CNN American Morning Sells Out Cancer Survivor for Coal

COAL IN YOUR STOCKING THIS CHRISTMAS: CNN
CNN's report on coal ash was welcome attention from a national news
outlet for the people near Little Blue Run. But the coverage left a
mis-impression and was neither objective nor without bias as CNN often
claims. The coal industry is one of CNN's sponsors, and their
commercial airing during the report is tantamount to a rebuttal of the
claims of the citizens harmed by the industry. Not only is the
commercial inaccurate propaganda; the industry perspective is
furthered by the reporting. Some of CNN's news report was wrong or
uninformed. Opinion was given as fact, and worse, it was the opinion
of the sponsor. It cannot be considered objective journalism to report
on a story when one of the parties is supporting it financially. In
fact, After the Press considers the very idea of objectivity to be
false and misleading. After the Press does not claim to be objective
and instead provides the views of Paul Joffe, whose opinions are
clearly stated. Little Blue Run is a coal ash dump owned by First
Energy. The company promised the residents back in the '70s that it
would build a retention pond that they could use for boating and
recreation -- just like the one shown in the Clean Coal commercial. At
this time there is no operational Clean Coal technology. Coal contains
small amounts of heavy metals like selenium, cadmium, arsenic, and
lead. When coal is burned, whatever doesn't burn is left over, and
it's called fly ash. Heavy metals don't burn, so they are concentrated
in the fly ash. In creating Little Blue Run, the waste dump, First
Energy mixes the ash with water and pumps it through a large pipe to a
valley that they bought in rural Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The
flow of ash-water filled up an entire farming valley on the border
between those two states, and a dam was built to hold back the ash
mud. No liner was installed to keep the heavy metals from percolating
into the water table and poisoning local wells. As the water
evaporates from the top of the dump, the ash forms a dry layer. The
ash is called fly ash because it is very light and will blow away in a
wind; however, no cap was installed to keep that from happening. A
similar fly ash dam-dump collapsed in Kingston, Tennessee, leading to
a violent poisonous flood. There was another "waste impoundment" flood
in Hungary outside a copper factory. CNN's report followed the
Hungarian collapse, which was covered briefly on the same program.
However, again, CNN is sponsored by the coal industry's trade
association: "The Coalition for Clean Coal", which promotes the
fiction that new technology makes burning coal clean. In reality First
Energy won't even use old technology to clean up their toxic waste
dump. The air around the plant is so toxic that it pits car paint.
First Energy's answer to that is paying for paint jobs on local cars.


for more information:
Citizens Against Coal Ash
www.citizensagainstcoalash.yolasite.com
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid...
www.sierraclub.org/coal/pa

• Category

  News & Politics

[afterthepress]

thanks - the bus has the office and edit room and we live in the back while on the road. it gets an incredible 7-11 mph like the largest gas pick up trucks because of a great engine from detroit diesel.

[dsspike51]

coal company extortion. Make us respect the environment and peoples health and we'll force you to pay more.

[peterpotpie]

Thank you for the great job you are doing. Education is where it starts. 

[mamagrogan]

i grew up less then 3 miles from this place. its leach has been found in the ground and public water for over a decade, cancer, premature births and birth defects are soooo prevalent there, at 30 im facing cancer for the 2nd time

[72marie]

You are someone i would love to watch,you need your own show! but you are way to honest for the news media! You would never be accepted in there club...

[AquarielCharms]

I watch CNN sometimes & blogged AC many times since the Gulf disaster, LIARS! People really believe coal & nuclear are clean energies? What about the hundreds of miles of mountaintops removed, the sludge & mercury destroying water & the radioactive waste that must be buried? I'm fed up with the insane who run this country, the oil vampires, the bankers, armies who protect the oil companies & the Vatican for not speaking up. I want them gone! (For fighting cancer see my channel for H202 info).

[Renathra]

Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Clean Coal.... all fiction that adults should be able to understand. Turn off your HD mind-control for a minute and look at the real news like this. Great job! Kinda wonderin why you're not wearing a shirt under your jacket though, lol.

[MsArgentana]

I write from Europe. I wonder if americans understand REALLY on whom depend all echologic disaster as gulf spill and many others. Remember when vote. Is the same we try to do here. Hopefully...

[Fromplefeet]

legalize "Hemp"!