Latest Disaster News About Fukushima Accident - Media Coverup?

The foaming at the mouth panic and fear mongering about Fukushima is dying down. The peanut gallery is taking their toys and heading home. The reason why you don't hear much about Fukushima is not because there is a coverup, it's because things are predictable and getting under control.


Now, the worst thing that is going to happen is how people from that area will most likely be discriminated against. I received a few excellent comments from some long time Japan expert friends who are quite knowledgable about Japan, her history and society. I'd like to share their wisdom with you.


The first is from my friend Graham Carpenter who writes:  

The big and real damage to Fukushima from this nuclear accident is how Fukushima will now be known as the radioactive prefecture, and its citizens will be discriminated around the country as if they are mutants. Sort of like how Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims were initially treated. And, of course, this is further accelerated with all the doomsday reports and predictions. 

The second is from Michael Di Stacio who runs the Rock Challenge Japan Charity who adds:

Speaking with children in Fukushima recently. Their fear of being "labelled" like lepers if they come to Tokyo is very real. The Mayor of Tsukuba a few months ago fed the ignorance. But me thinks that the past Hiroshima/Nagasaki mentality of stigma will smear Fukushima for some time ... due to an archaic education system and small, uniformed minds - both the products of an infantile media system and self-serving politicians.

THE FORTUNES - YOU'VE GOT YOUR TROUBLES, I'VE GOT MINE

So thanks to all those morons who were scaremongering and claiming doom. As if these people in Fukushima and Tohoku don't have enough problems of their own without having you clowns (who live hundreds, if not thousands of kilometers away) scaring people by writing and talking about BS.


The good news is these jerks are starting to fade away. Thank god for that.


Also, my hate mail is also decreasing.

The last mail I got (along the lines of claiming that I was a paid agent for the nuclear industry) was from a guy who was several weeks late to a party where I was blasting a guy named Arnie Gundersen for scare mongering and stating ridiculous things about Fukushima and the nuclear accident problem in Japan. The last article that I had written bashing Gundersen, entitled, "Radioactive Air Filters in Cars?" was written on June 16th, 2011 about Arnie's nonsense claims of car air filters in Tokyo being found with dangerous levels of "Hot Spot" radiation that will surely kill us all but couldn't be detected with a Geiger counter. That post was penned in mid-June.... 

The anonymous reader finally got around to reading that story (at least three weeks late) and wrote to me yesterday on July 6, 2011. His letter is funny in a conspiratorial sort of way. I laughed. I hope you get a chuckle out of it too. The guy jumps right into it when he comments:

"At this point, calling Gundersen names puts you in good company...every other nuclear official/scientist (all bought off by the industry) that said nuclear containment issues were a zero percent probability."

Ha! Ha! laughable. "Every other nuclear official/scientist"!? Oh really? EVERY!? All of them? This guy sounds just like Gundersen. They're both just like the child who begs mom for a new toy "because everyone has one!" They are also like the rest of these people (like Global warming alarmists, Swine Flu, Bird Flu, etc.) who always say the end of the world is upon us. They make these wild claims and yet fail to back them up with names or links (remember when "they" said that "2,500 of the word's top scientist agree about man-made Global Warming"? Ha!). 

OK, anonymous reader, name one of these "Every other nuclear official/scientist" (who aren't in the pocket of the nuclear industry) please. It's heartening to know that Gundersen stands like the rock of Gibraltar, alone, against the elements of evil.


Guffaw! 

Then, on top of that, he goes and make the even more idiotic claim that these unnamed nuclear official/scientist(s) were "bought off by the industry"? Oh, please.... Got any receipts?

Folks, it is truly embarrassing that our public education system graduates people who write this poorly and have such low critical thinking skills. How in the hell did the west ever win the Cold War? Seriously, this is embarrassing, no?

This argument is pure fiction out of Alice in Wonderland. 

Once again, if a writer can't name names or show links to back up claims, then it's all bullsh*t just like the "anecdotal" crap Gundersen says. Then the writer continues trying to be "cute" or "intelligent" of which he is not either...

