Misinformation, Bad Reporting

March 20, 2011

There are two stories that I meant to tell you yesterday, but I forgot.

One is that from the day the earthquake happened, all regular commercials have been taken off all the TV channels. The only commercials that they have been playing are the same public service announcements: give your seat on the train to pregnant ladies, call an ambulance if you find you can't talk or use one side of your body, and be kind to others. I mean, in one commercial break, you may see the same young man conflicted about not giving his seat up at least 4 times. I don't know why for sure, but I can guess. The TV stations don't want to make money off the suffering of others and the clients don't want their products associated with the earthquake..... As of yesterday, some shows have a few of the regular commercials.



The other story is a reporter's story. He was in Sendai the day of the earthquake filming the river and whatnot, when he noticed that he could see the bottom of the very deep river after the quake. He knew that a tsunami was coming, so he got in his taxi and started driving around, filming. Both he and the taxi driver fled the car when they saw the wall of water heading their way. They made it up to the third floor of the building, the accepted height to flee to in Sendai. But it was not enough. They had to go to the top of the building.

They could see many people stranded in the rising waters. A father carrying two children over his head, a man in a tree, a woman standing on top of her car as best she could (it was floating). Once the tsunami stopped rising, the people in the buildings started trying to save the people in the water. They got the man and his kids, the lady and the man in the tree and a few others. They kept calling out to the many people still in their cars. For some reason they didn't leave their cars and the next morning when he checked on them because the water had mostly receded , some were dead.

The reporter said the aftermath was chilling and that he had never seen so much water and such big waves....

Ah, about the temporary housing, they have baths, but it is unclear when water will be re-connected. Also, at least in one area in Chiba, the amount of time for free rental is 6 months. I will find out about other areas.

Most likely you have heard about this, but an 80 year old woman and her 16 year old grandson were found yesterday in Ishinomaki, March 20th in the debris clinging to life. They had lived these 9 or 10 days on a bit of coke and yogurt. Both were taken to the hospital and are being treated for cold and low body temperature.

It seems that many people were brought to the rescue centers with way too low body temperature. As of March 20th in one center, 54 people have died because of low body temperature and the inability to get warm after being in the chilling waters for too long.

Many doctors and nurses in the effected areas have not been able to take care of their own families or to even see if they are okay. They are working overtime to help the sick and dying. The same goes for electric, gas and water workers. They are trying so hard to fix these systems that many of them do not know what has happened to their own homes.....

Yamazaki san, in a hard hit village called Kamaishi, that has been hit 2 times before in recent recorded history said that he will rebuild his home just like his grandfather and father did before him, WHEN THEIR HOMES WERE HIT AND DESTROYED BY THE TSUNAMI IN THE PAST!!! He lives in a small fishing village of 40. He feels it is his duty to try and rebuild and stay where he is.

The Japanese Self-Defense Force has started calling up recently retired female soldiers to help with the aftermath. On the news this morning, it was referred to again. They are finding that women respond better to getting help from female soldiers, especially when it comes to help of a more personal nature.

And last, but not least, there is a lot of misinformation getting out in stories written by Western (US and UK, etc.) reporters, in some cases where the facts are not even close to being correct. I wrote to NPR about this problem and I will be interested to find out what happens.

Links:
#1
Journalist Wall of Shame
http://jpquake.wikispaces.com/Journalist+Wall+of+Shame
Their explanation::
This Wall of Shame is being assembled by various people, many of whom are on the ground in Japan as residents, not temporarily assigned journalists, who are sick of the sensationalist, overly speculative, and just plain bad reporting that has gone on since the Tohoku quake in Japan last Friday (March 11). We feel that contacting each and every publication and reporter every time a bad report shows up is not effective, and it is our sincere hope that this will encourage journalists to aspire to a higher (some would say minimal) level of responsibility in their reports. If you would like to add a report of your own, feel free.


#2
Terri's Take
http://www.terrie.com
Terrie's Take 606 -- Nuclear Near Miss, e-biz news from Japan

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Radiation Levels
On the news this morning (Ch 5 in Tokyo), a university prof. who researches the effect radiation has on food, said that even with the 24 times over the govt. limits on radiation as they have found in some areas, you would have to eat 300 years of spinach of that sort to have ill health effects. Also, he said, washing the spinach reduces the radiation to 1/10 and cooking even further. He said that he and his family and his children are eating all the spinach they want and drinking the milk with no fear or ill effect!
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