Nuking the Media [1]
Submitted by Bob Burton [2] on
Two years ago, an editorial [3] in the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) referred to the dream run that Patrick Moore [4] and Christine Todd Whitman [5] were getting in the media representing the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition [6]. CJR noted that few journalists were disclosing that the group was created by the Nuclear Energy Institute [7] with assistance from Hill & Knowlton [8]. "Part of the thinking, surely, was that the press would peg them as dedicated environmentalists who have turned into pro-nuke cheerleaders, rather than as paid spokespeople. And the press came through." They still do. Jay Hancock, a business columnist for the Baltimore Sun, wrote in his blog that "Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore has decided that the risks of nuclear energy are lower than the risks of continuing to use carbon energy." Hancock is not the only journalist not to disclose Moore's nuclear industry ties to his readers [9]. The week before his post, a CanWest News Service story [10] simply described Moore as an "avid proponent of nuclear" power.