"Oooppsy-Doopsy! Granted, a metallic taste in the mouth is NOT scientific."

"Oooppsy- Doopsy!" indeed. I think someone watches way too much American TV sitcoms. People in the real world don't talk this way. They only do on the I Love Lucy Show or Mary Tyler Moore or whatever dribble people watch these days.

"...but if all things remained consistent, and I tasted something "metallic", and I lived in Seattle during the disaster, I'd be at least mildly concerned."

You would be concerned if you "lived in Seattle during the disaster"? Oh man, I know Americans are bad at geography, but this is ridiculous. It's almost 5,000 miles from Tokyo to Seattle! You would be worried about that!? You have a 5,000 times higher chance of dying from coal or oil industry emissions and you don't worry about those, but you'd be worried if you had a metallic taste in your mouth if you lived 5,000 miles away? Seriously, you should never drink the tap water anyway either. The crap in the tap water will probably kill you much sooner than something going on 5,000 miles away.

Dude. You need help. Really.

"Especially given the government's consistent under reporting of the actual radiation releases."

Once again, proof, please. Links?

"Bad mouth him all you want, I suspect you were bad mouthing him BEFORE the accident too."

Wrong! Never heard of the guy before.  

"I guess it becomes an issue of credibility at that point, and the my money is on Gundersen." (sic)

Your money is on Gundersen? Well, you lost. Gundersen, like Michio Kaku (excepting his Saturday night Sci-Fi TV show), is no where to be seen recently. They've lost all credibility and have quietly gone back to hiding under their rocks.

But I am still here. If you bet on guys like me, you won. Here is what is really going on at Fukushima. Trust that this is boring stuff and is never anywhere near as exciting as Gundersen making up nonsense like deadly radiation that will kill you but is undetectable or Michio Kaku saying stuff like "the Yellowstone National Park was a "super volcano" that was going to"wipe out the United States as we know it."

Instead of betting on Micho Kaku or Arnie Gundersen, I'd say it's a better bet to put your money on Uncle Fester from the Addams Family.... At least he is funny.

Uncle Fester gets a charge

But enough of my complaining. Here's what's going on at Fukushima that you need to know.... Actually a lot is going on, but it is not sensational, so you won't hear about it.... 

Fukushima Reactors on Target for Stabilization Next Week (July 17, 2011)

http://www.jaif.or.jp/english/news_images/pdf/ENGNEWS01_1309166580P.pdf

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has started injecting decontaminated wastewater as a coolant. This is considered an important step to stabilize the damaged reactors. Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, says it began recycling the water around the reactors on Monday afternoon. The utility has been operating a water treatment system since June 14th and processed about 1,850 tons of radioactive water that had been accumulated at the plant. TEPCO says it will continue injecting 16 tons of water per hour into the No.1, 2 and 3 reactors. 13 tons of this will be the decontaminated water. Workers had been pouring pure water to cool the damaged reactors, but some of this ended up contaminated with radioactive substances and was leaking outside of the reactors. Cooling the reactors without increasing the volume of wastewater is the biggest challenge. With the water circulation in operation, TEPCO has made progress toward achieving its target of stabilizing the reactors by mid-July. 

Get that? Even though guys like Gundersen and many others claimed that it would take decades to get Fukushima under control or that we needed to bomb the reactors from the air with concrete and cover them up, they are on schedule to be stabilized with 10 days of this post.

That doesn't strike me as the end of the world or the apocalypse like some writers were claiming. Does it to you?

Robot Tests Radiation in Fukushima Reactor Building

http://safetyfirst.nei.org/japan/robot-tests-radiation-in-fukushima-reactor-building/

Work is continuing to reduce radiation levels at Fukushima Daiichi’s reactor 3 building. Tokyo Electric Power Co. has used robots to vacuum radioactive debris and place steel sheets on the floor to decrease the potential for radiation exposure. Pending a reduction in radiation levels, workers are scheduled to enter the building housing the reactor on July 17 to begin installing new piping to inject nitrogen gas into the reactor containment vessel. The inert gas will reduce the possibility of a hydrogen explosion in the containment building. The company already is injecting nitrogen into the containments for reactors 1 and 2.

