disaster in japan hours after an eight point nine earthquake triggered a tsunami now another threat looming japan's nuclear reactors on red alert a thousand times normal radioactive levels so crude you can be on the brink of a of its own journal. sending mixed messages as the u.s. vice president praises reset with russia and other u.s. officials seems to be stuck in another decade cold war mentality anyone. and now with the old and in with the new is it time for the new york times to get

with the times the having to post seems to think so we'll debate old media versus new. and as the un rest in the mid east unfolds how will the u.s. reacts from oil interests to keeping allies the land of the free finding itself and its links. it's friday march eleventh five pm in washington d.c. i'm christine prison you're watching our t.v. . well the third on today we want to look at the situation in japan where a catastrophic eight point nine earthquake struck off the coast there followed by a devastating tsunami that battered many regions of the country now officials estimate thousands are dead thousands more missing throughout the day we have seen some devastating pictures of cars being swept off highways by powerful lotter of people literally running for their lives the most major damage was to the port city

of sendai in the northeastern part of the country and the closest major city to the epicenter and now the after effects include not only aftershocks but fears of a radioactive fallout after a japanese nuclear power plant northeast of tokyo having some major issues the radiation levels now a thousand times normal levels and joining me now for more kevin cancer specialist in nuclear waste that we are nuclear kevin let's talk a little bit about what's going on here we've been watching the situation just getting this word now radiation levels a thousand times what could this mean well they apparently are venting radioactivity into the environment in an effort to reduce pressure inside one of the containment the containment is in place to prevent catastrophic radioactivity released to the environment unfortunately these reactors are forty years old thirty five to forty years old they have one of the worst containments used in the western world with general electric boiling water reactor of the mark one design which is

an old the oldest reactor design the oldest containment design a week containment if the pressure buildup is bad enough they could actually breach the containment and that mother lode of radioactivity escaping from the damaged core could escape into the environment some good news i have just learned within minutes ago is that electricity has begun to be restored at the site mobile electricity generating units were brought in eleven to one of the reactor units in crisis fourteen of these mobile units to a second reactor. in crisis this week we seem a nuclear power plant so hopefully electricity supply can be restored to the safety systems the cooling systems that are necessary to keep these immensely high reactor cores at a safe temperature because once electricity is lost once cooling is lost overheating can begin immediately the cooling water would boil away the steam would carry radioactive particles radioactive gases at least inside the containment buildings

and if those failed it could be a catastrophic radioactivity release and i know a lot of people who have been watching the throughout the day a lot of people in this country around the world have just been trying to get their get their hands around everything that's going on terri of state clinton apparently she's kind of trying to figure it out so you know earlier she said that the u.s. was going to be delivering coolant as aid there are a lot of people who have told us that that they have done even use coolant that hopefully what she meant was that the u.s. was delivering perhaps generators and batteries what can you tell us about that yes we received not only the secretary of state statement but also press reports from japan that the u.s. military the japanese military or national guard and the tokyo electric power company were rushing by helicopter by land transport backup emergency diesel generators backup batteries to the site to restore the electricity supply which is needed for those essential safety systems so that's probably what the secretary of

state meant and it was a race against time because the primary electricity source the grid was the homage to the electricity these old generators on site emergency backup were damaged as well were not functioning after the earthquake and there are some reports that the tsunami may have knocked those out actually so the reactor was the multiple reactors were depending on emergency backup power from batteries which only have a life duration of forty eight hours so all of this was a race against time and may still be you know the evidence the information is sketchy still at this point. but there's indications now that some of these mobile electricity units have gotten to the site and may be connected to the site and hopefully electricity can be restored to prevent an even worse radioactivity release than is already occurring and we should mention to our viewers also japan is unique to most other countries in the world and that it depends heavily on this new nuclear power the fact it depends on these nuclear plants i also want to

connect the dots. to cherno you know this is this disaster in the eighty's you what is now ukraine tens of thousands hundreds of thousands people killed the worst nuclear accident in history can is this a fear that something like that could happen here in japan we're approaching the twenty fifth anniversary of her noble on april twenty sixth twenty five years seems like a long time to most people it's just the beginning of the term noble nuclear catastrophe hazardous persistence of plutonium for example plutonium two thirty nine that escaped chernobyl is measured at two hundred forty thousand years and other more widespread contaminants radioactive cesium one thirty seven which seeks human muscle tissue like the hearts of children for example radioactive strontium ninety those have hazardous persistence of about three hundred years so those radioactive poison spread for hundreds of miles downwind from turn over all in all directions across europe across the former soviet union we received fallout here in the united

