Matthew L. Wald is an ex-media reporter of 38 years for the New York Times. He began his presentation by saying that people in the corporate world, the laboratory and the academic world look at newsrooms like a black box. You can see what they produce but you can not figure out the inner workings. Well, news flash, journalists look at industry and science the same way. Especially the utility industry. Having recently made the transition from one world to the other, I have been asked to play translator for a few minutes here today, he said. He said that most reporters and editors can not tell the difference between a kilowatt and a kilowatt-hour and many of them do not know why they would want to tell the difference. That makes it unlikely they are going to give a clear picture to their readers or viewers.
Add onto that some fuzzy thinking among the general public, that includes ideas like, electricity is a human right and therefore ought to be free, and you have got a recipe for mis-communications. Nuclear comes out badly not because it is nuclear, but because of several overarching attitudes in newsrooms. One is that editors like disagreements, he said/she said. It is an easy way to structure a news story. But the editors and reporters have rather limited ability to independently evaluate the arguments.
Why do we have this persistent societal meme that vaccines cause autism? Because news media got it started and to some extent, keep it alive. The idea that proximity to power lines causes cancer. If it can not be disproved, it is a good story. Journalists dislike expertise. They discount it. Maybe it is the evolving nature of human knowledge. This year, we have changed our minds and high cholesterol does not come from your diet. Some fats are good for you. DDT was a modern marvel of the mid-20th century because it nearly wiped out malaria. He does not mention fear-mongering or dumbing down of America. He may be leaving the door open for a return to the media.
Original working page but moved: https://www.nei.org/News-Media/Speeches/Nuclear-Power-Redeeming-Energy-s-Prodigal-Son
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