“Junior’s grown a foot since we moved next to the nuclear plant.” That caption appeared under a cartoon depicting a nuclear family — pun intended — standing in the front yard, a steam plume rising from nuclear reactor’s cooling tower in the background. Junior has a foot growing from the top of his head.
It’s a funny cartoon and might even have played some useful role by helping people recognize the unrealistic nature of our nuclear fears. I thought of that old cartoon when I picked up Wednesday’s Herald and read the banner headline, “Trace amounts of radioactive iodine found in Richland water.” No joke, of course, but the it certainly raises the issue of nuclear fears.
The online version of the article attracted a lot of comments, many of them blaming the media for fomenting hysteria. One letter submitted for our print edition clearly states the complaint: “Irresponsible scary reporting by various media has always been the bane of nuclear power and all things radioactive in general. But for the Tri-City Herald to contribute to this sorry practice with their giant headline of April 6 is inexcusable.”
No reasonable person can argue with the contention that irresponsible and scary reporting hasn’t hurt the nuclear industry’s image. Of course it has — but responsible reporting still carries the day. Even after all the focus on Japan’s nuclear crisis, the latest Gallup poll found that 58 percent of Americans think U.S. nuclear power plants are safe.
Whether Wednesday’s headline was inexcusable is another question. The newsroom and opinion section operate separately, so we didn’t have any role in the decision on how to play the story. But in our opinion, there’s a good case for giving the story a prominent spot on the front page.
It was a national story that cried for a local perspective. By the time the Herald was landing on front porches and driveways, most readers had already heard about traces of radioactive iodine in Richland’s drinking water from snippets on radio and TV. It was a national story. I just plugged the words, “Iodine from Japan found in Richland water,” into my Internet search engine — 316,000 hits in 0.21 seconds.
We could have ignored or downplayed the story. Certainly some readers think we should have, given the lack of any health issues associated with the extremely low level of radioactive iodine discovered in the water. The Herald’s news editors decided instead to make sure readers got the straight story. That’s not a bad choice, especially considering that many Tri-Citians likely caught a piece of the story from other media or from friends or neighbors
The only way to read Wednesday’s story and feel frightened by Richland’s tap water, would be to discount the overwhelming evidence presented to the contrary. The media can’t be held responsible for people who dismiss the facts. The best we can offer is a foothold on the truth.
