenger is a lying scoundrel and the punishment is in
response to the scandalous lies.  But it is seldom easy.  The See BS
scandal related to the forged documents that Dan Rather used to influence
an election is an example of how a messenger may be punished.  A more
current example is the attempt to discipline District Attorney Nifong.
There is no longer any need to purchase newspapers or popular magazines.
Neither is there any need to attempt to gather news from radios or
televisions.  The internet has opened a new frontier for truth.  Now, the
only time that I use any of the old "news" sources is to keep my anger at
the appropriate simmering temperature, usually by briefly viewing "news"
objects or devices that others have purchased.  It doesn't take much.

When it comes to scientific or technical issues almost no "reporters" are
interested in facts.  Few have the capability to digest technical facts and
they learned in college to despise people seeking technical knowledge.
Few "reporters" are as intelligent or rational as the vast majority of
those who pursue a degree in technical fields.  "Reporters" in training and
those who train "reporters" know that and that is part of the reason that
they vehemenantly despise scientists and engineers.  I first read an
explanation for that in the Washington Monthly, a political publication
that was classically liberal in a few respects.  A few years later, while I
was an NRC resident inspector at Davis-Besse, I had some first-hand
experiences in attempting to communicate with reporters.  One example
occured when a thermal sleeve broke off.  I mentioned that some
metallurgists would be evaluating the causes and responses to the incident.
The reporter was astounded to discover that there were people called
metallurgists who focused their talents on the study of the properties of
metals. Perhaps she hadn't noticed that many things she encounters in her
life are made of metal.   Or, if she had, she must have assumed that the
various metals just popped out of the earth.  Similar to people in cities
who think that a light switch is a source of electical energy.  Another
time I attempted to explain a valve malfunction with an intern from the
Toledo Blade.  The problem was that first I had to get her to understand
what a valve was and how a valve functioned.  I spoke with her for about 90
minutes.  Then later that night, her editor called me at home to go over
some aspects of her story.  The result was an article the next morning that
was pathetic.

Don Kosloff,
Former anti-nuke and current nuclear licensing engineer
Beaver PA and Bedford OH



                                                                           
             <jjcohen at prodigy.                                             
             net>                                                          
             Sent by:                                                   To 
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             adlab.nl                  <ksparth at yahoo.co.uk>, "Bernard L.  
                                       Cohen" <blc+ at pitt.edu>, "Roger      
                                       Helbig" <rhelbig at california.com>    
             02/07/2007 09:11                                           cc 
             PM                        radsafelist <radsafe at radlab.nl>     
                                                                   Subject 
                                       Re: [ RadSafe ] CNN Gives Asaf      
                                       Durakovic Star Billing How ro       
                                       contest  tilted reporting?          
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           




Maybe it really is futile to "punish the messenger"--- even when the
messenger is a lying scoundrel.



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