MediaWatch: June 1994
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: June 1994
- Network Contrast of Hill and Jones Show Dramatic Differences in Coverage, Tone
- NewsBites: Festival of Hate?
- Revolving Door: Selling Sarbanes
- Media Mourn 17-Count Indictment as Tragedy for the Country
- DDT, Eco-Racism Threats?
- Blaming the Victim?
- Raines Rains on Reagan
- Janet Cooke Award: Newsweek Hailed Hill, But Questions Jones' Credibility and Sexual Behavior
DDT, Eco-Racism Threats?
What's Not News
Reporters often cover studies embracing liberal environmental themes, but studies that refute them go unreported. ABC and CBS both jumped on a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that claimed the pesticide DDT is a likely cause of breast cancer. On the April 20, 1993 CBS Evening News, Dr. Bob Arnot warned: "High levels of DDT are linked to a four times greater risk of breast cancer...Advocacy groups say contamination of the environment may be the biggest and most overlooked cause of today's epidemic."
While admitting the link was preliminary, Prime Time Live anchor Diane Sawyer on December 9 compared women with breast cancer who were exposed to the chemical to canaries in coal mines. Showing old footage of pesticide spraying, she said "How naive we all seem when after the war DDT was given a hero's welcome. It was the miracle chemical and all through the '40s, '50s, and '60s, the Public Health Service marveled that the chemicals were so safe." The real naivete may lie with reporters who jump on the findings of one study and present the conclusions as fact.
Last month the same National Cancer Institute journal published another study which found no link between DDT and breast cancer. The newer study is considered superior because it included more blood samples taken from women at a time when DDT levels found in blood were higher. But only NBC Nightly News ran a brief item on the newer study.
Spurred on by "studies" from liberal interest groups, NBC's Sara James and CBS's John Roberts reported on the threat of environmental racism. "Three out of five black and Latino Americans live near toxic waste sites...Studies indicate race is a stronger predictor than income of where hazardous waste sites are located," claimed James on the June 7, 1993 Nightly News.
On May 10, The Boston Globe reported researchers at the University of Massachusetts examining Census data found "'there is no national pattern of environmental racism'" in the siting of incinerators and treatment plants. The study "concluded that facilities are concentrated in industrial areas but are no more likely to be in areas with large black and Hispanic populations than elsewhere." None of the networks covered that.