Catch that? "Workers are scheduled to enter the building housing the reactor on July 17th." There is a second article on the same page that talks about how Japan has cleared up the contaminated water issue.

TEPCO said debris may have clogged a hose, temporarily reducing the flow of cooling water into reactor 1 at Fukushima Daiichi by about one-quarter of normal volume. Normally, the cooling system injects 3.7 metric tons of water an hour into the reactors, but the flow was reduced Monday to about 3 metric tons per hour, setting off an alarm. Workers began injecting more water, restoring normal flow in less than an hour. 

The last part of this non-news is "Workers began injecting more water, restoring normal flow in less than an hour." That's "normal" as in "nothing special," "OK," "regular," "not newsworthy." That's why recent news shows things like the Yahoo News top stories for this very moment:

 Let me close up on the top news stories that I highlighted in blue for you:

• Court orders immediate halt to gay military service ban
• CNN cancels Eliot Spitzer's show, promotes Anderson Cooper
• Grizzly bear kills man hiking with wife in Yellowstone
• Jail prepares secret exit for possible Casey Anthony release
• Doctor for A-Rod, Tiger brought unapproved drugs to U.S.
• 24-year-old congressional candidate raises $420,000
• Final Defendant Acquitted in Deutsche Bank Fire- N.Y. Times
• Cops accused of rape also accused of…- New York Dai…
• Hip hop mogul hit with new charges- New York Post

"Court orders immediate halt to gay military service ban"? CNN cancels some TV show? Grizzly bear kills man? Jail prepares secret exit? Wow! That's some news! From reading in between the lines and knowing about the government cover up, one can definitely conclude from these news stories that the world is ending soon and Fukushima is at the cause. (HEAVY SARCASM AGAIN!) 


As Fukushima fades the prophets of doom become more and more discredited.  These clowns who prophesied total disaster and idiocy like "the entire 1/3 of Japan will be depopulated" will go back and crawl into their holes in the ground from whence they came (I've always wanted to use the word, "whence"!)


Of course, they will also conveniently claim that they knew it all along and try to change the subject whenever the BS they said or wrote about Fukushima comes up.


There is a Chinese curse that goes like this: "May you live in interesting times." This year has been very interesting so far. 


I hope it doesn't become more interesting... I don't expect that it will. 

Suicide Blogger

People create blogs because they have something that they want to say. The best bloggers, I think, are those, like musicians, who make their songs for themselves and don't care what others think. 

Tokyo has had some pretty bad sh*t happen 

to it before yet we're still here.

The best bloggers don't blog because they want to get high numbers of readers daily, they write what they want and as they please.


Someday, when I grow up, and am fully able to suppress my inner child, I want to completely say and write what I want. 


The music example above is a good one, I think. The best music comes from people who have a message they want to say to the world and don't care if it sells or not. If it does sell, great. If it doesn't, well, that's too bad. 


The best musicians are not going to change their music to Top 40 style just to get fans. Although, unfortunately, this happens far too often and that's why Pop music sucks so much. 


Of course, like selling many CDs or downloads, for bloggers it is also gratifying to get lots of readers.

2012 is supposed to be the end of the world. 

Hope you have your bags packed. 

When a musician sells out and gives up on his music for sales, then he "sells out" as the term goes. Selling out is a sort of lie. It is not telling the truth and it is doing something purely for money (though I cannot slag off anyone who wants to make money).


Like being truthful to your music, writing the truth on a blog is not a good way to make "sales." What I mean by that is it is not a good way to garner many readers.


Sensationalism sells.


Just look at the news rack at your favorite grocery store upon checkout next time; Gossip and rumor magazines galore. Gossip and rumor and innuendo sell. They are all a form of sensationalism. 


