Is There Anything To Worry About in Japan? Yes. And Here Too.

We must admit; we've been pushing off this commentary for the better part of a week now, for multiple reasons - including that the more research we did, the less we liked what we found.

In short, there is a great deal to worry about regarding the combination of natural and man-made disasters going on in Japan. Thankfully, most of what you've been hearing from the fearmongers in the media aren't the things you need concern yourself with. For example, Godzilla won't be crawling from the waste tank of one of the affected power plants any time soon.

What you SHOULD be worrying about are the reactors here in the U.S., and how vulnerable they really are. What's more, you should know that the U.S. government, for the most part, already knows how dangerous many of the nuclear facilities around the country are.

Unsurprisingly, the nuclear reactors in the U.S. that are most at risk of going through something similar to what is going on in Japan were reactors that were cheaply designed, and cheaply built. In fact, 23 reactors in the U.S. are of the same design as the reactors now failing in Japan - the G.E. Mark 1 design.

We spoke with David Lochbaum, Director of the Nuclear Safety Project for the Union of Concerned Scientists, as have many of our colleagues in the media recently. Mr. Lochbaum is an expert who continues to sound the warning that nuclear power plants in the U.S. are vulnerable, and that steps need to be taken to reduce the risks involved with nuclear power. He confirmed that our worries are more on target than the hype many media outlets are pushing, from both the left and the right.

We all understand the growing hunger for electrical power, both here in the U.S., and around the world. Neither we nor Mr. Lochbbaum - or in fact, most scientists who have thoroughly studied nuclear power - seem to think nuclear power should be completely removed as an option for future power needs.

That being said, before considering it any further, we need to take care of the disasters waiting to happen that exist in our communities already. We need to repair - or get rid of - those facilities that cannot be made substantially more secure. We need to find a proper and effective way to dispose of or reuse nuclear waste. And it's worth saying a second time that we need to do ALL of these things before we even consider any further nuclear power development.

You've heard it said by us a thousand times: anything worth doing is worth doing well. Nuclear power, in general, has not been done well at all.

The nuclear disasters going on in Japan right now could have been avoided. Better plans could have been established, better facilities built, better disaster scenarios implemented. As many have said, the reactors survived both the earthquake and the initial tsunami wave. What they did not survive was the failure of those who were supposed to be responsible, and instead chose to take higher short-term personal gain, while everyone else in society got stuck with the real tab for nuclear power mismanagement.

In the future, we doubt that will happen again.

For now, if the question is, are we are concerned about the issue of nuclear power being safe? The answer is still yes.

If the question, however, is: "Are we running out and buying iodine tablets because of what's going on in Japan?" No, we're not.

There is no magic pill any of us can take to fix the problems that stretch before us.

Chicken Little, Big Turkey, And The Chinese Disaster

As we promised yesterday, we're beginning to dive a bit deeper into the disasters in Japan today - though we're still going to push a deeper discussion of nuclear power off one more day, as we wait to see a bit more stabilization of the situation in Sendai. Simply put, we need more research into such a complicated subject.

We also are treating this story with a bit more respect as we almost feel an obligation to offset the actions of others in our broader media community.

To say that some members of the media have been treating the multiple ongoing disasters in Japan with less respect than the circumstances call for is both sad and unsurprising.

For our part, we'll continue to refer you to the Japanese Red Cross, to Google's people finder, and to any other aid organization you think is worthy and able of taking your assistance, and passing it on the people in Japan. God forbid any combination of disasters ever befalls our nation at the same level of destruction and devastation like the Japanese people are now suffering.

It's that same wish not to add insult to injury that makes us choose our words more carefully when we discuss this catastrophe. Not everyone in the media follows our lead.

We don't often lend any pixels to seriously discuss the more obnoxious members of our media fraternity because, frankly, we think they embarrass and defile themselves more than enough without us having to point out their flaws in further detail.

Yet some in the infotainment media did just that yesterday, for reasons that still escape us.

We would hope that if a cataclysmic event like what is going on in Japan ever happened here in America, that media personalities in other countries would never insinuate that maybe GOD was sending these disasters to kill our people - as Glenn Beck did already, or as Pat Robertson did last year with Haiti, and Jerry Falwell did with 9/11.

