Why you shouldn't automatically believe the news media

I was both alarmed and suspicious to hear a 'talking head' on CNN (who turns out to be a Ms. Kerry Kennedy, from the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights) assert the following in relation to the oil pollution crisis in the Gulf of Mexico:

"... people are getting sick. And the patients, the health care providers cannot properly diagnose what the problems are because BP will not give them the names of the chemicals that are in the dispersants. However, we know that they're the same types of illnesses that people reported in Alaska. Now, the average lifespan of a person who did cleanup on the Exxon Valdez is 51 years old. Almost all those people who did work on the Exxon Valdez are now dead. And BP still here, once again, is big oil not giving the information to the doctors and health care officials."

That's taken verbatim from CNN's transcript of her interview. Bold print is my emphasis. Here she is making the claim in the flesh on camera.

I found her claims hard to believe. Surely, if the workers who'd cleaned up the Exxon Valdez disaster had been dying like flies, we'd have heard about it? I did a little online research, and, sure enough, came up with some evidence that Ms. Kennedy clearly hadn't bothered to read.

You'd think that more than 20 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, scientists would know what, if any, long-term health dangers face the thousands of workers needed to clean up the Gulf of Mexico spill.

You'd be wrong.

"We don't know a damn thing," said Anchorage lawyer Michael Schneider , whose firm talked with dozens of Alaska cleanup workers following the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in preparation for a class-action lawsuit that never came.

In New Orleans last week, U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin delivered a similar, if more subtle, message to a gathering of health experts meeting to talk about how to protect people working on the massive BP oil spill still gushing in the Gulf of Mexico .

"Current scientific literature is inconclusive with regard to the potential hazards resulting from the spill," Benjamin said. "Some scientists predict little or no toxic effect . . . while other scientists express serious concerns about the potential short-term and long-term impacts the exposure to oil and dispersants could have on the health of responders and our communities."

That lack of published, peer-reviewed study of the Exxon Valdez cleanup workers has made protecting the growing number workers in the Gulf of Mexico all the more difficult and has Alaska watchdogs warning that BP and government regulators are repeating mistakes that made people sick a generation ago.

"We don't have the good answers that we could have had from the Exxon Valdez to either know that there are problems or to reassure people that there were not," said Mark Catlin , an industrial hygienist who visited the cleanup in 1989.

There's more at the link. Bold print is my emphasis.

How very inconvenient for Ms. Kennedy and her claims . . . but then, I gather (from doing a bit more Internet research) that some view the RFK Center as less than balanced, factual and ethical in its approach to crises. Some appear to feel that they never let a good crisis go to waste, exploiting it for all the publicity they can wring from it. I further note (from the CNN transcript) that Ms. Kennedy supports the Administration and blames BP for all the problems being experienced in the Gulf. To whit:

BROWN: Do you think the administration is doing enough to help people get through this?

KENNEDY: Well, I think the administration, frankly, has been incredible in responding to this crisis. But this is BP's crisis.

She says this with a straight face, despite the fact that Gulf Coast State governors and local officials are complaining bitterly - and publicly - about the heavy-handed Federal Government bureaucracy that's stifling relief and cleanup efforts (the same bureaucracy that is apparently trying to keep news media far, far away from the cleanup operation, for fear they'll disclose precisely the problems the locals are complaining about).

Unfortunately, Ms. Kennedy's claims have been broadcast worldwide by CNN. Millions will have seen them by now, and many will have believed them. What's that you say? Will CNN broadcast a correction? Don't make me laugh. If you think either Ms. Kennedy or CNN will do anything to correct or withdraw her claims, or broadcast the truth . . . well, there's this bridge in Brooklyn, NYC I'd like to sell you. Cash only, please, and in small bills.

How can we believe our news media about anything when they broadcast bulls*** like this and call it news? It belongs in a fictional drama series like The X-Files. It has nothing to do with the facts - but will inevitably be exploited by those who have no interest in truth, only in furthering their particular political and/or social and/or economic agenda by any means, fair or foul.

You might want to keep that in mind the next time you watch and/or read the news in your favorite media outlet . . .





Peter