If you want many readers, then writing sensationalism sells. You needn't believe me. Just look at all the media. Sensationalism sells and that is a fact of life.


Newspapers, TV, magazines and the Internet do not sell well when they write boring stuff, like the truth. They need sensationalism to garner readers.


I don't know about you but I don't want the kind of readers who enjoy gossip tabloid publications. I probably couldn't can't get them anyway. I want to write the truth on this blog. That's also why there are no advertisements on this blog either.


Telling the truth is not as good as sensationalism to get readers. Sensationalist nonsense makes waves. Just look at the recent remarks from Keith Harmon Snow, Arnie Gundersen and Michio Kaku. 


These guys make outrageous unfounded claims. People actually listen to them and print up their absurd remarks.


Sensationalism sells.


I blast these clowns out of the water whenever I can. If I wrote more wild nonsense about Fukushima and how people in Japan were being born with extra limbs or animals were deformed or birds were dropping from the skies and joined in with the scare-tactics of the sensationalist crowds, I'd probably have a large increase in readers everyday.


But, as it is, I don't. I want to write the truth and expose the charlatans as best I can. Writing the truth and telling people that no one has died from Fukushima or that rabbits are probably not being born deformed, or that deadly radiation is most probably not being secretly bombed on the Tokyo populace, or that 1/3 of Japan is most likely not to be evacuated and will be quite inhabitable for the next few hundred years at least, thank you, is not exciting stuff. 


If I can, I just want to get the truth out. What I write is not exciting. So my blog readership, as with all truthful blogs on Japan, has declined.

When the truth is that things aren't as bad as all the doomsayers claim, then he truth is boring. The truth being boring doesn't capture the folks who like gossip or sensationalism (or watch American Idol on TV).


The truth doesn't attract so many readers. The truth can be quite boring. Boring will cause a drop in readership. Continued drops in readership may kill off the motivation of a blogger. No motivation, no blog posts. No blog posts, no blog.


Doing something that kills you could be suicidal.


That is what a suicide blogger is.


So, make a choice; are you true to yourself and your "music" or do you want to sell out?  

Always Question Motives of What People Say: Arnie Gunderson

There is a video that might be set to go viral on the Internet from a guy named Arnie Gundersen. It is about Fukushima. There are some glaring mistakes in his testimony. The media hasn't picked up on Gundersen heavily yet, but they might. I think now is a good time to show you why we should be very skeptical of yet another media creation and what s/he says. 

The video in question, as far as I am aware of, was first put up on a site named Chris Martenson. Martenson sells information to investors and recommends stocks and equities. He also has a plethora of online information and seminars that he sells to visitors. There's also a book or two. He is definitely selling an agenda. His site's sub title is: "Information on the global economy, environment, and our energy challenges." 


I went to that site and began to read the article in question interviewing Gundersen that links to the video. I stopped reading half way through the first paragraph. It's obvious that Gundersen doesn't know what he is talking about. The first paragraph reads: 


"I have said it's worse than Chernobyl and I’ll stand by that. There was an enormous amount of radiation given out in the first two to three weeks of the event. And add the wind blowing in-land. It could very well have brought the nation of Japan to its knees. I mean, there is so much contamination that luckily wound up in the Pacific Ocean as compared to across the nation of Japan - it could have cut Japan in half. But now the winds have turned, so they are heading to the south toward Tokyo..."


Right there, I can't stand to read anymore. Besides the sensationalist nonsense that, "It could have very well brought the nation of Japan to its knees." (Sure, and I could win the lottery tomorrow). It is absolutely and definitively false that the winds have turned, "...so they are heading to the south toward Tokyo." That's either an out-and-out lie or Gundersen hasn't a clue as to Japan's weather and wind patterns.


Either way, he's out. If he's a liar, then I don't need to read anymore. If he is clueless then ditto.


