THE WHOOPIE CUSHION NATSEC STORY: NBC titillates but does not illuminate with recent nuke plant terror piece
"What if an airplane were to crash into a nuclear plant?" asked NBC's Lisa Myers in an alleged expose on sensitive Nuclear Regulatory Commission documents in public reading libraries nationwide. "How long would it take terrorists to penetrate security barriers outside nuclear facilities? What are the most vulnerable parts of a nuclear plant to attack in order to inflict maximum damage?
"The answers to all those questions, and many more, are available to the public, as NBC News discovered in a recent hidden-camera investigation."
Not exactly. Readers of DD blog now know the standard of the whoopie cushion, or 'gotcha,' newsmedia expose on terror vulnerability. Find some documents that look bad to laymen, round up a couple authority figures to proclaim them roadmaps -- or just plain maps -- to terror, stir and put on the air or publish. NBC followed the formula on November 27, insisting the NRC was not secretive enough, putting the polity in danger by not removing documents on nuclear plants from public reading rooms where they serve a purpose having to do with -- wait for it -- public safety.
"What this means is that we've given the terrorists an easy map in order to find out about our nuclear facilities," 9/11 Commission Chair Thomas Kean told NBC, as republished in Steven Aftergood's Secrecy blog.
"In fact, however, it is simple to think of worse possible things, beginning with publicizing the supposed existence of 'an easy map' for terrorists," astutely retorted Aftergood.
Aftergood continued: "Scolding government bureaucracies for not being secretive enough undermines efforts to achieve the increased openness that the 9/11 Commission said was needed to prevent future terrorist attacks.
"More fundamentally, there are an infinite number of ways to cause destruction and wreak havoc. Using the media to ratchet up public fear over the nightmare scenario du jour is the work of terrorists. It would be a pity to help them."
Aftergood thoughtfully explains why NBC News, in this story, was full of crap -- here.
The newsmedia has an established track record since 9/11 in ratcheting up public fear over threats du jour. Their work is not accompanied by reasonable discussions of what terrorists are actually known to be doing or what their capabilities may be. The work is not accompanied by additional discussion on variables and squishiness inherent in real life, the kinds of things that make possession of an alleged document on how to drive an airplane into just the right spot of a nuclear power plant not the same thing as a certain and inevitable way to it.
DD did a word count of Myers' piece. The result wasn't scintillating -- a little over eight hundred words.
Wow! National security vulnerability disclosed and offered up for serious debate in what wouldn't quite count as an medium-sized essay.
For NBC, Kean -- of course, was a trump card. If a 9/11 Commissioner said it was serious it had to be, right?
“What we learned in the 9/11 investigation was that these terrorists are smart, they're determined, they're willing to work as hard as necessary, they do their research, and they practice,” said Kean to NBC. “These are people who prepare very, very, very carefully. And so, if it's available and there's a way they can get it, they will."
This is no longer particularly true. Perhaps it never was.
It has it uses as rhetoric -- the kind where threat advocacy is being undertaken, the juicing of an alleged vulnerability so that your voice may be heard above the din of others in the same business.
With GlobalSecurity.Org Senior Fellow T-shirt on, DD has shown numerous instances in which terrorists think they are preparing very carefully but are not. It has shown a number of cases in which their hard work and alleged research is nothing of the kind. Terrorists must be evaluated case by case, not given blanket powers because of one big victory.
Rampant worst-case scenario concoction and whoopie cushion vulnerability assessments are really bad habits, almost vices, that are now part of the American toolbox -- a very flawed one -- in the war on terror. And when the newsmedia pretends to take them up as a public service they are made worse.
"What if an airplane were to crash into a nuclear plant?" asked NBC's Lisa Myers in an alleged expose on sensitive Nuclear Regulatory Commission documents in public reading libraries nationwide. "How long would it take terrorists to penetrate security barriers outside nuclear facilities? What are the most vulnerable parts of a nuclear plant to attack in order to inflict maximum damage?
"The answers to all those questions, and many more, are available to the public, as NBC News discovered in a recent hidden-camera investigation."
Not exactly. Readers of DD blog now know the standard of the whoopie cushion, or 'gotcha,' newsmedia expose on terror vulnerability. Find some documents that look bad to laymen, round up a couple authority figures to proclaim them roadmaps -- or just plain maps -- to terror, stir and put on the air or publish. NBC followed the formula on November 27, insisting the NRC was not secretive enough, putting the polity in danger by not removing documents on nuclear plants from public reading rooms where they serve a purpose having to do with -- wait for it -- public safety.
"What this means is that we've given the terrorists an easy map in order to find out about our nuclear facilities," 9/11 Commission Chair Thomas Kean told NBC, as republished in Steven Aftergood's Secrecy blog.
"In fact, however, it is simple to think of worse possible things, beginning with publicizing the supposed existence of 'an easy map' for terrorists," astutely retorted Aftergood.
Aftergood continued: "Scolding government bureaucracies for not being secretive enough undermines efforts to achieve the increased openness that the 9/11 Commission said was needed to prevent future terrorist attacks.
"More fundamentally, there are an infinite number of ways to cause destruction and wreak havoc. Using the media to ratchet up public fear over the nightmare scenario du jour is the work of terrorists. It would be a pity to help them."
Aftergood thoughtfully explains why NBC News, in this story, was full of crap -- here.
The newsmedia has an established track record since 9/11 in ratcheting up public fear over threats du jour. Their work is not accompanied by reasonable discussions of what terrorists are actually known to be doing or what their capabilities may be. The work is not accompanied by additional discussion on variables and squishiness inherent in real life, the kinds of things that make possession of an alleged document on how to drive an airplane into just the right spot of a nuclear power plant not the same thing as a certain and inevitable way to it.
DD did a word count of Myers' piece. The result wasn't scintillating -- a little over eight hundred words.
Wow! National security vulnerability disclosed and offered up for serious debate in what wouldn't quite count as an medium-sized essay.
For NBC, Kean -- of course, was a trump card. If a 9/11 Commissioner said it was serious it had to be, right?
“What we learned in the 9/11 investigation was that these terrorists are smart, they're determined, they're willing to work as hard as necessary, they do their research, and they practice,” said Kean to NBC. “These are people who prepare very, very, very carefully. And so, if it's available and there's a way they can get it, they will."
This is no longer particularly true. Perhaps it never was.
It has it uses as rhetoric -- the kind where threat advocacy is being undertaken, the juicing of an alleged vulnerability so that your voice may be heard above the din of others in the same business.
With GlobalSecurity.Org Senior Fellow T-shirt on, DD has shown numerous instances in which terrorists think they are preparing very carefully but are not. It has shown a number of cases in which their hard work and alleged research is nothing of the kind. Terrorists must be evaluated case by case, not given blanket powers because of one big victory.
Rampant worst-case scenario concoction and whoopie cushion vulnerability assessments are really bad habits, almost vices, that are now part of the American toolbox -- a very flawed one -- in the war on terror. And when the newsmedia pretends to take them up as a public service they are made worse.
posted by George Smith at 11:47 AM
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