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Caught in a bind: how to report on a negative? Minuscule levels of radioactive iodine turn up in routine testing of cow's milk. The traces are less harmful than the radiation from potassium in a banana or from the sun's rays in a jetliner cabin. It is a journalist's job to convey that reassuring message; yet devoting so much attention into making that reassurance a headline story sends precisely the opposite message, elevating anxiety instead. CBS, with substitute anchor Erica Hill, tried to downplay the iodine story by leading with Libya instead, which turned out to be Story of the Day. NBC and ABC fell into the trap, turning their reporting on the absence of any need to worry into a lead story that implied that the worry was warranted.

How worrying is that iodine? ABC's Abbie Boudreau was told to be more concerned about milk that is curdled than milk that is radioactive. CBS' John Blackstone was told that anxiety from worrying about radioactive milk is more harmful to one's health than the actual iodine isotope. NBC's Tom Costello was told that the iodine amounted to "a speck of dust."

As for Libya, ABC has made a decision this week (14 min v NBC 28, CBS 25) to remove the struggle to oust Moammar Khadafy from the top of its news agenda, filing only one package, by Alex Marquardt on Monday, from Libya itself. By contrast, both NBC and CBS have filed five stories from Libya so far this week, with Richard Engel and Mandy Clark respectively reporting daily from the frontlines.

Check out Clark's latest bloodcurdling effort. Very Mad Max.

Andrew Tyndall 4/1/11 8:18:52 pm

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