From March to December, Japan's prevailing winds blow from the south or east. That means, no matter how you slice it, Tokyo is upwind from Fukushima. It's been that way for millions of years, I can't imagine it changing anytime soon. And, no, it's not a question of today's weather versus yesterday's. Spring and summer bring rainy season and monsoons from the south pacific. These weather systems bring massive rains to the Japanese archipelago. They always begin in the Philippines and move north to Okinawa upwards to Kansai, then Tokyo and then northward where they peter out over the Pacific. 


We just had a typhoon last week. It came from the south. Can someone alert Gundersen that, under normal conditions, and in the real world, typhoons move in the direction the wind takes them and not against the wind .. I don't know about the books Gundersen reads. Maybe he's been hanging out with Michio Kaku and reading his books, I suppose?


There was another thing that bothered me... The above and then when I looked at reader's comments, all of them were angry that Martenson was charging money for people to watch the second part of the video. Martenson loses all credibility right there. 


I severely criticized him on his blog comments section for that too.   


But this is not about Martenson's questionable "recommendations" it is about Gundersen.


If we, the public, are to believe these pundits that we see on TV, etc. Then proper and fair disclosure is necessary. That Gundersen doesn't disclose his financial interests and motivations of commenting on Fukushima makes his remarks to be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism from thinking people. 


Just like, for example, before the Iraq War, when US media put many retired US generals on TV (who were on the payroll of US weapons manufacturers) to promote support for that war, we need to question what possible monetary motivations people have for what they say. Gundersen is no exception. 


As my friend Andrew Woolner of "Wall of Shame", the online Wiki that lists and documents gross and negligent sensationalist reporting concerning the Fukushima disaster wrote: 


Gundersen is much harder to pin down than some of the other fake experts. Unlike Caldicott and Busby, I haven't seen anyone directly challenge him yet, and he's reasonably careful about what he says (although, as Mike pointed out in the comments on this video, he doesn't know jack shit about Japanese weather patterns).

My impression is that his science is reasonable, but he's working from data that he's extrapolated from odd sources  and he makes assumptions that challenge the info coming out of Japan based on flyover videos and his own interpretation of data (like calculating the power of a blast based on plutonium found in Fukushima pref. which is probably left over from the cold war bomb tests). Anyone want to start a google doc where we start listing the claims he makes and debunking them one by one?

Thanks Andrew. Yes, it is time to start debunking this guy. Just like we've blasted Michio Kaku out of the water. 

As far as Gundersen is concerned, here's just some of the story that he probably doesn't want too many people to know. He possibly may have a conflict of interest problem. It's sort of like Fox News. You know, "Fair and Balanced" reporting only goes as far as it doesn't affect their pocketbook. In this case, Gundersen is selling a product and a service. 

Gunderson owns a patent for some sort of protocol that he wants to sell that is used for measuring radiation along with a system for dealing with it and decommissioning those nuclear power plants. He performs these duties with the Fairewinds Association of consultants of which he is co-owner and founder with his wife. It is his company's product and service that he is pushing.

From the Fairewinds Association site:

Arnie is an energy advisor with 39-years of nuclear power engineering experience. A former nuclear industry senior vice president, he earned his Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in nuclear engineering, holds a nuclear safety patent, and was a licensed reactor operator. During his nuclear industry career, Arnie managed and coordinated projects at 70-nuclear power plants around the country. He currently speaks on television, radio, and at public meetings on the need for a new paradigm in energy production. An independent nuclear engineering and safety expert, Arnie provides testimony on nuclear operations, reliability, safety, and radiation issues to the NRC, Congressional and State Legislatures, and Government Agencies and Officials throughout the US, Canada, and internationally.

(snip)

As the former vice president in an engineering organization, Arnie led the team of engineers who developed the plans for decommissioning Shippingport, the first major nuclear power plant in the US to be fully dismantled. He was also an invited author on the first DOE Decommissioning Handbook. Source term reconstruction is a method of forensic engineering used to calculate radiation releases from various nuclear facilities after nuclear incidents or accidents.  (emphasis mine)

So, while it may be hard to see on the surface, Arnie Gundersen definitely has a monetary motivation for what he is saying. His company wants to contract for the decommission of Fukushima and other nuclear power plants. There are many old ones who do need discussions on decommissioning. Fair enough.

