The Reading Eagle had a rare environmental story today, on Page A11, about how bad the air we're breathing in Berks is.
The print-version headline said “Berks earns ‘D’ in report on air quality; up from ‘F.’ ”
The web-site version said “State of the Air Report offers mixed bags for Berks, region.”
I guess a business-friendly editor gave the order – tone down the bad news about Berks.
The article says: “Berks was the only county in the study to have a worse result in year-round particle pollution, dropping very slightly from last year's score. And Berks had the biggest drop [in grade] of all the counties in short-term particle pollution, falling from a ‘C’ to an ‘F.’ ”
The story then quotes a doctor saying air pollution is bad for people – duh!
But it doesn't say why Berks’ air is getting worse.
Did you know the state Department of Environmental Protection has deep data on ozone days and particulates – the cancer-causing dust that lodges deep in your lungs?
Did you know landfills and battery manufacturers are big contributors to air pollution? And Berks has a lot of both.
Why not ask the Berks County Chamber of Commerce what they think about Berks’ air being so polluted, and about regulations to reduce it?
Instead, the Eagle sent two – two! – of its award-winning reporters to Baltimore along with half of North America’s press herd to report on things we read about on the Internet 12 hours earlier.
Maybe the Eagle’s reporters could spend a day or two investigating the decline of air quality in Berks. Might even qualify for a journalism award.
But truth and a better quality of life are not the goals of Berks County’s pseudo-newspaper.
Sensational front-page headlines and pleasing the Establishment are.
Berks County needs better journalism.