states japan received follow. a major nuclear accident in japan. could three different pathways because it's a different reactor design could result in large scale radioactivity releases that would done well with the wind and flow with the water and hopefully that will not happen this time there was a previous earthquake in japan in july two thousand and seven at the largest nuclear power plant in the world seven large scale reactors on months i called he was ocky here we are going on four years later five of those reactors are still shut down to undergo repairs to undergo safety upgrades because now it's realized that it was not designed strongly enough to withstand the earthquake that struck nearby i guess what i'm curious about is that you know you say these these goods are being delivered from other countries you're hoping they got there in time what about the people on the ground working at these nuclear sites i guess i'm just a little confused with all the danger there how they can possibly you know they're racing against time but they're also racing they get fe fifty and concern for their

own lives and one of the very concerning news items that came out today at one point a couple hours ago was that the radiation levels in the unit lawn reactor control room were were increasing and that increases of course the stress on the control room operators they may have to put on gas masks to avoid breathing radioactive particles radioactive gases for their own safety for their own health that would of course interfere with communications between the operators they do have training to . deal with that kind of situation but of course the human element the stress the miscommunication could worsen the problem and it should be mentioned that the plant personnel eternal bill after the accident was underway because it was so fast breaking roic actions taken in the uni the minutes hours after the accident began prevented something much worse than what happened and what happened is of nightmarish proportions but for example the workers who worked in the a turban hall it turned out well as radioactive debris was falling through the roof

on fire. they had a large oil supply there and they kept the presence of mind enough to drain it away to a safe place so that it did not catch on fire that turban whole connected all four reactor units turned out well one unit exploded and burned but there were three other units that could have also gone up in flames and i had full of people prevented this aster of much bigger proportions than what happened finally i just want to connect the dots and sort of compare and contrast what happened there a lot of people talking about you know if this would have happened for example off the coast of california it would have had immediately devastating results in terms of the nuclear sites there there are still four operating reactors in california two reactors at the apple canyon near san luis obispo the reactors at santa know free near san diego but the shutdown reactors in california still have on site just as do the operating reactors all of the high level radioactive waste that they ever generated as emergency precautions against earthquakes in northern california at

home but a nuclear power plant they shut the reactor down they took down the smokestack so it wouldn't tip over into the waste storage pool and they emptied the waste storage pool into earthquake designed silos out doors that are mostly underground all as earthquake precautions so yes california with four operating reactors with all this radioactive waste is still at risk of such a situation developing already and it is a situation that continues to develop evolve and change we'll keep our eyes on it thank you for that perspective kevin cancer specialist in nuclear waste at the our nuclear. well certainly when disasters like this occur the aftershocks emotional financial even political are felt around the world and we live in a time when so much is interconnected the world is changing or is it when it comes to who our friends are and who are potential enemies are there are some top officials in this country who like to highlight how the landscape has changed and

others whose rhetoric appears to hearken back to cold war times take a look certainly. the rather the russians have you know still have a very formal nuclear arsenal even with which does pose you know potentially a more widespread was americans running russia as one of the top five countries threatening american security two years ago this year only true. of the entire american population say they view russia as a threat and so it appears the top intelligence official in this country james clapper where you saw there is part of that two percent now he later backtracked and said he was simply talking about capability when referring to russia and china as a mortal threat earlier i talked to ivan eland senior fellow at the independent institute here's part of our conversation. well i think the problem that we have here is the

old cold war thinking and you can talk about kill bill these intent and we can do that except that we have a double standard in the country there are other nuclear powers that can hit the united states as well with india pakistan france and britain right and israel those countries could all conceivably in some way get a weapon here in north korea can't yet but let's just take those countries we don't think of them they have the capability to do it but we don't call them mortal threats whereas china and russia have the capabilities but we call them moral threats and i think this is left over from the cold war we think that all those other countries couldn't possibly be intending any ill will harm to the u.s. but but russia and china might well let's talk about doesn't mean you take a guy like improper certainly older than you and i he grew up in a generation you know a time when russia was a threat when he was conditioned to believe that you know this red scare this is a dangerous place it was

a dangerous time do you think that this is just some mentality that's left over do you think he sort of speaks for a generation that is still alive and making important decisions i think so it's generational but i think also in the foreign policy community here in the united states those still some residue among even younger analysts on russia because of the cold war and to some extent china as well because of the history of the cold war you know that's forty some years of hostility and it takes a while to get rid of that and i think the obama administration is moving and it direction i think the intent of the obama administration with the arms control treaty and other improvements in u.s. russian relations i think is moving the policy but you still have people who talk this way and he does probably he probably was talking about capabilities and intent but the problem is his mindset is still in the old ways and it's probably somewhat generational yes well that's what i was going to ask i mean why do you suppose when asked you know. directly asked this question i believe from the senator from west

