Deflection Detection

As the morning sun shines through the trees and my tea steeps into something dark and wonderful to then be stepped-on by raw sugar and cream, the news of the day is oddly different than the week’s moment-by-moment coverage of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant in Japan. Suddenly, Muammmar Gaddafi has risen from the sidelines. Oh, riiiight. That uprising is still alive, although Gaddafi has decided to call off the random slaughter of Libya’s citizens under UN pressure. Interesting.
 
Waiting patiently for further details on the little tidbit that the nuclear plant’s radiation leakage “is getting worse and is up to a dangerous Level 5” -- a mere 2 levels away from Chernobyl’s top-of-the-leak-sweeps of 7 -- I remain on the news channel. Okaayyyy. Tell me more.
 
Nope. Donald Trump’s supposed run for the presidency is trumping the conversation. “Is he really the best the GOP can do for 2012?” baffled pundits ask with nary a hint of sarcasm.
 
Channel change. I tune in just as a reporter says ”….this devastating situation in Japan.” I hang in, hoping for a few more facts. Wrong. Next is a story on Saudi Arabia: “King Abdullah announced today that he would provide billions of dollars in handouts for his people and would boost his security apparatus in a renewed effort to shield his country from the unrest that has rocked the Arab world.”
 
Wow! Smart King, eh? Bribes can work when you’re talking billions. I think I live in the wrong country. Per Reuters, “Amongst a wave of new spending, the decrees outlined a boost in welfare benefits, bonuses for public sector workers, including the army, and a massive drive to build new housing.”  Hmmmm. Sounds a bit Socialist to me. You know, paying public workers higher wages and assisting the poor.
 
Pre-commercial tease: “Coming up, radiation levels expected to reach the Pacific Northwest and sections of California may be higher than first reported.” Now we’re on to the news I want to know.
 
Quick channel change to another news outlet during the other channel’s commercial break. What? Charlie Sheen is in New York! Soooooo? The Warlock hasn’t dropped from view. Er, yes he has, I think to myself as I once again change the channel back to where the latest radiation news was teased.



No real news here. It’s a non-informative POV on the disaster. Once hyped-up news reporters are back in Manhattan and Los Angeles studios, sheepishly explaining how their networks sent them away from radiation danger which is why we’re watching them in full makeup behind a desk or in front of a row of TV monitors bathed in blue hues and shiny techie thingy's to remind us how “state of the art” their studios are; thus, their news prowess.
 
Tired of little teases with no result thus far, I check various news sites online. The huge headline print on The Huffington Post that hits one in the face like one is almost blind, is curiously less screaming about Japan and radiation (although that may change as the day goes on). One of the lead stories tells us that earlier in the week, Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the Defense Department's Cyber Command, told Congress that he would give the military a grade of C in its ability to protect Pentagon networks, but said things are much better than they were a few years ago and continue to improve.
 
Gee thanks. Nice to know our country is semi-cyber protected and better than it “used” to be. But….. "We are finding that we do not have the capacity to do everything we need to accomplish. To put it bluntly, we are very thin, and a crisis would quickly stress our cyber forces," Alexander said. "We cannot afford to allow cyberspace to be a sanctuary where real and potential adversaries can marshal forces and capabilities to use against us and our allies. This is not a hypothetical danger." (HuffPost)
 
Feeling safe and assured by yet another half-arsed security comment by yet another official without a clue, I return my attention to the TV. Ahhh. Finally. Andrea Mitchell is conducting an interview with California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom about the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant in California. What? The Lt. Gov? Where’s Governor Jerry Brown? Oh, Gavin just said, “Not to alarm, but……” re: Diablo. Thanks, Gavin.
 
I get it. President Obama told everyone in his news conference yesterday that no “harmful radiation” levels will reach the U.S. West Coast, Alaska, etc. All is well. Not to worry. See ya’ later…..
 
Meanwhile, without most news outlets’ first-hand, on the ground, reporters stories, the situation is now in the distance – not in our faces – although the radiation levels continue to rise just like the water rose when it slipped and toppled over and through the cracked levies during Katrina.
 
Subdued coverage – literally overnight – of the story of the week that has not yet come to an end doesn’t create panic within my being; it merely tells me a muzzle has been sent out to curb a mass exodus from certain U.S. locales and turn the focus away from potential chaos to stories with less direct or immediate consequences beyond oil prices.
 
Hmmmmm.