The above information is easily found on a Wiki search on Gundersen and then a search of Fairewinds Associates... (I also noticed on a Google search that there was one return that said, "Solar Energy: Fairewinds Associates"... Hmmm/ Another possible conflict of interest?) 

There, on the Fairewinds Associates web site, you can find the name of the product/service that he is selling. Another Wiki check can put anyone on the right track about other possible conflicts of interest concerning Gundersen.... I found this out in 4 minutes of checking.


Perhaps I am wrong to say, "Conflicts of interest". Heck, who am I to  complain when a guy wants to make a buck? No problem. But when that guy uses the mass media to sell sensationalism and to try to capitalize of the public's mood and feelings of insecurity or fear, to garner public support so that he can profit from it, then we have a problem.


That person becomes guilty of dishonesty and loses credibility and respect when they fail to give full and complete prior disclosure of their background to us before giving us important information. In this case, Gundersen doesn't do it... He has repeatedly failed to do so excepting in very small print.


We can't trust what these media pundits or politicians tell us and, now, because we know a bit more about who Arnie Gundersen, is and what he is selling, we most likely cannot trust him completely either.


What Arnold Gundersen, like 99.99% of everything else we see or are told on TV or the mass media is not to be trusted nor taken at face value.

Japan's Nuclear Disaster and Wall of Shame Reporting

As you've read here at this blog basically from day one of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident crisis in Japan, the western media has been having a field day with the over the top sensationalist reporting. Please! Click on the video and then read on! You just can't make this stuff up!

SHIRLEY & COMPANY - SHAME SHAME SHAME

Well, now more and more people are starting to go on record taking these clowns to task. It's too bad that too many people consider the news god's gospel truth instead of tabloid sensationalism because that's what it basically is.

Pull up a chair, grab a beer, and get ready for some really humorous stuff.

Thank god, there are many others, besides me, who have been skeptical and suspicious from the start and many more people are finally waking up to the prospect that, once again, the mass media is not to be believed by any stretch of the imagination.


There's a guy who writes a blog called, "Squeeze Box Press." I don't know his name but he gets a hero award from me. In his post of March 17th, 2011 entitled: 

WHY BAD JOURNALISM HAS DRIVEN ME TO DESPERATE ENDS

He explains that he is starting a Wall of Shame to list up all this crap reporting. It is a wonderful read too. He writes: 

In retrospect, I should have had this idea before, but I guess today I just hit critical mass (not sure if it’s appropriate to use a nuclear energy turn of phrase here): one too many pieces of bad journalism.

So I decided to start a wiki Bad Journalism Wall of Shame and invite some of the other people who were frustrated with some of the shoddy, alarmist, and shockingly wrong journalism we’ve seen since last Friday’s Tohoku quake.

I take everything I read with a grain of salt these days, and have for many years.  When I read an article or see a television report that makes sensational claims, I try to fact check on my own, because I no longer trust most journalists to have done it for me.  There are several major areas that journalists particularly suck at:

• Science reporting.  I have a degree in fine arts, and I could write better science articles than most science writers could.  Any journalist who suggested that Fukushima could be “another Chernobyl” should be made to retake his 9th grade science class and then have his journalist license revoked.   Oh wait…
• Reporting on Japan.  JAPAN IS SOOO WEIRD!  JAPANESE PEOPLE HAVE NO EMOTION!  If everything you think you know about Japan was learned from the movies Gung Ho and Mr. Baseball, then maybe you’re not qualified to write an article about Japan.  Also, spending a few days, hell, even a month in Japan (probably in a hotel or furnished apartment, or otherwise isolated location) does not make you an expert on the place.  Nor does interviewing someone who has lived here for a few months (or even year, if living in one of the many gaijin bubbles).
• Disaster reporting.  Two and a half words: Exaggeration and fear-mongering.