virginia joe manchin why do you think that he didn't say pakistan or india or iran well i just think you know that china and russia traditionally in the cold war were the enemies and they also had the biggest nuclear arsenals and of course by his standards the u.s. would be the biggest enemy of those two countries the biggest mortal threat as senator levin pointed out to him that if you take the stand is the other way you know you have to you have to deal with that so if you're talking about capabilities the united states has the most robust nuclear arsenal on the planet how do we change this you know how how do you see in the future this changing i mean that we just wait for this you know the new generation to sort of take charge or the new way of thinking where you know we grew up in a time where we have the start treaty where we have you know we're friendly with russia. what needs to change for these statements not to be made anymore but i think time will help and i think the more the more we can improve relations and the

more we get past the cold war both in time and in palate you know these people will retire and that sort of thing i think the situation will be improved so i think you know that as long as we improve relations and keep things moving in the right direction this mentality will perhaps now i think one thing that will occur is that china will probably become the biggest threat because of the economic growth in the double digit increases in defense of course their defense budget is still much lower than the u.s. is but this will become the threat so actually russia may benefit from that because . one of the reasons that we're the united states is improving relations with russia is to use as a counterweight to china and this is a exact opposite of what richard nixon did in the seventy's he developed a relationship with china which was more radical than the soviet union to use as a counterweight against the soviet union so it's just a reversal of policy but it's the same it's the same sort of contain. strategy and

we found this situation we showed earlier james clapper you know kind of grouping russia and china together we remember we have this for teaching arms reduction treaty with russia we don't have it with china do you think that's going to play a role in like you said making china the next target well i think so but i think actually it's reversed i think the arms reduction treaty was a result of the improvement in russian relations and i think that the reason for that is because u.s. is you know in circling china we're improving relations with india which we are a traditional photo during the cold war and we're strengthening the alliances in the east around china as well so i think you're seeing and circle one of china and us russian relations the improvement of those are designed to you know complete the circle that was ivan eland senior fellow at the independent institute. well moving on now to a different kind of tension that exists between the old guard and the new i'm

talking about journalism and what is often a tug of war between the alder more established press like say the new york times and the new or web centered publication like for example having to post in fact there is a vattel brewing between those specific organizations that started when editor bill keller wrote a piece starfleet critical of the huffington post and its format you know linking to several different sources on its on its site here with thousands georgetown university professor of journalism professor chris chambers chris let's time to talk about this is really turned into an interesting thing after we've seen sort of take place is that in fourth now huffington post we've all been on the site big headlines a lot of different subject matter so we say bill keller new york times calls this aggregation and he says quote the queen of aggregation is of course arianna huffington who has discovered that if you take celebrity gossip adorable kitten

videos post from one pig lagers a news reports from other publications he says you know people will come so you know on one hand we've got a look at the numbers here arianna huffington elise estimates there are estimates that she has seventy percent more unique page views than the new york times so what's going on here with this back and forth it's a lot more complicated than a battle of you know godzilla versus rudy and in the old japanese monster movies. it's not an ego thing it is a structural thing but it's also not as complicated or not complicated not as simple as old media versus new times as in first of all a lot into beefing up its online presence or area on the turns around and says well we have a lot more people coming to see you know the new war a lot more people go see a stupid romantic comedy. a really complex drama i mean there's no mystery there but the fact is the new york times is the source of

a lot of the news that the quote aggregate on to other sources in other words yes they do pick and choose and cherry picked other stories you're based on their stories on other people's work because there's not a lot of original news gathering here anymore and we've talked about that people cutting back bureaus excedrin so that does happen they do yes but they're not as much of show business for stupidity as keller might think either i mean they do have a have a pretty good professional staff and we should mention that the new york times has lost some of their you know most well known staff members to the two hundred post and the daily beast and others i mean yes so they are in the circus that every but the killer seems to think they are he referred to them once as a as a as a slave girl you've commanded by pirates i mean there are some. there but he is he's being a little bit too split simplistic she is probably being a little bit too high in my the i think the truth is in the middle somewhere well

as it always is but we also have to look at the money that follow the money that across new york times is losing money and how much longer does this continue i mean certainly bill keller said in his article he said you know we inferred that there are real journalists you know and are and haven't been should pay some of her wheelchair or let's not just use their content on her website but the fact is when it comes to a business deal like a.o.l. then my new york times a.o.l. i have a good job because its side is a good deal but you know it didn't i mean. there's a cadillac and there's a subaru i mean a new york times is still a care like it's going to be plodding it's going to be slow but it has that it's called the gray lady it has that brand and it's worth a lot more money believe it or not then that huffington post than what a.o.l. paid for huffington post because it is creating real content the reporters are really going out and tracking down sources etc etc so you have to have that going

