Saturday, December 27, 2008

TVA Coal Ash Flood Coverage Comparison Update (Jan. 6): An ongoing summary of Coverage of the TVA Coal Ash Spill is being compiled by ilovemountains.org, including national and regional news headlines and links to Google, Yahoo and MSN aggregators, which find more than 4,000 stories in the past week alone. I saved a bunch of links to the developing coverage of the Tennessee Valley Authority "ash flood" in East Tennessee after reading Knoxville bloggers' comments on the slim coverage by national media. Included are links to brand-name media, TVA,  environmental organizations and area bloggers. Maybe when the students come back we'll be able to discuss the evolution of the story and what was undercovered or overcovered, check the math for all those attempts to give readers a visual image of the size of the affected area -- "how many olympic swimming pools?" estimates, comparisons to oil spills of the past, etc.   My first source was "the blogger formerly known as SouthKnox Bubba," who now runs an excellent community site where "TVA" is a keyword tag: http://knoxviews.com/taxonomy/term/178 Then I checked the two largest-circulation newspapers in the USA: Dam Bursts in Tennessee, Damaging a Dozen Homes http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122999015454428371.html (AP story, WSJ search shows no followup from Dec. 22 to Dec. 27) TVA dike bursts in Tenn.; 15 homes flooded http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-12-22-tva-flooding_N.htm (AP story; no follow up for five days.) Nice of USA Today to use a Google map to pinpoint the town of "Herriman." Too bad someone spelled the name wrong on the map graphic. Appalachian Voices environmental news blog: http://www.appvoices.org/index.php?/frontporch/ http://www.appvoices.org/index.php?/frontporch/blogposts/app_voices_takes_flyover_of_tva_spill/ Center for Environmental  Journalism, U. of Colorado: http://www.cejournal.net/?p=183 United Mountain Defense http://www.unitedmountaindefense.org/ Knoxville News Sentinel says "tripled" http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/dec/27/spillage-amount-tripled/ http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/dec/27/tva-cleanup/ Knoxville TV says "double" http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=72702 So does AP in Minnesota http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_11314203?nclick_check=1 News Sentinel Web guru Jack Lail added an early "link roundup" to the News Sentinel site, which rapidly grew to more than 30 headlines. "The story is getting worldwide attention from various news sources, bloggers and environmental sites." Columnist Michael Silence kept an eye on national media coverage. Elsewhere, gentle/harsh language on a different News Sentinel aggregator page, headed "TVA Pond Breach..." The summary below the heading now calls it "an ecological disaster." This page archives more than 20 of the newspaper's own stories, plus pictures and scores of comments. Perhaps the "pond breach" heading -- and storing the developing news in the "business" section --  dates back to the first story.  http://www.knoxnews.com/news/business/tva-pond-breach-roane-county/ http://www.knoxnews.com/news/business/tva-pond-breach-roane-county/?page=2 "Tennessee Green" section of Nashville Tennessean newspaper: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20081222/NEWS01/81222006/1906/GREEN (Only the Dec. 22 AP story again, but more than 20 local comments, some identifying themselves as former TVA employees saying "no surprise.") Local reporters bylined on this one: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20081223/GREEN02/812230370/1001/RSS6001 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/us/27sludge.html http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch?query=tennessee+valley+authority&;srchst=cse http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/25/us/25sludge.html?scp=3&;sq=ash&st=cse http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/24/us/24mud.html?scp=4&;sq=ash&st=cse Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/26/AR2008122601669.html javascript:void(popitupbig('http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2008/12/25/PH2008122500320.html',650,850)) TVA creates "emergency" Web page with video of press conference: http://tva.gov/emergency/ashslide_kingston.htm http://tva.gov/emergency/12_23_pc.htm More local TV: "6 News talked with an environmentalist who says TVA is not doing enough to warn people about the potential danger..." http://www.wate.com/global/story.asp?s=9583461 "After nearly a week of uncertainty whether their drinking water, air, and ground water was safe, Roane Countians received good news Friday evening..." http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=72704 (Comments range from "Someone call Erin Brockovich" to a poem that rhymed "confuse" with "hangman's noose.") CNN: Tennessee sludge spill estimate grows to 1 billion gallons http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/26/tennessee.sludge/index.html http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/23/tennessee.sludge.spill/index.html MSNBC: Group urges stronger warnings over sludge: Some fear coal-ash spill in Tennessee could pose health risks (short AP story, but link to original video) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28399868/ NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98741600&;ft=1&f=1001 No news from Al Gore, but a dozen contributions at Current.TV , mostly links to newspapers and network TV, but with space for original comments. Democracy Now: "Greenpeace is calling for a criminal investigation." http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/24/spill_at_tennessee_coal_plant_creates Back to where I started: Reports from local bloggers, media watchers and citizen journalists: http://knoxviews.com/node/9983 http://knoxviews.com/node/9980 http://roaneviews.com/?q=node/1754 http://roaneviews.com/node/1786 http://cupofjoepowell.blogspot.com/2008/12/tvas-toxic-coal-ash-disaster-impact-may.html http://dirtycoaltva.blogspot.com/ http://bethwellington.blogspot.com/2008/12/happy-holidays.html http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2008/12/23/ash-flood-superfund/ https://php.radford.edu/~wkovarik/drupal/?q=node/59 http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&;aid=156134 Google blog search for "tennessee coal ash": 12,600 hits when I checked on Saturday afternoon. And this popped up as an advertisement: http://www.levinlaw.com/PracticeAreas/Tennessee-Coal-Ash-Spill.asp 2:49:15 PM    comment []

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