Skip to main content

ABC News Hauls Down "Loose Nukes" Discussion Board

By Eric McErlain

After taking a relentless pounding for their reporting in their "Loose Nukes on Main Street" series, ABC News has erased the discussion forum associated with it from abcnews.com. As of right now, a visit to the forum leads to a page that says: "This forum does not exist." It was just a week ago today that we reported that other readers in the forum were discovering that some of their posts were being erased.

Looks like "free speech for me, but not for thee," is the news of the day. More later, as this develops.

Thanks to Joseph Talnagi at Ohio State University for the heads up.

UPDATE: I can also confirm that all of the messages that I posted to the "Loose Nukes" forum have been erased. However, I have started another discussion string in John Stossel's forum asking ABC News why they erased "Loose Nukes." Feel free to join in.

ANOTHER UPDATE: I've also added another discussion string in the Primetime Live discussion board. Thanks to Ryan Meyer at the University of Missouri for the suggestion.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Posters on the message board connected with Primetime Live are now reporting that their messages are being erased:
Postings that have given all too effective a rebuttal of ABC's shoddy and irresponsible Loose Nukes stories are now being shoved down the Memory Hole. ABC's forum managers should be ashamed of themselves. Do you want to become the next CBS?
And here's another challenge from an angry forum participant:
I don't think they were expecting the research reactor community to challenge them so strongly. ABC probably isn't used to being challenged on their own turf, so they took their ball and went home. They were big and brave when they had the stage to themselves on the one hour prime time format, but when they started taking some flak, they pulled the plug.

My guess is that they'll come up with some weak, lame excuse, like "our interns felt threatened by some of those responses". Well, if so, all I can say is, if you're gonna dish it out, you'd better have the guts to stand up and take your lumps. A valuable life lesson for the kids to learn.
Indeed, all too valauble.

Technorati tags: , , , ,

Comments

Anonymous said…
If the discussion forums were presented as web pages, I'll bet that Google or Yahoo has them cached prior to being "edited" by ABC. They'd be easy to retrieve...

It would be sweet to have a posting of what ABC doesn't want seen.

The MSM guys still think they control the game by closing down their distribution channels. Very silly.
October 19, 2005 at 1:49 AM
Stewart Peterson said…
If you want an open and free nuclear energy forum, see:
http://s12.invisionfree.com/NIOF/index.php?showtopic=31
October 19, 2005 at 9:32 AM
Stewart Peterson said…
Perhaps I should clarify that comment a bit.

I've created a thread at the Nuclear is Our Future discussion board about this. It will most certainly not be censored.

Sorry if that sounded like spam.
October 19, 2005 at 9:39 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Activists' Claims Distort Facts about Advanced Reactor Design

By
Below is from our rapid response team . Yesterday, regional anti-nuclear organizations asked federal nuclear energy regulators to launch an investigation into what it claims are “newly identified flaws” in Westinghouse’s advanced reactor design, the AP1000. During a teleconference releasing a report on the subject, participants urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend license reviews of proposed AP1000 reactors. In its news release, even the groups making these allegations provide conflicting information on its findings. In one instance, the groups cite “dozens of corrosion holes” at reactor vessels and in another says that eight holes have been documented. In all cases, there is another containment mechanism that would provide a barrier to radiation release. Below, we examine why these claims are unwarranted and why the AP1000 design certification process should continue as designated by the NRC. Myth: In the AP1000 reactor design, the gap between the shield bu...
23 comments
Read more

What Happens During a Refueling Outage?

By
You may have noticed over the past few weeks that a number of nuclear plants are shut down for refueling outages or are resuming operations after just returning from one. This type of routine outage usually occurs in the spring or fall when electricity demand is low so that nuclear reactors can replace about one-third of the spent fuel rods with new fuel and conduct other routine maintenance and repairs at the plant. To get a better sense of how refueling works at a nuclear energy facility, I spoke with Marcus Nichol, NEI’s senior project manager for used fuel storage and transportation, and asked him to explain the basics. Why does a nuclear plant need to replace one-third of its fuel? Nichol: The main purpose of a refueling outage is to replace older fuel that is depleted—meaning it can no longer efficiently produce energy from nuclear fission reactions—with new fuel. This “used fuel” has typically been used in the reactor for four-and-a-half to six years before it is pe...
6 comments
Read more

Nuclear Utility Moves Up in Credit Ratings, Bank is "Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy"

By
Some positive signs that nuclear utilities can continue to receive positive ratings even while they finance new nuclear plants for the first time in decades: Wells Fargo upgrades SCANA to Outperform from Market Perform Wells analyst says, "YTD, SCG shares have underperformed the Regulated Electrics (total return +2% vs. +9%). Shares trade at 11.3X our 10E EPS, a modest discount to the peer group median of 11.8X. We view the valuation as attractive given a comparatively constructive regulatory environment and potential for above-average long-term EPS growth prospects ... Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy. SCG plans to participate in the development of two regulated nuclear units at a cost of $6.3B, raising legitimate concerns regarding financing and construction. We have carefully considered the risks and are comfortable with SCG’s strategy based on a highly constructive political & regulatory environment, manageable financing needs stretched out over 10 years, strong partners...
Post a Comment
Read more