NPR Urged to Follow the Money on Nuclear Issues [1]
Submitted by Diane Farsetta [2] on
During an August 15 news segment on nuclear power, why did National Public Radio [3]'s John Ydstie say "many environmentalists ... who began their careers opposed to nuclear power ... are now reconsidering nuclear power in the face of global warming [4]"? In an alert, the media watchdog group FAIR notes that Ydstie only mentioned one by name: Stewart Brand [5]. But Brand -- like fellow nuclear boosters Patrick Moore [6] and Christine Todd Whitman [7], who consult for the Nuclear Energy Institute [8] -- has financial ties to the nuclear industry. Brand's Global Business Network [9] includes "more than a dozen corporations and governmental agencies involved in the production or promotion of nuclear energy." FAIR also found that NPR itself has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from nuclear companies Constellation Energy and Sempra Energy, between 1993 and 2005. FAIR is calling on NPR to accurately represent the consensus view of leading environmental groups: that "nuclear power, with its huge safety, security and cost issues, is not the solution to climate change [10]."