I made the mistake of watching the local television news last night. The lead story was that there was a trace of radioactive Iodine detected in rain water (a puddle?) in Massachusetts. Then the news cut to the weatherman, presumably to give the story a proper scientific vetting, who explained that the radioactivity released from the Japanese reactors finds its way into the upper atmosphere where some of it gets caught up in the jet stream. The radioactivity is then carried across the Pacific Ocean, beneath Alaska and across the continental US to the East coast of the US. But the weatherman assures us, it is okay in the near term because no rain is expected for the next few days. We are saved! Or at least our demise is delayed. And what is the effect on our water supply? Officially, it is undetectable! In the air by the rain water? Undetectable!
Please, this is the lead news story? Perhaps worth a mention as an add-on to the proper news update of the tragedy in Japan, but the lead, the most important thing that we need to know for the day? Whatever happened to the phrase journalistic responsibility? Did the editors (I am making an assumption here) debate whether that was the lead or the imminent danger of an escaped cobra in a zoo over two hundred miles away?
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