2011-03-17- Reporter: Rosie DiManno
- Date: 2011-03-17
- Score: 9
- Link to Article: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/955721--dimanno-no-rest-for-japan-quake-victims
- Reporting faults and errors: Invoking the term "nuclear winter" in an inappropriate context, suggesting it is a possibility; fear-mongering by making many assertions with no factual basis; misrepresenting the reason for the Fukushima plant's failure; twisting a quotation by a government official to sound monstrous; overall condescending tone
- Description:
Some samples of her article:
"But the rest of the prefecture, or state, in North Eastern Japan has been plunged into winter again – if not nuclear winter, not yet..." As anyone can easily check, "nuclear winter" refers to an after-effect of a nuclear war, not a power plant disaster, not even a single nuclear bomb going off.
"Attacking with water cannons from the ground was step two of an earlier phase, when a couple CH-47 helicopters were dispatched to drop water from above, before they also were yanked back beyond radioactive reach – assuming there is such a thing as protective distance."
"Perhaps the real lesson here is that the nuclear reactors should never have been built on an island geographically vulnerable to earthquakes. It’s been noted that the Fukushima reactors were tested to a magnitude of 7.9 and found sturdy. How unreasonable of Mother Nature to knock off a 9.0 earthquake instead."
How unreasonable of her to not mention it survived the 9.0 quake quite well, shut down automatically like it was designed to but the tsunami flooding caused the cooling failures and the problems resulting from that.
However she saved the best for last;
"“These survivors were already wet and chilly when they arrived at the shelters,” a government spokesman observed.
He made it sound like it was almost their fault for dying."
Horrible reporting possibly slanted to promote an anti-nuclear viewpoint, pessimistic predictions of the success of methods to solve the plant's various problems and general disdain and disbelief for various government and company spokespeople.
An excellent example of reporting that causes family and friends living back in North America to fear for the safety of people living here.
A blog response to this article exists here: http://squeeze-box.ca/?p=788 - JPquake Editor: SR
2011-03-20- Reporter: Rosie DiManno
- Date: 2011-03-17
- Score: 9
- Link to Article: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/957069--dimanno-no-escape-valve-for-so-much-grief
- Reporting faults and errors: disrespectful to tsunami victims; absolute misinterpretation of events to suit author's version of reality
- Description: She describes the events surrounding her visits to a makeshift morgue where people are identifying their dead relatives. She describes the "Japanese character" with such condescending sentences as "Repression rather than forbearance would more accurately describe this societal trait, a bottling of feeling — sorrow, anger, fear — all the sloppy mess of human emotions that stay hidden beneath a veneer of courtesy and impassivity." She consistently interprets the events going on around her ways that fit her preconceived notions of Japan. A man seeing his wife being man-handled by Ms. Dimanno "looks on in palpable embarrassment, as if Tanno [the wife] has committed a social gaffe." Or maybe it's Ms. DiManno who has committed the social gaffe of not allowing people to deal with grief in their own way.
The entire article has overtones of cultural imperialism: if people don't follow the media model of grief (screaming, wailing, breaking down-- all in public), then they are wrong, and must be helped by the Florence Nightingale of grief counselors herself, Rosie DiManno.
It's a shame, because when Ms. DiManno sticks to just describing events, and avoids descending into her flowery prose, there are actual moments of humanity revealed in this piece. - JPquake Editor: SR
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