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Re: 60 minutes - Yucca Mountain
Ruth,
After seeing your note about "no comment" to a reporter (which I agree with) I would add a note about an experience with reporters and "no comment". In the late 50's Elda Anderson and I were asked by the AEC to visit several cities and try to drum up interest in the AEC Radiological
Physics Fellowship program. Elda was in charge of the Oak Ridge part of the program while I had the same duties at Brookhaven. The AEC would pay the travel expenses for a science faculty member from colleges or universities in the area to meet with us. The AEC would also have a
representative at the whole day meeting.
After the meeting there would be a press conference (no TV in those days). At a press conference in Texas a reporter asked the AEC rep (who was a young man filling in for the first time), "I heard that the AEC has a program to get the energy out of one cubic yard of sea water and they
light a city of 50,000". The young man responded "I can't really comment on that" meaning he was not a physicist and knew nothing about any such program. Later that evening the three of use came back to the hotel and in the lobby was a newspaper rack with the "Early Bird Edition"
which had their "Red Banner Headline" across the top of the front page printed in red ink, "AEC OFFICIAL ADMITS "HUSH-HUSH" PROGRAM", complete with a picture.
Needless to say the young man on his first trip was in a panic. I called our AEC contact, waking him up at his home in DC, warning him to be ready for calls from the news services. When the calls came, an answer was ready, but we learned about a hazard of saying "no comment".
Red
Arland (Red) Carsten, Ph. D., CHP
carsten@bnl.gov
RuthWeiner@AOL.COM wrote:
> Re "No comment." I learned in my very first contact with a reporter, about 30 years ago, that when one says "no comment," that is reported, as in "Dr. Weiner had no comment." When this follows several column inches (or TV minutes) of diatribe, you can imagine what the effect is.
>
> Ruth
>
> --
> Ruth F. Weiner
> ruthweiner@aol.com
> 505-856-5011
> (o)505-284-8406
>
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