I love AJE, but I'm regularly surprised over the amount of balls AJE reporters have in making value judgements on the fly. For instance:
Why have alarms not been sounded about radiation exposure in the US?
Nuclear operator Exelon Corporation has been among Barack Obama's biggest campaign donors, and is one of the largest employers in Illinois where Obama was senator. Exelon has donated more than $269,000 to his political campaigns, thus far. Obama also appointed Exelon CEO John Rowe to his Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future.
On the flip side, I'm regularly impressed by how the US media almost never questions, mentions or takes note any of the money and power connections which influence US politics so heavily.
I think the story is deeper than one company who gave $269,000 however.
While they, along with the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and a few other magazines are better than average, they still don't question things in the way I'd like. There's still plenty things that seem to be unspeakable in their journalism.
That paragraph would never get past most decent editors. It's one thing to cite those influences if you have actual evidence that Barack Obama is somehow suppressing those alarms. In the absence of that, this portion is total tin-hat crap.
They might as well write: "Did you know that every day drunk drivers kill hundreds of Americans? Did you know that the president drinks?"
I'm tired of people looking at one dataset in order to attribute sinister motives to a group of people. I bet I can find $269K worth of campaign donations to Obama's campaigns from groups opposed to Exelon's interests. Would Exelon donate money to Obama independent of that fact? I don't know, you don't know, and AJE doesn't know. So why make that judgement other than to sensationalize the story? And they're not the only ones!
BTW, GE's Immelt is on another important commission. So, these appointments are for sale, in effect. Apparently, that's how you win elections these days.
Why have alarms not been sounded about radiation exposure in the US?
Nuclear operator Exelon Corporation has been among Barack Obama's biggest campaign donors, and is one of the largest employers in Illinois where Obama was senator. Exelon has donated more than $269,000 to his political campaigns, thus far. Obama also appointed Exelon CEO John Rowe to his Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future.