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How Not to Make a Difference
We get a lesson in how reporters who only want to make a difference can be more menace than moral via Fark.
A Kansas City, Kansas, television station has broadcast an “investigative” story which accuses a Tonganoxie, Kansas, fertilizer business of ….
wait for it…
selling fertilizer!
That’s right. Their hardworking, hard-hitting investigative reporter cum anchor Dave Helling broke a story that should get him absolutely no awards. In a follow-up article in the newspaper there we get this cut:
“Ammonium nitrate,” said KCTV 5 reporter Dave Helling. “It’s a cheap and common fertilizer and when mixed with diesel fuel in the right proportions … it could cause an explosion.”
Helling claimed his crew found it fairly easy to obtain ammonium nitrate.
“Six stores actually told us no, but it only takes one,” he said. “McGraw Fertilizer … sold us all we wanted.”
That’s when the camera zeroed in on the rural Tonganoxie business. The only time McGraw is shown on camera is when he says the 20-10-10 fertilizer blend will burn, but will not explode. That’s followed by Helling saying, “But he’s wrong. Experts told TV 5 that the ammonium nitrate bought from McGraw can be made into a bomb. Remember, we bought 500 pounds.”
That’s right. The lawns at KCTV should be really really green, either from the quarter ton of fertilizer they bought or the fertilizer produced by Dave Helling’s reporting.
Think I’m being too harsh? Let’s look at responses to the segment:
Because of the Oklahoma bombing, and threats by terrorists, it is difficult to find experts willing to say — on the record — what will and will not explode. But on Friday, a federal official who had seen the broadcast, agreed to comment anonymously.
“It was a cheap shot,” he said of the broadcast. “If a terrorist was going out to buy some stuff to make a bomb, he would not be buying 20-10-10. … It was a total cheap shot on the guy they bought it from.”
Kent Harris, assistant Olathe fire chief, agreed, saying the 20-10-10 fertilizer bought by a Channel 5 reporter would not be efficient to use in making explosives.
And Leavenworth resident Leroy Seifert, who owns a lawn business, was irate.
When the broadcast aired a close-up view of the fertilizer, Seifert noticed the grains were three colors. That told him he was seeing was a blend used for fertilizing lawns — not straight ammonium nitrate.
“I told my wife there ain’t no way in hell that would build a bomb,” Seifert said.
He e-mailed KCTV 5 news anchor Dave Helling.
“I told him I don’t know where they got the information but there was no way that would make a bomb,” Seifert said.
And, he added, Helling replied.
“He said experts said that it would make a bomb,” he said. “I’m here to tell you there ain’t no way — there’s too much phosphate and potash in it.”
I’d like a list of those experts. One reason is that they’re apparently better experts than the government has since the FBI doesn’t think that 20-10-10 fertilizer is what UBL is looking for to use in his next attack. And while government experts are not the end-all-be-all, I would expect them to have some form of idea of what forms of ammonium nitrate would be best used in an explosive device.
This is a quick and dirty lesson in the best and worst of journalism. The best we find in the newspaper reporter who is trying to make things right. The worst we find in Dave Helling who just makes things up. Probably because he just wanted to make a difference. Or, maybe he was just hoping to get picked up by CBS to replace Dan Rather.
MickC @ December 9, 2004