Posted on 10/02/2005 7:21:33 PM PDT by kellynla
After the levees broke in New Orleans, the city appeared to descend into chaos before our eyes. Americans sat in front of their TVs, watching Katrina's flooding and hearing tales of horror. On Sept. 2, ABC's "Good Morning America" described New Orleans "as the city spirals out of control." Charles Gibson continued: "There appears to be anarchy. Reports of rapes, riots, fires, bodies in the street."
That was how much of the media depicted New Orleans – a city lost to anarchy. Only it wasn't true.
There is no doubt that Katrina was an incredible tragedy, but it was nowhere near what was reported. What is true is that the sloppy coverage of Katrina's devastation will leave its mark on the media and on America for years to come.
This past week, the New Orleans Times-Picayune led the parade of media that did their best to set the record straight about what really happened. They told a story of epic failure, but they weren't writing more stories blaming the Katrina disaster on FEMA or President Bush. These told of the failure of local officials and media who got the story wrong, giving new meaning to the term "bad news." The Sept. 25 Times-Picayune story painted a new picture: "[T]he vast majority of reported atrocities committed by refugees – mass murders, rapes and beatings – have turned out to be false..." That's not what we were told, over and over again.
For weeks, the media dumped blame on FEMA, President Bush and the rest of the federal government for conditions worthy of a war zone. In a Sept. 12 cover story, Newsweek included this ironic comment: "How the system failed is a tangled story – " Actually, it was countless tangled stories – news stories.
(Excerpt) Read more at signonsandiego.com ...
Too bad the same can't be said for a lot of folks in this country.
How did that cops/contractors/looters/bridge gig turn out anyway.
Most likely it wasn't a bridge but a tunnel.
Yeah right. It was true. We all saw it with our own eyes and read it in the blogs. It was anarchy. And this attempt to rewrite history is total B.S. with some FReepers actually falling for it because they love an opportunity to trash the MSM. Just because some of it was exaggerated doesn't mean it was all exaggerated. Just because the body count at the dome was wrong doesn't mean there was not anarchy on the streets as stated by numerous blogs of specific incidents. Shooting at rescue helicopters is anarchy. Firing shots in air and not allowing people to cross the GNO bridge from downtown into Gretna represents a state of anarchy.
My nephew saod his crew of electrical contractors were shot at in NO.
said, sorry
(A little more of the article) Hope it's ok to post more.
The very structure of news reporting contributed to the disaster because news often focuses on the unusual or outlandish. In a crisis, almost everything is unusual or outlandish. With Katrina, journalists had no way to cope with the fact that many of the people they interviewed were distraught and spouting rumors. And there is no true accountability now that those reports have been proven false. Relying on Politicians
Journalists are taught to count on elected officials for much of their information, especially the kind needed during a crisis. Thus, the media turned to Louisiana politicians and police for crime statistics, the death toll and for rational commentary to offset rumors.
But state and local officials from Louisiana's governor on down didn't stamp out the sparks of rumor – they spread them like arsonists. Democratic New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin claimed on the Sept. 5 "Today" show that "it wouldn't be unreasonable to have 10,000." A month after the storm, the Louisiana death toll stands at 896.
Certainly, crimes occurred. Officials now say 14 people died between the Convention Center and the Superdome, after seemingly endless accounts claiming far worse. Only one or two of those were reportedly homicides.
Nagin and New Orleans Police Chief Eddie Compass took their act to the "Oprah Winfrey Show" with even more outrageous claims that remain unproven. Nagin told of evacuees trapped in the Superdome "watching dead bodies, watching hooligans killing people, raping people." Compass, who has since resigned, went even further with his claim that "We had babies in there. Babies getting raped." No one has been able to match the tabloid TV extravaganza that Oprah put on. Oprah cried "No, no, no, no," while Compass told of the horrors that allegedly went on in the dome – horrors officials now deny.
And Oprah milked it for all it was worth, interviewing traumatized people without ever taking into account that they were exhausted, drained, angry and scared. To prey
(oops)
And Oprah milked it for all it was worth, interviewing traumatized people without ever taking into account that they were exhausted, drained, angry and scared. To prey on them was bad enough. To embrace rumor was irresponsible.
I'm sorry. I don't believe EVERYTHING I read on the internet. ESPECIALLY "blogs." If I see something with my OWN EYES, I have a tendency to believe it. I am very skeptical of EVERYTHING I see through the eye of a camera belonging to the MSM that is known for pimping their anti-Bush, Liberal agenda. They provide a very limited view of what is really happening and focus only on the bad because it makes "good TV."
I saw pictures and video of the bodies in the streets, perhaps it didn't reflect the state of the entire city but it definitely wasn't fake. You don't need to be an eyewitness to know that a lot of looting happened in New Orleans.
KellnLA,
This whole line of "the media exaggerated" "reasoning" began with the New Orleans Times Picayune. They also blamed Bush for the flooding of New Orleans, wrongly, and knowing it was wrong, well before the storm ever came ashore.
A year or more before Katrina came ashore.
The authorities found the "babies" raped at the dome, it was a 7 year old girl who some guy tried to rape and who was beaten (the perp, not the victim), to death IIRC, by others in the dome.
The live scanner reports out of New Orleans tell the tale, the Guard and police were getting shot at and were outnumbered and in danger of being overrun.
The bodies most certainly were out on the streets, many of them lying in pools of blood from head wounds.
The hospitals were attacked, and in at least one case overrun as the looters gained the helipad on top of the building and shot at approaching evac choppers.
It is my opinion that what you are seeing now is just more spin from the MSM.
During the chaos, the city and state stood to gain from wild and slightly exaggerated claims of mayhem, and it worked. Bush promised them a quarter trillion dollars.
Now they stand to gain by claiming none of it ever happened, since otherwise nobody will come back.
You can see their claims stretching, day by day on the new line of spin.
It began with the Times Picayune, apparantly Blanco, Nagin, and the rest of the LA political machine's direct mouthpiece, claiming some reports had been exaggerated.
Now, in the article you cite, they have grown so bold as to claim "None of it happened".
Don't get led down the garden path.
There was rape, there was robbery, there was murder and there was mayhem.
There were not 10,000 deaths, there were 1,000, and maybe another few hundred washed out to sea in St. Bernards, maybe only a few dozen that we won't find.
That is the truth, no more, no less.
The first clue that someone is trying to roll you is when anyone, in this case starting with the Times Picayune, first tries to over exaggerate the base truth, and then turns around and tries to under-exaggerate it.
Don't get rolled.
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