This is not new information.  Not to me, and probably not to you.  However, in the aftermath of the quake, all three of these elements joined together to create (to use a term journalists are so fond of using themselves) the “perfect storm”.  News piece after news piece full of inaccuracies, misinterpretations, and just plain lies.  (My favourites are the photos, shown out-of-context.  For instance, showing a photo of a girl in a surgical-style mask and implying that she was wearing it due to radiation, while the reality is that we’re in allergy season here and many people wear masks to keep pollen at bay.)

The worst offenders are the 24-hour news networks.  A few hours into the quake, I stopped looking at them.  The problem there (as we learned during the 9/11 coverage) is that the anchors feel like they have to keep talking to fill dead air, which means that they inevitably end up saying dumbass things.

But no news source gets off scot free.  Some seem to make stuff up, others seem to repeat rumours floating around in the electronic ether, while others interview obvious idiots or crazies and take what they say as gospel truth.  Some, I think, pick information up from another news source, and never bother to check it for accuracy.

This last paragraph is particularly damning and I think right on target. But I am of the opinion that, even more disasterous for everyone is not so much the actual reporting, but the fact that so many people actually believe this stuff! What planet are these people living on?


When will people ever learn? I hear that in the old Soviet Union that the Russian people didn't believe anything that Pravda said because they knew it was propaganda... You'd have thought that western society would have produced more discerning intelligent people... But I guess not.


This guy then goes on to explain what the Wall of Shame is all about: Atrocious, bad, malicious and/or fear mongering reporting going on in the western media and how he wants to put them all on record. He writes:


This Wall of Shame is being assembled by various people, many of whom are on the ground in Japan as residents, not temporarily assigned journalists, who are sick of the sensationalist, overly speculative, and just plain bad reporting that has gone on since the Tohoku quake in Japan on March 11. We feel that contacting each and every publication and reporter every time a bad report shows up independently is not effective, and it is our sincere hope that this will encourage journalists to aspire to a higher (some would say minimal) level of responsibility in their reports. If you would like to add a report of your own, feel free. What can you do if you've read some of the articles listed here and you want to do something? We're compiling a list of press organizations to which you can complain HERE.


I highly recommend that you go to the Wall of Shame and view this artwork in progress. Here are just a few of my favorites (many others are not listed yet):  


Germany's BILD Zeitung gets an award for total nonsense:


Headline titling "Atomic Horror" mit 4 (!) exclamation marks. The picture on the front shows a person with gas mask/some suit against radioactive pollution. In the background a devastated landscape is shown. On first sight it looks like a nuclear desert, however it is a picture from the destruction caused by the Tsunami. 
On the next pages they ask: "And what´s up with the Sushi 
in the restaurants? Can we still eat it"?  (emphasis mine)


Even the alternative media get in on the act of ridiculous reporting with Kurt Nimmo's nonsense in Infowars.com:


Comparing Fukushima to Chernobyl;

Fear-Mongering Headline "Japanese Nuclear Meltdown Would Be Hundreds of Times Worse Than Chernobyl" with no supporting evidence;

Grotesque factual errors: "The 480-megawatt Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is a hundred times more powerful than the ill-fated reactor at the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine." In fact Chernobyl reactors were 1000 MWe while Reactor 1 at Fukushima Daiichi is 480 MWe, less than half Chernobyl's power.

We're doomed!

Oh, no! Not Scientific American!? Yes. Scientific American too needs to sell ad space. They allow writer Steve Mirsky off his leash to fan the flames of panic:


"Radioactive waste dump for years to come." and "This is going to be like Chernobyl." Scientific American joins the ranks of popular journalism. Added offense severity points for retaining the word 'scientific' in their name. (emphasis mine)


If you are intelligent and sick and tired of the mass media sensationalism (but I repeat myself) you can see much much more at the Wall of Shame: http://jpquake.wikispaces.com/Journalist+Wall+of+Shame


Thanks so much to the Wall of Shame, Ray Hearn