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I looked at the article yesterday at length, and
really hope the reporter enjoyed the travel, at least there might be some
benefit to somebody from this piece of tabloid journalism. Article
headline: " Mystery illness found near nuclear facilities".
Today the Santa Fe New Mexican (not a
conservative paper, to say the least!) printed the article from the AP wire, but
it did mention that roughly 4 million people live within a 50 mile radius of the
sites mentioned! I don't recall seeing this on the TN paper webpage.
Either: I missed it (not implausible), it wasn't on the website copy, or it was
added by AP. There was still the same scarry language and misleading
quotations, but real numbers were used, and within a few paragraphs of the
beginning, not at the very end. (3rd paragraph - ..."The 410 people
are not a scientific sampling and represent only a tiny percentage of the
overall number of people who live near or work at the plants.").
So anyway, it appears that some facts are
available. Of course, I suppose it's up to the editors of individual
papers to select the number of facts to use (or abuse).
Brian Rees
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