Comments on: CPSIA and the national press

By: CPSIA: N.Y. Times prints three letters

CPSIA: N.Y. Times prints three letters — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:29:38 +0000

[…] of CPSIA might take the form of a quarter of down profits at Mattel or Hasbro. I have more to say in this earlier post about the tendency of CPSIA advocates to designate large and politically cautious industrial […]

By: New York Times on CPSIA: “needless fears that the law could injure smaller enterprises”

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:35:08 +0000

[…] after months of silence, the editorialists of the New York Times have finally weighed in with their view of how CPSIA is […]

By: CPSIA chronicles, February 13

CPSIA chronicles, February 13 — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:05:16 +0000

[…] knew that the New York Times was so bad at covering the problems of the book, design and garment trades, and so good at covering crises in the world of […]

By: CPSIA: fifty stars and an asterisk

CPSIA: fifty stars and an asterisk — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 04:52:19 +0000

[…] York: Issue has captured attention of book publishers, if not of certain newspaper publishers; New Jersey: You made play food for kids out of felt? No wonder Rep. Waxman is so worried […]

By: CPSIA chronicles, February 6

CPSIA chronicles, February 6 — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:00:45 +0000

[…] the court decision on phthalates from the consumer groups’ point of view. As I’ve mentioned, the Times sets the tone for news coverage at many other news organizations, and it has still not […]

By: Rachel

Rachel — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:15:46 +0000

While I agree that coverage of this legislation has been ubiquitously left out of many major news sources, I did see an Associated Press article about the stay (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g5s6bPv0SwNhjeKksvOGGx-ihx7wD961SHK84). I wouldn’t say that they did very good job of covering the real issues with the legislation, but at least they wrote something. I’m surprised that the NYT didn’t copy & paste the AP at least.

By: joliefay2003

joliefay2003 — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:27:20 +0000

NPR did cover it, although not enough. It was on “marketplace” and we had weekly coverage on our OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting)

USA Today is also working on a piece and should be out in the next day or two.

Thank you, Walter, for leading this. I am the story you are writing. I work from home, make lead free apparel and have been working on the CPSIA for the last 7 weeks.

One point I do not hear mentioned enough is the effects of turning XRF (x-ray guns) into the hands of untrained women across the country to meet “reasonable self testing”. I had this XRF machine in my hands, for almost 15 hours on the day of my testing. What is that going to do to me? I was/am fighting for my livelihood, and scared so I did not hesitate when I was given the opportunity to use the machine and know I could stay in business for 7 more months, but this is not right.

I know many bills are signed without members of congress reading them, but I also know the people who wrote this law knew what it would do to small business and they wrote it and passed it anyway.

By: Jen D

Jen D — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:23:06 +0000

I have contacted the NYT, CNN and NPR begging them to cover this issue. “Screaming into the wind” comes to mind. Not only have our congressional reps turned a deaf ear, so has the national media. If I were prone to paranoia, I’d have a conspiracy theory.

Mr. Olson, thank you for your continued attention and excellent reporting on this issue. You are my best source of information.

By: kathleen

kathleen — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:02:52 +0000

You forgot to mention NPR (ME or ATC) failed to cover the story either. Weeks ago I talked to an NPR reporter, giving her background, resources and names of people to interview. She was incredulous saying CPSIA was the funniest thing she’d heard in months and months.

I kind of wonder if the NYT/NPR have passed on the story precisely because the right wing (some real nutjobs, not even first tier) talk show hosts picked it up the topic and ran with it so it gave an off flavor patina to the issue, particularly when coupled with some painful populist rhetoric complete with untenable demands from one individual from “our” side. I think he lost us a lot of credibility.

UPDATE (this window’s been open on my computer since I got up and hadn’t hit send): I just finished an interview with NPR. Let’s hope it runs (nationally).