Rightist Centrist Sources: The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster

Similar standards of reporting could be seen on the opposite side of the political spectrum. Rightist news outlets catered to those aligned with the political right, namely fiscal and social conservatives. Generally speaking, right leaning news outlets believed that the Soviet government’s response to the disaster was adequate and that the environmental damage done was far less than initially estimated. Prior to Chernobyl, rightist news outlets rarely covered the U.S.S.R. as they focused primarily on domestic issues. When news of Chernobyl broke, rightist sources were slow to report on the disaster, and in the few instances that they did, the right leaning news outlets simply stated the facts known, but contradicted the speculation of the leftist

In reporting the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, centrist news outlets attempted to relay the information in a fair and unbiased manner. The Chicago Tribune notably reported the Chernobyl nuclear disaster from a purely objective point of view. The article adapted by The Tribune was written in a logical manner with almost no personal commentary. For example, when referring to the events, the authors write, “the events leading to the accident were said to have begun at 1 a.m. on Friday, April 25, when operators began to reduce power in reactor No. 4 for a test to measure residual energy produced by the turbine and generator after the reactor is shut down” (“Warning Signs Of Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster Were Ignored, Soviets Say” 1). Unlike leftist and rightist news outlets, The Chicago Tribune not only reported from the third person, but they did not speculate to the cause or the implications of the disaster. Furthermore in the same article, reporters included expert testimony in the form of nuclear scientists. The author writes that the nuclear scientists commented, “the Chernobyl unit was a type of reactor that is particularly difficult to run and control” (“Warning Signs Of Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster Were Ignored, Soviets Say” 2). By including expert testimony throughout the article and excluding political commentary, the centrist news outlets presented the facts of the event in an unbiased manner. Another centrist news article titled “Cause and impact of Chernobyl accident still hazy” echoed some of the same techniques of The Chicago Tribune. Unlike The Tribune however, speculation was more evident in the article. The author, Barbara Levi, attempted to factually report on the mechanics on the meltdown, but when reporting on the scale of the disaster, she speculated on the scope of the damage. She states that the amount of iodine particulates released could be “perhaps a million