Media Bashing Without a License

[BFLOOD@SLAC.Stanford.EDU (Bob Flood)]

We have seen much criticism of our free press, the criticism being well
presented and well deserved. Nevertheless, we are stuck with one unshakable
principle: in a free enterprise system, bad news is big business, and good
news won't sell newspapers or advertising space. I have come to a personal
conclusion that there are more reporters than news, which only serves to
enhance the competition to "develop" stories that are more attention-getting
than your competitors'.

Howvere, this is getting us nowhere. The press is a subset of that general
amalgamation called the public, and the press received the same education in
physics as that 'public.' As was well stated earlier, we are each
knowledgable in our specialty, as is most everyone else. Why should a civil
engineer (an oxymoron?) know anything about health physics any more than I
should understand civil engineering? The flaw is that technical issues in
civil engineering are not decided by political consensus, whereas our issues
are. Unless someone knows of way to change that, we best find a way to
improve the knowledge of the public, or learn to accept the public consensus.

Speculation, personal type: the ABC piece was on the subject of the 'nuclear
bomb squad' and the LANL stuff with the plutonium was just an intro. I
suspect that DOE wanted to publicize the squad (it is appropriation time,
after all), and the unprecedented LANL tour/access may have been the price
they had to pay to interest ABC. Maybe?
Bob Flood
Unless otherwise noted, all opinions are mine alone.
(415) 926-3793
bflood@slac.stanford.edu