Subj: Runaway Censorship Date: 99-05-15 00:56:37 EDT From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] NBC Edits 'Nuclear Waste' From Mini-Series, Outside Pressure Charged Three paragraphs excerpted from the New York Times, May 14, 1999. By LAWRIE MIFFLIN What began as a generic disaster movie about a runaway train has turned into a unusual damage-control exercise for NBC, which went to great lengths to redub Atomic Train, a two-part mini-series to be broadcast on Sunday and Monday nights, to delete all references to nuclear waste. <large snip> Yesterday, in a speech on the Senate floor, Bryan questioned whether NBC had redubbed Atomic Train in deference to the nuclear power industry, since NBC's parent company, General Electric, has a nuclear energy unit. While admitting he had no proof, the Senator said it seemed "extraordinary" that the network would go to such lengths to change a movie a week before it was scheduled to be broadcast, and after releasing reams of promotional material on it. <large snip> NBC revised its account from Wednesday to Thursday. At first, NBC executives said nuclear waste was not typically carried by train, making the mini-series grossly inaccurate. Later they said that nuclear products might be carried by train, but would not be carried in boxcars, as the mini-series depicted. Ultimately, they said the problem was that the drama was being promoted as fact-based and had never been *vetted* for factual accuracy.
