I think OP's point was that a 20 second blurb, no matter how truthful or accurate, is downplaying the situation.

If an analogous event happened in the US, all entertainment programming would be suspended and there would be continuous news coverage on all the major channels for several days, just like after 9/11.

"One of the reactors is damaged" was a huge understatement that ignored, by omission, the real issue, which was, of course, the massive release of radioactive material.