Media pundits have radiation damage

If it’s not obvious by now, the nuclear crisis in Japan is not a crisis in America. This isn’t a statement to downplay the seriousness of the situation in Japan; it is to downplay the fear people have when it comes to the word nuclear.

Ever since the situation at Fukushima more than three weeks ago, people on this side of the Pacific ocean have overreacted, doing everything from stocking up on potassium iodine pills to finding plans on DIY fallout shelters online.

The televised media are guilty of perpetuating this behavior. Good ratings require people to keep tuning in, and one of the best ways to get ratings is through fear.

Take Nancy Grace for example, who introduced Accuweather’s Bernie Rayno on to her talk show to confirm her assertions that we’re all going to die. Grace took a moment to show photos of the damage to the reactors, talk about the deadly radiation and how nuclear fallout would be happening in America in no time.

When Rayno began explaining that the crisis in Japan wouldn’t affect us, Grace cut him off and began questioning his legitimacy as a meteorologist. Note: A television host is apparently more informed about how the weather affects nuclear radiation than a current senior meteorologist.

Aside from scaring the daylights out of people, the media hype causes another, possibly unintended effect: lowering public trust in nuclear energy.

At a time when switching from a fossil fuel society to one based on actual clean energy is at least viable, the last thing we need is media pundits shocking people with ambiguous photos of the Fukushima reactors and skewing the facts to make nuclear energy seem worse than coal mining. This only gives politicians ammunition for pushing “clean” coal and fossil fuels.

Even though Japan has its own issues in dealing with the nuclear reactors in the midst of a post-earthquake, post-tsunami infrastructure, their situation is nowhere near as bad as the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl more than twenty years ago — not that you would be able to tell that from turning on the television.

People seem to be suffering from the effects of news hype, but in all likelihood, everyone in the western hemisphere will merely forget the hype and fear with time. There is still a lesson to learn here.

This isn’t the last time the mass media will use the uncertainty card to their advantage, as there will be more disasters, catastrophes and tragedies in the future. Aside from throwing away your television, the only remedy is to remember that it is not only sex that sells, but fear too.