PBS Newshour Smart Meter Coverage
An international grassroots resistance against smart meters has been going on for more than two years now, but you wouldn’t know it if you got your news solely from national broadcast TV. That changed on Friday when PBS Newshour aired a segment on the health and privacy debate around smart meters. Better late than never.
You know the industry is getting desperate when they have to recycle 7 year old statements from the World Health Organization to distract from the 1 year old statement(pdf) saying there’s a problem with microwaves and cancer. Despite the fact that the scientific studies we sent to PBS were not presented, that only experts from the pro-industry side were interviewed for the piece, and that it appeared only Californians were up in arms about the deployment (and then only 12 cities, not 57 local governments that we told PBS about) we suppose that the fact that they are acknowledging that there is a major debate over health and privacy issues related to the smart grid- is a giant step forward for the corporate media.
One interesting aspect of the piece is the extent to which the CPUC- meant to be regulating the utilities to protect our wallets, safety, and health, is placed in the role of championing the smart meter project in spite of its damaging impact to all three of these goals. PG&E almost looked like a reluctant kid sister pulled along for the ride.
There is a detailed analysis about the piece, along with various comments from activists and professionals working on this issue, over at EON’s site. Please also go to the PBS siteand try and leave a comment- though we hear people have submitted comments and they have not been published. Something to make you go, “hmmmmm….”
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