Five of the worst

Sensationalism is not unheard of in the media, but the coverage of recent events in Japan has thrown up some particularly striking examples of irresponsible and uninformed reporting. And it’s not just the red tops. Let’s take a look at some of the worst offenders (thanks, Journalist Wall of Shame).

UN predicts nuclear plume could hit US by Friday
News source
The Daily Mail
Date
17 March 2011
What’s the beef?
This headline for a start – the idea of a “nuclear plume” “hitting” anywhere is terrifying. Oh, wait, though, “the U.S. Nuclear Regulator Commission said it expected no harmful levels of radiation would reach the U.S. from Japan given the thousands of miles between the two countries.” Thanks for clearing that up. Several paragraphs in. The piece also claims that “some experts say the country has 48 hours to avoid ‘another Chernobyl’” but neither the experts’ names nor their credentials are made clear. It transpires that Thierry Charles of France’s Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety made the comments. His assessment, as we know now (and actual experts knew at the time), was wholly inaccurate.
Irresponsibility index
Misleading, sensationalist, draws on Chernobyl (7/10)

Japon: les kamikazes du nucléaire sacrifient leur vie
News source
Le Figaro
Date
15 March 2011
What’s the beef?
Using a phrase associated with WWII suicide bombers to describe members of the Japanese Self-Defence Forces tackling the escalating situation in Fukushima is deeply insensitive and lazily based on dated stereotypes.
Irresponsibility index
This piece sings the praise of its subjects, but seriously, nuclear kamikaze? What next, atomic samurai? (7/10)

Explosion could send contamination to Ireland
News source
The Irish Independent
Date
19 March 2011
What’s the beef?
Outrageous fear-mongering here. The writer bases his story on an almost entirely impossible scenario in which an explosion expels radioactive material 30,000 feet into the air.
Irresponsibility index
Forehead-slappingly bad journalism (8/10)

Tests show low-level radiation on US flights from Japan
News source
CNN
Date
17 March
What’s the beef?
This is particularly insidious because an incident not normally newsworthy (heightened radiation recorded on a plane) is reported with a scary headline merely for attention. The piece ends with an American Airlines spokesman confirming the “pretty high certainty that [the radiation reading] was related to a medical shipment headed to Mexico.”
Irresponsibility index
Printed to make readers afraid (9/10)

Japanese earthquake might be a message from God (via Huffington Post)
News source
The Glenn Beck Program
Date
14 March
What’s the beef?
This is the beef



Irresponsibility index
Glenn Beck is literally insane (10/10)