 Since the episode's initial airing, Blinky has been mentioned several times in news articles regarding nuclear waste and mutation. A reporter for the Lincoln Journal Star compared Blinky to a rainbow trout with two mouths caught in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 2005. The fish was mentioned in a National Review article discussing a legislation which would make it illegal to import, possess or release alive into California any live transgenic fish: "Sounds like someone watched one too many episodes of The Simpsons with Blinky, the three-eyed fish that swims by the nuclear-power plant." Matt Smith of SF Weekly compared Blinky to a type of fish found in San Francisco Bay, which, according to a study by the University of California, Davis, had a shrunken brain and misshapen body that had been caused by the dumping of toxic chemicals into the bay. In an article about the now closed nuclear weapons production facility Rocky Flats Plant, Brian Park of The Rocky Mountain Collegian joked that after its closure, "years of clean up ensued and now the area is a wildlife refuge; no word yet if Blinky has been spotted." Barbara Taormina of the North Shore Sunday wrote in her article about the new liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline in Massachusetts Bay: "Will Blinky, the mutant three-eyed fish from The Simpsons be showing up in Massachusetts Bay? Probably not, but local environmentalists are worried that digging for the new LNG pipeline may stir up radioactive waste dumped decades ago." In his article about the nuclear power plant operator Exelon, Thomas M. Anderson of Kiplinger wrote: "The thought of more nuclear power may conjure up images of the Three Mile Island accident or Blinky [...], but a growing number of policymakers and even environmentalists are coming to appreciate the advantages of atomic energy."
