Japanese Accident and the US Media

I have been following the news on the Japanese Nuclear problem very closely (well, as closely as I can) and I am disappointed in the media coverage of what is happening (yeah, I know, I shouldn't expect any better).  What I cannot understand is "why?".  I saw a half a dozen interviews on the major TV station (CNN, FOX, etc.) over the last couple of days, before I gave up and I think I finally realized that news is no longer news, it's opinion and agendas, whatever they might be.   There is no other explanation, for example, for them having Jim Walsh as an nuclear expert commentator!  Please, give us a break, PhD from MIT (in Political science), BS from Brown (in Philosophy), providing expert opinion on one of the most intricate engineering problems?  They must take us for fools, but you know, most viewers probably saw "MIT" and that was enough for them, his opinion all of a sudden became "expert" opinion - very sad.  No, I am not an expert, but I don;t pretend to be one, either.


Then, I've been reading the Drudgereport, NPR, BBC on-line, and just in case, some of other sites that may have an inkling of what's going on, like the National Energy Institute, IAEA's site, etc.


BBC (and Drudgereport) post that 500 bone marrow centers in the EU are on alert to receive Japanese exposed to radiation.  What??  500 centers on alert?  So, they expect hundreds of people to get doses higher than 0.7 Gray?  And, most of them to get the dose to the whole bod and to get it all in a matter of minutes, so they can develop acute radiation sickness and need a bone marrow transplant?    (Check out the CDC site for Acute Radiation Syndrome, that's what one should do).  Don't these "reporters" realize that when the site is reporting, lets say, 400 mSv levels at the plant, those are at radiation monitor levels, usually right next to the plant?  And, if that is a direct dose, all one needs is to be a few tens of feet away, for that level to be reduced by factors of 10 to 100? Spending 10 minutes on line, I was able to fond that!


And Drudgereport (well, Yahoo news) reports,  

RADIATION LEVELS SOAR AFTER 3RD NUKE EXPLOSION... 

which starts with:

 "

By ERIC TALMADGE and SHINO YUASA, Associated Press – 8 mins ago

SOMA, Japan – Dangerous levels of radiation leaking from a crippled nuclear plant forced Japan..." 

As soon as I saw this, I checked the NEI site, which says: 

"UPDATE AS OF 10:20 A.M. EDT, TUESDAY, MARCH 15:

The level of radioactivity at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been decreasing, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

At 8 p.m. EDT March 15, a dose rate of 1,190 millirem per hour was observed. Six hours later, the dose rate was 60 millirem per hour, IAEA said.

About 150 residents near the Fukushima Daiichi site have been checked for radiation and 23 have been decontaminated.

At this point, I guess I just need to give up, rather than expecting any Yahoo, or BBC, or CNN reporter to understand the issue even just well enough to ask the right people to comment, or to make sure their information is corroborated.  Silly me :-(