Dr Helen Caldicott is a passionate, articulate and knowledgeable woman. And she has a cause. A long term anti nuclear activist, she?s enraged by the use of depleted uranium in Iraq ? a subject that hasn?t had nearly enough coverage in the media especially in the US.
However I?m not sure this kind of programme does too much to help the cause if only because its so obviously got a cause driving it. The first part of the interview ? already in a cloudy phone quality ? is dense with figures and names that had my mind wandering to shopping lists and other non essential distractions. It ends with what can only be described as a rant.
There is information here that needs to get out, and Lord knows I?m not about to plead the cause of the US military, but such an interview gets too close to a party political broadcast for my taste. The language of both interviewer and interviewee is so heavily emotive that I felt like I was being railroaded even though I already agreed with the argument being driven home with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Dr Caldicott knows her stuff, but can wax on with a Cassandra like doom especially when she feels it necessary to give out the details of Armageddon (?the whole of America will burn as fires coalesce?crops will die, people will die, freezing to death in the dark?).
Yes a nuclear world war will destroy us all in the worst way. We get that. That?s not what needs to be spelled out with such apocalyptical detail. Please just stick to the story you promised us in the beginning.
Also the poor production values, unimaginative script, and gee whiz kind of questioning all add to make what I feel is a less than professional production. And by the way, the amateurishly written introduction on the front page of the site does the piece no favors.