On rare occasions a local newspaper has the opportunity to cover a major national news story which has a strong impact on its home area.Since the early 1980s The Anniston Star has been reporting such a story, the Army's plans to destroy its aging chemical weapons stored at the Anniston Army Depot and at eight other sites. AAD has one of the larger stockpiles of these weapons and is the incineration site closest to heavily populated areas.
It is a complex story, involving military planning, national politics, an international treaty, scientific and engineering issues and strong, conflicting opinions on incineration and public safety.
How well has The Star covered this story? The answer would mean analyzing hundreds of articles and editorials over nearly two decades.
However, a recent national survey of media coverage of plans for chemical weapons destruction does include some interesting information about The Star and the local press at other disposal sites.
Titled, "A Content Analysis of News Articles Related to U.S. Chemical Weapons Stockpiles Disposal Issues," the report was prepared by a research team at Pennsylvania State University as part of a broader survey for the Army. The study analyzes all media reports on the subject from Dec. 1, 2000, through June 15, 2001.
The study shows (1) The Star provided the most intense coverage of the weapons disposal issue of the seven newspapers at the disposal sites, and (2) Opinions reported in Star articles tended to be more negative toward the Army's incineration plans than those cited by the other newspapers.
During the six-month period covered by the study, there were 164 articles and editorials on the issue in The Star. A distant second among the local papers was the Tooele Transcript-Bulletin, at the Tooele, Utah, site with 73 articles. Six of the local newspapers were small papers; there were 37 articles in the Salt Lake City Deseret News.
Five frequent writers on the issue were identified from the local newspapers. Two were Star staff members, Elizabeth Bluemink and Richard Raeke. They contributed a total of 72 signed stories during this period.
The Star's articles reported more skeptical and negative opinions about the Army and incineration than did the stories in the other newspapers.
A majority of those quoted in the seven papers said they thought the destruction facilities would be safe. However, said the report, articles "by Raeke and Bluemink had more expressions that the plant is unsafe."
Is the Army prepared for accidents at the disposal sites? Articles from the local papers generally found no majority on this issue, positive or negative. But articles by Raeke and Bluemink "had more frequent expressions that the Army is unprepared."
Reports from Anniston found larger majorities of those quoted fearing accidents and believing that the public is uninformed compared to reports from the other sites.
The Star has sometimes been criticized as favoring the Army's incineration plan here and slanting its coverage. This study suggests otherwise, although it does not distinguish between news articles and editorials. It does find that editorials from the papers generally were more sympathetic to the Army's viewpoint than news articles from the same papers.
Some local criticism of The Star's coverage has focused on the paper's editorial support for incineration rather than continued storage while alternative destruction methods are reviewed.
The study leaves many questions unanswered, and it covers only six months. It does seem to show that readers of The Star were provided with more coverage than was available in other newspapers at chemical weapons destruction sites and that Elizabeth Bluemink and Richard Raeke compare well with their peers at other papers.
Noted in Recent Issues
- A comprehensive four-part series by Nathan Solheim on the problems and potentialities of railroad travel and the possibilities of the planned transportation center at the old Southern station. Although it is hard to get excited about anything called a "multi-modal center."
- Superior beat coverage of education by L.E. Forster. She does it all, the analyses and the bright stories. Recent examples, the Nov. 13 story about Clarence and Nellie Satcher, "53 Years of Learning," and the Nov. 26 article analyzing the effects of poverty on learning.
- The column by Angela McLaughlin on the racial incidents at Auburn. African American and an Auburn graduate, she made the impact of the incidents real for readers of all races.
- The teamwork by Basil Penny and Ken Elkins on the Veterans Day feature Nov. 11. They may be retired but they are still among The Star's greatest assets.
- BUT, the headline and article by Washington Correspondent Amy Sieckmann, "Cramer May be Heading to GOP" seemed overwritten. Much seems to be made of very little. Rep. Bud Cramer said he "had no intention" of switching parties, but Sieckmann calls that a "less than emphatic statement of denial." The article was not labeled "analysis." It did report that Sens. Shelby and Sessions are trying to persuade Cramer to switch. This is news?
- AND that was a powerful column by Catherine Downing about the Army's responsibility for the safety of the people during incineration. "They owe us," Oct. 24. It was a thoughtful, well-written column. But, should the wife of a county commissioner be using her newspaper position to comment on a public issue in which the commissioner is involved? I'm inclined to think why not? She's expressing her own opinion. Maybe the connection should have been mentioned.
