How PR Smears Work
Funeral Wake for Yucca Moutain Dump
Join Nevadans to thank Sen. Harry Reid for his tireless efforts to keep dangerous nuclear waste out of our backyard
Join Nevadans to thank Sen. Harry Reid for his tireless efforts to keep dangerous nuclear waste out of our backyard
After decades of work fighting the Yucca Mountain Project, this week Sen. Reid finally got the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to withdraw its license application to build a waste dump there. Join the Nevadans who have supported the effort to kill this dangerous project in thanking Sen. Reid for his hard work.
EVENT ORGANIZERS: Sen. Richard Bryan, Sierra Club, Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, Citizen Alert and Nevada Conservation League
A wake for the Yucca Mountain Project
Tuesday, March 9 at 5:30 p.m.
Ghostbar, inside the Palms Casino Resort, 4231 W. Flamingo Rd., Las Vegas, NV 89103
LESSON IN HOW LOBBYIST WORK AND HOW COMPUTERS ARE A TOOL
The preceeding is a press release, reproduced so that my students can attend and critique the event. It is intersting how in a blog that receives only three responses from non-students a month, within an hour of reposting this item there were ten responses, all attacking the blog, the story and the author (assumed to be me). I have only reproduced the more civil of these responses (believe it or not, note the challenging or threatening language even in the ones that has stronger supportable content).
While these may be individuals the number is so far in excess of the norm on what is really a non-controversial posting, that I suspect the lobbying machine. None were signed, with no contact information or living up to the claims or statements in the responses.
How it works: Computers scan for a topic, then zero in on it. A range from pre-written pre-programmed responses to live responses are then generated within minutes and timed to appear individually submitted. The system can also allert paid writers, or volunteers, who then respond. The term "Yucca Mountain" in the heading must have spurred the response.
Disclaimer: The above is not a jounalistic article and was not presented as one. If it were I do show both sides, however as a citizen of Nevada since 1984 and as a working journalist, marketing professional and now professor, the pattern of nuclear industry lobbying, including intimidation and language specific to the postings below, are not new to me. They are part of the overall well financed out of state effort to force the responsitory on Nevada.
In addition the responsitory has become a key issue in the defense of Senator Harry Reid in his reelection campaign. There are well paid out of state lobbyist, PR and advertising firms working to defeat the senator, for better or worse. These posting would be generted in the same way I indicated above if the source are these organizations.
As I mentioned in class, the most common answer found in masters thesis and Ph.D. dissertations is "I was wrong." We change as we do research, open minded and both sides. Sometimes we find we were right and now have the ammunition not only to sell our point of view but to understand he other side and in doing so influence and persuade them toward our point of view. Sometimes we change our minds entirely. Most of the time we find we are less certain but better informed on an issue, idea or thought. Keep it civil, keep it balanced and be honest in your beliefs and conlusions.
Do your own research. As I always do, I encourage my students, and those who read this, to do their own research. Start by contacting Senator Harry Reids office. Then contact the DOE, the various nuclear industry groups, former senator Harry Reid, former Governors Kenny Guinn and Bob Miller, your legislators and former legislators and read the Congressional Record on hearings and debates.
Topic for speech or term papers? You bet! And as always...your views are yours. They are not reflected in your grades. What is reflected is the balance and academic nature of the research and your presentation.
Attend tonight? I cannot be there, as I am teaching a class. Two or more of the people I mentioned above will be there to talk to. The opportunity to do extra credit by critiquing a speech will also be there, no matter what view you bring in or take with you.
Peace.
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Comments
4 comments:
Anonymous said...
Wow. Breathtakingly misinformed. Let's see if you have the ethical spine to post this comment, or to at least correct your errors.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is NOT withdrawing "its" license application, for it does not have one.
NRC is the independent regulatory agency that adjudicates license applications from licensees.
In this case, the licensee is the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which submitted its license application for a repository at Yucca Mountain in June of 2008.
NRC is the regulatory agency tasked with evaluating the merits of DOE's Yucca Mountain license application and either granting or denying a construction authorization for DOE to build the proposed repository.
Half of the NRC proceeding involves a review of the actual science by NRC Staff technical experts; the other half of the proceeding involves a "courtroom trial" presided over by multiple panels of NRC judges.
But, of course, you don't care. For you are one of those Yucca Mountain opponents (i.e., part of the majority) who willfully ignores facts and evidence -- even of the most straightforward kind, like who the parties in a dispute are.
Have your wake, but realize that you are also laying to rest our society's respect for truth, facts, evidence, and the Reality Principle.
March 9, 2010 9:03 AM
Anonymous said...
Holy cow! And you teach journalism? Please don't tell me you teach the ethics of journalism!
You can't even get the basic facts straight, like the fact that it is the Department of Energy's license application for Yucca Mountain, not the Nuclear Regulatory Commission?
You don't even understand that the NRC is an independent, impartial regulatory agency tasked, in this particular case, with hearing arguments and assessing the technical soundness of DOE's license application and either granting or denying a construction authorization?
You don't realize that DOE has merely submitted a motion seeking a withdrawal of its Yucca Mountain license application, and that the NRC judges must rule on the motion and either grant it or deny it? And that the NRC judges must also decide on what terms to grant the motion (i.e., with or without prejudice)?
If you were in any way serious as a journalist, you would NEVER print a story that implied such ignorance of the basic facts. And you would also look into other aspects of the story (the legality of DOE's request for a withdrawal, the case law surrounding such requests, the lawsuits filed against DOE by Washington and South Carolina, and on and on, ad infinitum).
Wow. My son is majoring in journalism at UNLV. Is this the kind of education he is getting? Was this the kind of stuff he was being taught when he took intro courses at CSN?
I will be submitting complaints to departments at both institutions.
March 9, 2010 9:18 AM
Anonymous said...
From your very own blog:
"Ethical speakers present accurate and balanced information, carefully researching their topics, using reliable sources, and adhering to copyright laws."
You might look into Michel Serres' elegant little essay called "The Algebra of Literature." It's a classic that includes, among other things, an excellent analysis of the word/concept "hypocrisy," which analyzed literally means "to judge from an inferior position."
March 9, 2010 9:30 AM
NOT SALON...Salon gets read!