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RE: 60 minutes - Yucca Mountain
For what it is worth, I do not try to get all of my
knowledge of events from one source. I also not
expect the first reporting to be the most accurate,
whether it is a breaking story or a researched piece
as on "60 Minutes." There is always something that is
added, or discovered, or reinterpreted. As Ben
Bradlee said, "News is the rough draft of history."
"60 Minutes" certainly has its place. It gets people
to think and respond. It certainly has influenced the
people on this list.
--- "George J. Vargo" <vargo@physicist.net> wrote:
> Mike is absolutely correct. 60 Minutes is
> entertainment and NOT news. That
> said, I think that they have contributed
> significantly to public discourse
> in this country, sometimes for good, sometimes not.
> The 60 Minutes
> producers know what buttons to push to get public
> reaction and do their job
> very well. Some of their stories on topics such as
> flawed or faulty
> consumer products may have even saved some lives by
> getting unsafe products
> out of the marketplace. Other stories are,
> admittedly, just gonzo
> journalism.
>
> Yes, I remember the moral outrage that I felt when
> they attacked nuclear
> power in the 1980s. Oh the inaccuracies!
>
> I try to put some emotional distance between the
> stories -- and remember
> that -- they're just stories -- someone's personal
> synthesis of observation
> processed through their own beliefs and biases.
>
> Personally, I've found some of the recent stories
> about lapses and
> vulnerabilities in homeland security, civil rights
> violations against
> naturalized citizens from unpopular countries, and
> other alleged excesses of
> government, to be timely, thought-provoking and
> certainly worthy of public
> attention. I still reserve the right to exercise my
> remote!
>
> George J. Vargo, Ph.D., CHP
> Senior Scientist
> MJW Corporation
> http://www.mjwcorp.com
> 610-925-3377
> 610-925-5545 (fax)
> vargo@physicist.net
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
> [mailto:owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu] On Behalf
> Of Stabin, Michael
> Sent: Monday, November 03, 2003 7:57 AM
> To: RuthWeiner@AOL.COM; RADSAFE
> Subject: RE: 60 minutes - Yucca Mountain
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: RuthWeiner@AOL.COM
> >
> > It's impossible to know what was edited out....
> > Because I am very familiar with the project, I
> recognize the
> > bias and distortion in the program. It makes me
> wonder about
> > the 60 minutes and similar programs for which I am
> not so
> > familiar with the subject matter. Are they really
> biased
> > also? I think they probably are.
>
> For the most part, yes. I stopped watching 60
> Minutes in the early 1980's
> when they did a piece on safety issues and cost
> overruns at an Illinois (I
> think) nuclear plant. Officials from the plant
> videotaped along with the 60
> Minutes crew, and they later circulated a tape
> showing the gross distortions
> that were due to film left on the cutting room
> floor. I realized then that I
> could not trust anything on that show that I DIDN'T
> know about intimately,
> since something I did know something about was so
> badly distorted, for
> political or entertainment purposes (or both). I
> watched a journalists'
> roundtable some years later in which a journalism
> scholar pointed out that
> these shows are indeed strictly entertainment, and
> should not be considered
> news in any form. Mike Wallace was surprised and
> upset by the opinion of a
> man he obviously respected, but could not refute his
> point.
>
> 60 Minutes also did a terrible hatchet job on
> someone I knew personally, a
> nuclear medicine physician from Oak Ridge of very
> high moral character and
> professional excellence, during the Clinton/O'Leary
> investigations into
> human uses of radiation in the 1940's and 1950's.
> The piece was
> reprehensible, and I heard several reports from ORAU
> employees of the
> rudeness of the 60 Minutes staff, particularly
> Leslie Stahl. It was amusing,
> however, when they asked employees to duct tape
> plastic over the air vents
> leading into one of the rooms near the old whole
> body irradiator at ORAU, in
> case any "old radiation" was still drifting around
> in there.
>
> Mike
>
>
> Michael G. Stabin, PhD, CHP
> Assistant Professor of Radiology and Radiological
> Sciences
> Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences
> Vanderbilt University
> 1161 21st Avenue South
> Nashville, TN 37232-2675
> Phone (615) 343-0068
> Fax (615) 322-3764
> Pager (615) 835-5153
> e-mail michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu
> internet www.doseinfo-radar.com
>
>
>
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=====
+++++++++++++++++++
"One test result is worth one thousand expert opinions."
Wernher von Braun
-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail: crispy_bird@yahoo.com
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