The Day the Journalists Ran (Japan Crisis)

[Bonobo]

http://neojaponisme.com/2011/04/07/the-day-the-journalists-ran/

The pair go on to describe a breathless report by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, which (by very nature of being in English) undoubtedly wasn’t seen by many locals. It took place just after Cooper learned about the second hydrogen explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi complex.

In a live back-and-forth with a nuclear expert back in the studio in America, Cooper peppered his fellow reporters with questions like “How far are we from Fukushima?” and “Which way is the wind blowing?” Upon hearing that he was more than 100 kilometers distant from the Fukushima reactors, he exclaimed “Then shouldn’t we get out of here?” Whether he was doing this in order to build a sense of drama, or out of sincere apprehension, we don’t know. But what is clear is that he made no attempt to calmly ascertain the facts of the situation, and in so doing needlessly fanned the fears of the audience.
Even the most well meaning attempts to frame the situation often came off as clueless, according to Yokota and Yamada.

Some lost their intellects along with their cool. <...> Even going so far as to delve into stereotyping. <...> When the 800 original nuclear workers were reduced to 50, the Western media quickly dubbed them “The Fukushima 50” and praised their valor. But this also proved fertile ground for prejudicial references. England’s Sky News called them “Nuclear Ninja” and “Samurai,” while the famed German paper BILD referred to the JSDF helicopters dropping water on the plants as “kamikaze.” At first glance this sort of reporting might seem harmless, but it isn’t.

The pair reasons that these “racist” stereotypes aren’t just sloppy reporting. They draw attention from the people who are truly suffering: the actual victims of the tsunami. Effectively the predicament of the victims has been made secondary. Little has been reported about those who are desperately searching for their families, the lack of adequate medical care for the elderly who make up the majority of refugees, or the economic impact of the disasters.

[Art_from_Ark]

1. "Sloppy reporting" is putting it mildly

I've all but given up on finding real news in the American news media. I keep telling people here that the average level of American "journalism" is somewhere below the level of the average Japanese "sports newspaper" :puke:

On the positive side, NHK has been running a series this week about what tsunami/earthquake refugees need and want (and related information), college students and others have collaborated in creating a name/shelter database and posting it on the Internet to reunite families, and American donors alone have contributed over $120 million to the AMerican Red Cross's Japan Disaster Relief Fund.

From what I hear, medical care is still a problem. Some organizations are resorting to busing elderly people to unaffected areas in hopes of getting them medical attention there.

As for the economic impact, it's got to be big, but I don't think that anyone at this point really has a clue about how big it's going to be. Loss of livelihoods for farmers and fishermen, whole towns wiped out economically, damaged factories shut down (and I know the manager of one such factory), loss of electricity generating capacity, costs for starting up new power plants, the list goes on and on...

[Bonobo]

2. On the other hand, the Japanese media was covering up the Shibuya Eggman nuclear facility...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/15/fox-news-japan-map-nightclub-nuclear_n_835840.html



:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Art_from_Ark]

3. Not exactly the most authoritative map, is it?

Maybe tomorrow after work, I'll go visit the Shibuya Eggman facility

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl: