Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Why Does This Not Shock Me?

The Sankei Shimbun, in a bit of title legerdemain, has made it seem as though it has been given an exclusive look inside the Diet commission report on the Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima Dai'ichi nuclear power plant disaster -- and that the conclusions are damning:

東電の調査報告書案「官邸の介入、無用な混乱助長させた」

"The Draft Tokyo Electric Power Investigation Report: 'The Intervention of the Prime Minister's Office Fomented Needless Confusion'"

Read that headline too quickly and after hearing so much about the Diet-appointed commission investigating the disaster, and you might misassociate the news flash with a leak from the Diet commission draft report.

Only when you read the article do you realize that what Sankei is promoting as an exclusive is a leak from Tokyo Electric Power Company's own internal report that the company is compiling to compete with the Diet commission's report. TEPCO's report find (gasp) that the Kan government's bypassing of TEPCO's information controls interfered with operations at the Fukushima Dai'ichi plant.

(Link)

Why am I not shocked -- at TEPCO's conclusions and the way the Sankei Shimbun has filed this story?


2 comments:

Avery said...

東電の調査報告書案

I would translate this "TEPCO's Investigative Report Draft", which seems to be the literal way to read it...

MTC said...

Avery -

Yes, that is correct. However, the clear intent of the phrasing of the headline was to repeat the misleading narrative established by corporate reform fixer, Yomiuri media group commentator and Tokyo denryoku genshiryoku hatsuden chosa iinkai member Nomura Shuya -- that the Diet commission's final report will contain accusations precisely like those in this Sankei headline. The hurried newreader just scanning the headlines most likely is not aware that TEPCO has its own ongoing internal investigation into exactly the same subjects the Diet commission is examining.