Journalist Wall of Shame - Bad Irresponsible Reporting of the Japanese Earthquake/Nuclear Crisis

I found this site the other day and found it amusing, sad, and infuriating. After having to deal with fear-mongers, misinformants, and just plain crackpots online such as some here on Current, this site came as something of a relief and revelation as to where many people were getting their (mis)information.

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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 on March 11. We feel that contacting each and every publication and reporter every time a bad report shows up independently 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.

Severity of Offense scores

1 - 2: Probably unintentional, and based on bad info that seemed legit
3 - 4: Not malicious, just misunderstanding of the situation
5 - 6: Reporting without checking easily-confirmed facts; lazy as opposed to malicious OR just dumb fluff piece using human tragedy as a background.
7 - 8: No fact checking; printing rumours as fact; sensational story more important than actual truth
9 : Fear mongering.
10 : Hysterical fear-mongering along with racial/cultural/political bias
11 : Satan

Some choice examples:

*Gordon Rayner and Martin Evans - 9

The Telegraph (London)
Sensational headline - "Just 48 hours to avoid 'another Chernobyl'" - based on quotes from French bureaucrat, not a nuclear expert. Quotes from actual nuclear expert, saying Fukushima situation is in fact 'not like Chernobyl,' buried in third-last paragraph.

*Pieter Huyberechts - 7

Het Nieuwsblad, De Standaard (Belgium)

"Japanese don't know what's happening"
[condescending]

"They vaguely had heard about 'something bad' happening in Sendai. When I show them pictures of the carnage caused by the tsunami they open their eyes in surprise. Nobody seems to realize the fact that a life threatening radioactive cloud is heading their way."
[sensational, condescending, insufficient research]

*BBC News Website - 7

Pic 5 of 20 - "In Sendai the full scale of the disaster could be seen from the air. Few buildings remain standing in the city that was home to some million people." Accompanying a picture of Minami Sanriku.
Suggesting that a city of a million people has been almost completely wiped out and accompanying it with a picture of a town of 20,000 people whilst there are countless BBC journalists on the ground in Sendai is grossly irresponsible.

*Your World With Neil Cavuto - 5

FOX TV
Screen graphic showing the nuclear power plants in Japan; includes one called "Shibuya Eggman" which is actually a niteclub in downtown Tokyo!

*Virginia Wheeler - 9

The Sun (UK)
Using paranoic Tokyo shut-in as sole source; Photo of "crowded" Tokyo airport that could have been taken in Golden Week; implying that face masks are related to radiation and not pollen allergies; obvious fear mongering and misinformation.

*CNN (US) - 9

CNN television in the U.S. has been showing on-screen headline banners that are unnecessarily alarmist. From just this morning:
Radiation Could Reach US Friday.
Nuclear Cooling Has Failed.

*John Vidal and Damian Carrington - 6

Guardian (UK)
Quoting a Greenpeace-sponsored "expert" and another expert on past Japanese government coverups, and TEPCO lies, to conclude: " The Japanese government has always tended to underplay accidents. At the moment the Japanese claims of safety are not to be believed by anyone." and claiming there are no radiation levels being provided.

*BILD Zeitung (Germany) - 9

Headline titeling "Atomic Horror" mit 4 (!) exclamation marks. The picture on the front shows a person with gasmask/some suit against radioactive pollution. In the background a devastated landscape is shown. On first sight it looks like a nuclear desert, however it is a picture from the destruction caused by the Tsunami. On the next pages they ask: "And what´s up with the Sushi in the restaurants. Can we still eat it"?

*Tim Willcox - 8

BBC News
Tim Willcox insinuating Tokyoites wearing masks due to radiation fears when it is really due to the fact that it`s cedar pollen season which affects many people in Tokyo.

*Edgar Galicia - 10

TVAzteca Noticias
This reporter and his team made wrong translations from Japanese to Spanish. For example at minute 00:18 the Japanese man says "Please stop recording my face" and the news translated as "these are the remains of my house".
In another part at 2:03 there is a Japanese lady saying "here we make simulations (for earthquake) every year " and they translated as "we will never forget this"

*Bill Kaufman - 8

The Calgary Sun
Interviews a man who has family "trapped" without food, in Northern Chiba, which they make out to be closer to the epicenter of the tragedy than it was. Liberal doses of all of the issues - nuclear holocaust, no food or supplies. Also misrepresents attribution of the voluntary evacuations for US and British citizens as being from radiation, where as they are travel warnings due to disruptions in Tokyo.
Also use of the word "trapped" in the title. If they are in Chiba, can't they simply hop on over to Narita?

*Chris Hogg - 5
BBC News Website - Asia Pacific
"Again it is the stalwart exterior that is on show, but you have to wonder how much uncertainty there is behind the mask. As a foreigner in Japan, that is a question you'll almost never get an answer to."

Stereotyping based on assumptions, not facts.

*Hayden Cooper - 5

ABC TV (Australia) Midday News When trying to hype up a story with the byline "Radioactive food fears grow in Japan" used footage of food vendors in Ame-mura (clearly showing the sign above the street in Japanese).

Only problem is that this street is in Osaka (western Japan) nowhere near Fukushima and any food production sites that may be affected by radiation.

Also conveniently glosses over that fact that food and milk products from any of the affected areas in Fukushima have already been quarantined and are not for sale in any region.

*David Gutnick - 10

CBC Radio /The Current

Gutnick travelled to Horoshima determined to establish a link between radiation poisoning from the Hiroshima bombing and the potential for radiantion poisoning at the Fukushima nuclear station. He interviewed a few citizens who, although painfully polite, brushed off his nonsense with comments about the bombing being an act of war and whereas the ongoing difficulty at Fukushima was an unfortunate failure resulting from the force of nature. A few seemed to be offended that he would attempt the equation, and from the hysterical tone that crept into his voice, it was clear that Gutnick found their common-sense replies offensive.

*Bill O'Reil & FOX news - 7

Fox has been using the word "nuke" instead of nuclear. They constantly called the nuclear facilities "nuke plants" which gives a much worse connotation. If you google: fox Japan nuke, you can find tons of stuff. It was their standard practice to use the word nuke instead of nuclear

Also, when it was being reported about the possible meltdown, FOX kept using the word "likely"
-Nuke Plants Likely to Meltdown.