We would hope that the Japanese or European versions (if, God forbid, they actually exist) of Rush Limbaugh would not say that some segments of the media were hoping whatever our disaster was got worse, with "a nuclear meltdown" or some other heinous action.

We're aware you've probably heard similar comments by these sad media windbags over the years. You may even have heard them so frequently that you now ignore them, as with the taunts of schoolyard bullies who no longer have any power over other kids. If that's indeed the case with you, we applaud you for being able to ignore the screeching fearmongers.

The size and scope of the right-wing media megaphone far outweighs anything comparative on the left these days - so not everyone finds it easy to ignore that much hatred and vitriol.

In the midst of a massive destructive event like what's happening in Japan right now, the proper thing to do is urge help, look at what may have caused the problems, and investigate what might be done to prevent another similar tragedy elsewhere. With a catastrophe like this, it's what they call in the Navy an "All hands on deck" event. This is not the time for partisans on either side of the political divide to be blasting vile hatred, or blaming others - even in jest - for such destructive natural acts.

Yet some of our media brethren have chosen to do just that.

If some right-wing media followers wonder why so many on the left look upon their media heroes with such distain… In the face of Japan's suffering, today's commentary and links should be all those wondering need to have their questions answered.

Disasters, Real Or Imagined

Among the things we did this past weekend, we watched, listened, and read about the multiple disasters going on in Japan over the last several days. To say things in Japan are hellish right now is an understatement of massive proportions. It began with one of the top five earthquakes ever recorded by the USGS, followed by multiple nuclear power disasters, and as some kind of cruel cosmic cherry on top, a volcanic explosion in Southern Japan.

Our hearts go out to the people there, and we recommend that if you haven't done something to help those poor folks, that you chip in now, at somewhere like the Japanese Red Cross or another aid organization.

With all of those horrors happening in Japan, you might think we'd focus our commentary today on nuclear power, or the folly of man trying stop Mother Nature.

We'll leave that for tomorrow.

Today, we wanted to point out a difference we'd noticed in the short transition between the middle and end of last week, surrounding the media coverage of so-called major events.

In case you missed the links we provided last week, there were a couple of personnel turnovers at NPR of high-level NPR staff members after a hidden camera video and editing hack job was released last week. This video was obtained by a convicted criminal, who is also a far-right wing propaganda blogger. For at least a couple of days, it was a hard story to miss, as many of our colleagues in the media fell over themselves to cover a story we felt wasn't that significant.

Some in the media covered the NPR story as though it were almost as important as the disasters in Japan. While the coverage level wasn't exactly equal, it was too often disappointingly close at some media outlets we monitor.

That, in a nutshell, is the problem.

The first thing that ANY legitimate media - and especially NEWS media - should have done when the partisans on the right first began pushing the NPR scandal story as major news was look to what the source of the video was. That it came from a young extremist right wing activist, already convicted for an attack on a Senator's office, should have raised red flags. That this guy also has been caught attempting to commit sexually oriented blackmail on a national news reporter in order to fabricate another ideologically driven media frenzy, should have set off red lights and sirens in every legitimate newsroom.

Even with all the evidence damning the creator of the video, a respectable editor would have looked over the raw video footage to see if the activist's claims were true. Shockingly, this time the activist made the raw footage available - and even right wing sources, upon seeing the footage have admitted there was no real disaster or crime committed by NPR's now-former executives.

It is sad - and stupid - that two NPR execs felt they had to dump their own careers due to the highly biased coverage engineered by right-wing propagandists. The facts prove there was no need for NPR or its leadership to hang themselves out to dry - or worse.

There was also no need for other, more legitimate media outlets to give as much coverage to the NPR non-event as they did. As the very real and very sad events in Japan sadly continue to prove, there are plenty of disasters that occur every day that deserve far more media scrutiny than an executive or two at NPR shooting off his/her mouth in private.

That some media organizations have given nearly equal time to both the NPR tape and the events in Japan - while nearly ignoring many other substantive stories - is proof that at least one of the real disasters going on right now is the state of the "news" media itself.