Media Get Report Cards From Energy Department

Reports on unfavorable news coverage ordered up by Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary reveal persistent concern about the department’s image as it copes with problems in cleaning up highly toxic wastes at sites such as Washington’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

The reports by Carma International, a private research group, evaluate coverage of Hanford, among other issues, between December 1994 and August 1995.

The reports list the top 25 unfavorable news sources in the Pacific Northwest, many of whom were raising questions about department’s cleanup plans at Hanford. Among them: Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, Republican Sen. Slade Gorton and Republican Reps. Doc Hastings and George Nethercutt.

The reports also evaluate the contents of reporters’ articles using a 100-point scale, zero being the least-favorable rating possible and 100 being the most-favorable. A rating of 50 would mean the reporter was neutral.

In December 1994, for instance, Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Joel Connelly got a 48.3; Post-Intelligencer reporter Larry Lange, a 47.5; Seattle Times reporter Robert Nelson, a 45; Richard Cole of The Associated Press, a 65; and Jonathan Marshall of the San Francisco Chronicle, a 70.

The ratings of newspapers also tended to be in the middle range. In January and February of 1995, for example, the Post-Intelligencer was rated at 51; the Seattle Times, 53; the Tri-City Herald, 53; The (Portland) Oregonian, 48; and the San Francisco Examiner, 55.