for them but again in the present climate where people are mining news for people are looking for stuff that appeals to them and a validates their own point of view you could say well it's a liberal point of view with i think imposed validates a conservative point of view with fox and certain blogs people aren't looking for that deep analysis they're looking for stuff that the validates their own opinions of they can get those quick hits be about politics or charlie sheen but i was just about to say i you know people also look for even intelligent people look for their they look for those cute kitten videos do you need those cute kitten videos those got those gloves to be successful in the news or you do but you can mix it and i think that again the times is a little bit over here but moving towards huffington post having to post as it is way over here but it's moving everything is moving towards the middle you need the kittens you need charlie sheen but you need the real news you need the sources of news not just aggregating and putting your name on stuff and i think there are

those who have a lot to do with the problems here and that she got a little miffed because he more or less accused her personally of plagiarism so yes it did jump to the ego thing but again there's something beneath the girl and she brought out a bunch of examples to say well you know why she hadn't plagiarized her piece ended by the way with your turn well in this battle in this fight which could be semi playful who wins who wins this argument and who rennes long term success i think i think they're both when i mean again your turn to bill obviously there's something . i mean you don't have to be a media specialist to see that somebody is setting up for some for some more balls on sites and more talking on the on the news as we are now other good both were new york times is building a wall so that people can charge people for their content she is obviously building a huge brand over a year well they both were in the long run i don't see the new york times going down anytime soon are a journalism professor at georgetown university chris chambers thanks for joining

us as well as unrest in the middle east continues we turn now to some examples of countries whose undemocratic regimes and close ties to washington put the obama administration in a bind the planned day of rage inside the arabia never happened would be protesters hopes were dashed by strict security measures and stern warnings by thirty officials against any protests so where does the u.s. fit in what should the government fray or do in montreal canada we go to michelle. director of the center for research on globalization. hey there michelle and many would argue that saudi arabia is one of the most serial abusers of human rights in the world and yet we hear very little from the u.s. government of course this is not unique to the obama administration all u.s. presidents seem to be wary or afraid to speak out what's going on here well first of all. for us protectorates or.

the like you put. they are very much the. oiler called the abuse they're very strategic but it's local and so your radio has been installed so it protects the interests of the united states. so. well he bore her me so or rather her real protest all there was there were protests eastern. saudi arabia or merely the she. were being. discriminated against. there were other parts of this protest which were never reported and that's the protest of migrant workers that has in effect a raid in the gulf states. the local population which constitutes perhaps fifty

percent of the work force. other than fifty percent of the filipino sri lankans. and people from other arab countries and those people really don't protest because they're scared to be supported their parents are biased by their employers they have very low wages. yet there was a protest in january by pullup you know work this it make front page you and this. this protest movement which is biased surely relatively at least the ones in riyadh relatively well to middle class people. reports the girl it was thought so what's the road to well kristie there were also some people on facebook who were saying oh yes we must protect the slimming value

but it did sort of so for so. what i think is births this. was a big big saturated by the media in comparison even to what was happening in yemen . you know iraq it was day of rage in iraq have been several days of bridge very little reports and of course what's happening in libya is that simply crucial. these only arabia in the gulf states that have said libya is alone friendly nation we don't recognize it is illegitimate but of course coming from with their autocratic governments but doesn't to credible either i want to keep the spot like oh just for a moment on saudi arabia you know checkpoints everywhere warnings and things there that protests are just not allowed we look at the human rights issues we look at sort of the apartheid that exists with the women there. and yet saudi arabia seems

to have a pretty good image here in the united states now there are probably several reasons for that but one of them is saudi arabia spends millions of dollars right here right on the street from our news studios at the on k. street at the lobbyist firms to get you know extreme image make overs twenty million dollars to plead their case to america what do you think about this that it just takes money by the way while money to clean up their image and be seen and positive light well absolutely because we remember the eleventh when the saudi but . who are the members of the. you know they but they said well they're friends of the bush family so they are friends of the bush family. i mean is it shove of autocratic regimes us supported all the credit regimes there's always being. barack became unpopular when

mubarak was no longer wanted but otherwise they supposing that he's a great leader. ben ali was supposed to have implemented those alumina a significant role so again there's a lot of need to the ocean is what's happening in the little east and here we have a group of countries. if we can describe them as countries because in effect they were created by the fall the colonial pose saudi arabia the gulf states the emirates all incidentally there's a protest movement in kuwait but it was waged by people citizens who are arabs without the possibility of going old who want citizenship of the so that so many years away it's so let me sell by this system that's set up in place you know right now who do you think that who loses by the way things are now you know we see

these popular uprising spread certainly having a much different effects in different places. well i think we all knew it was the net for people of the middle east and are not getting democratic governments certainly not in turn is young and egypt and there's a protest movement is continuing with more radical elements wants build only wants more but right out which they've got they want the current government and they want an end to to i.m.f. reforms and so on they're not getting that you know in libya the situation is extremely dangerous because of all western leaders now recognizing. a revolutionary or a rebel government and they are threatening to intervene militarily this no fly zone is is extremely high interest because it's tantamount to take aeration of war anybody who has a minimal understanding of my.