(WMR)—The Japanese corporate- and government-run major media in Japan is downplaying the bad news on the earthquakes and nuclear radiation disasters that are affecting the world’s third largest economic power.
A European intelligence source who visited Japan to assess the post-quake/tsunami situation reports that the Japanese public is being told very little about the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor disaster or the reasons why Japan has been rocked by so many 6.0+ quakes, called “aftershocks,” after the devastating 9.0 quake and resulting tsunami. Many Japanese are bewildered about the non-stop quakes that are shaking the main island of Honshu and cannot understand why they are not being told more by their media.
Adding to the Japanese public’s fears about the recurring quakes is the virtual blackout on news about the harmful effects of the Fukushima reactor meltdown and the fact that the nuclear incident has been rated a Level 7 in severity, on par with the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.
Chernobyl adversely affected Europe’s food supply for years, with high levels of radiation being measured in Finnish and Swedish reindeer and even Welsh sheep. The Japanese, highly dependent on food from the sea, are not being given the full picture of the radiation danger posed to marine life and the oceanic food chain.
Not only is Japan’s seafood source a radiation threat but abnormally high levels of radiation found in rainwater in Tokyo and Osaka, where the bulk of Japan’s population works and lives, poses a threat to agricultural, dairy, and drinking water supplies.
WMR’s source reports that only the local prefecture-based media is reporting the danger to the public posed by the radiation levels. On the other hand, the Japanese government-owned NHK broadcasting network has acted as a virtual public relations arm of the government of Prime Minister Naoto Kan and the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
The Japanese media underplaying of the nuclear disaster is being echoed in the Western media, particularly in the United States. Fukushima reactor provider General Electric, part owner of NBC and its affiliates, has done its very best to pay scant regard to the public dangers posed by the Fukushima disaster to the people of Japan and other countries, including the United States. GE’s chief executive officer Jeffrey Immelt is a top adviser to President Obama and one of his major campaign donors. NBC’s cover-up of the Japanese nuclear disaster is being mirrored by the other corporate-owned media in the United States and abroad, calling into question the journalistic ethics of broadcasters and print media reporters, editors, and producers. Journalists’ first responsibility is to serve the public good, not prop up corporate bottom lines and protect a nuclear industry-influenced White House and Congress. As H.L. Mencken once wrote, the twin responsibilities of a true journalist are “to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.”
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2011 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
