Re: 60 minutes - Yucca Mountain

[William V Lipton <liptonw@DTEENERGY.COM>]

It seems that if I say, "The sky is blue." at least 10 people will point out that they've seen a red sky.  Thanx for the BGO!



Obviously, you can always find cases where "no comment" is not the best response.  I didn't say otherwise.  By the most basic rules of PR, the AEC rep should have admitted he did not know anything about the project, but that he would have a knowledgeable person respond.  BTW, if the

reporter insisted on making a fool of himself by making invalid assumptions, that's not the AEC's problem.



Your general thesis, however, bothers me even more.  Let me make sure that I understand this.



Are you saying that, no matter how loaded the question, no matter how biased the reporter, no matter how disadvantageous the circumstances you still have to respond?



In other words:  1.  You can't win.  2.  You have to play.



Not me, thanx.



The opinions expressed are strictly mine.

It's not about dose, it's about trust.

Curies forever.



Bill Lipton

liptonw@dteenergy.com



Arland Carsten wrote:



> 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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