ABSTRACT
This chapter examines local radio coverage of the accident, as that was the most important information source for local residents. Members of the Task Force on the Public's Right to Know, which assisted the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island, were aware of the need to examine whether information had been concealed that the public had a right to know. The utility's public-relations staff compounded Jack Herbein's error by providing contradictory and inaccurate information from the beginning of the accident. The public-information staff of Met Ed was young and untrained and had only a dim perception of nuclear technology. Met Ed and Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials seemed not to recognize the needs of the media and thus missed many opportunities to seize the initiative in directing news coverage. The news media's lack of credibility with some segments of the public has a different root: the unrealistic expectations of the public.
