Word: public
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Unfortunately for Douglas, the nuclear industry isn't playing along. General Electric, which manufactures equipment for nuclear plants, withdrew its sponsorship of a Barbara Walters T.V. special because Fonda talked about "The China Syndrome" on it. G.E. said its sponsorship would be "inappropriate" because the film could "cause undue public concern" about nuclear power. Douglas points out that G.E. hasn't seen the film yet and so doesn't know whether the concern is "undue," but G.E.'s worry seems warranted. A nuclear energy trade association has sent out reams of positive material on nuclear energy to film reviewers...
Fonda, a "Happy news" reporter seeking a more substantial story, goes with cameraman Douglas to film a special at a nuclear power plant outside Los Angeles where Lemmon is the control-room supervisor. While getting the standard tour from the plant's public relations man, buzzers ring, bells clang, the control panel lights up like a Christmas tree gone berserk, and the building shakes. Clearly, something is wrong...
...mild word. Everybody jumps at that. And it takes a little while to get beyond that to understand why the real crux of the film...is the power behind the power--whether it's nuclear or anti-nuclear. It's the suppression of the story getting out. Was the public interest ever really at heart? Or was it just a corporate decision where money became more important than human life? Decent men doing indecent things. Because the values, the options, the priorities were screwed up. In other words, what are the choices? What are the options? Where is the public...
AMERICANS TEND TO THINK health care is too important to be politicized. On the contrary, the health industry is now so large that it must be made accountable to the public interest. Direct regulation of hospitals, an industry already heavily over-capitalized, will not greatly improve efficiency. The passage of Carter's hospital cost containment bill will provide temporary relief to the federal budget and insurers, but in the long run will discourage more ambitious and fundamental changes. The debate between legislators and private interests must broaden to include public voices...
This restriction on an act which does not affect the safety of the general public is both unjustifiable and wrong. That Mr. Yates now has a criminal record because he climbed a mountain is ludicrous. Mr. Yates succeeded where few others could have. His act should serve as a symbol of the wrongness of a system which arrests people for climbing a mountain. Frank L. Lowenstein...