Oh brother! Castigating the MSM for biased reporting is a bellwether activity here at Okie on the Lam, but looks like I, and others, should have read and listened a bit closer to the news reports coming out of NOLA during and after the immense debacle that was Hurricane Katrina. The LA Times has a story today, Katrina Takes a Toll on Truth, News Accuracy, that takes the news industry to task — including themselves!

The National Guard spokesman’s accounts about rescue efforts, water supplies and first aid all but disappeared amid the roar of a 24-hour rumor mill at New Orleans’ main evacuation shelter. Then a frenzied media recycled and amplified many of the unverified reports.

“It just morphed into this mythical place where the most unthinkable deeds were being done,” [Maj. Ed] Bush said Monday of the Superdome.

His assessment is one of several in recent days to conclude that newspapers and television exaggerated criminal behavior in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, particularly at the overcrowded Superdome and Convention Center.

You mean, all those breathless stories of murder, rape and snipers at large were exaggerations, not fact? Didn’t Mayor Nagin even go on record to verify them? Well, yes he did, several times.

Indeed, Mayor C. Ray Nagin told a national television audience on “Oprah” three weeks ago of people “in that frickin’ Superdome for five days watching dead bodies, watching hooligans killing people, raping people.”

Thanks Mayor, for clarifying that for us . . . but, was it true?

Follow-up reporting has discredited reports of a 7-year-old being raped and murdered at the Superdome, roving bands of armed gang members attacking the helpless, and dozens of bodies being shoved into a freezer at the Convention Center.

As I said, the LA Times even took itself to task for reporting about the sniping . . . I’ll let you go to the article and read that one for yourself. So what’s a conscientious blogger to do when discussing gigantic disasters in real-time? Well, for one thing, pay attention to phrases like “that the information could not be verified”, if and when they are used, or be sure and make that apparent yourself.

What we didn’t do the best job at was disseminating the good stuff stories that were scant in reportage, but were there. Such as:

Louisiana National Guard Col. Thomas Beron, who headed security at the Superdome, said that for every complaint, “49 other people said, ‘Thank you, God bless you.’ ”

The media inaccuracies had consequences in the disaster zone.

Bush, of the National Guard, said that reports of corpses at the Superdome filtered back to the facility via AM radio, undermining his struggle to keep morale up and maintain order.

“We had to convince people this was still the best place to be,” Bush said. “What I saw in the Superdome was just tremendous amounts of people helping people.”

But, Bush said, those stories received scant attention in newspapers or on television.

I promise to do better next time — wish there wouldn’t be a next time — but we all know that there will. (db)

[Update] The Hedgehog blog looks at this article and Lowell comes up with a lesser appreciation of the Times’ self criticism and an explanation of the press’ failures.

Well, I’m glad to know where unnamed “journalists” place the blame. Certainly not on themselves. And race creeps in once again. Read the whole thing. It’s remind you of the squishy thinking that takes place among Times writers.

Laer at Cheat Seeking Missiles has a few thoughts of his own on the negativity of the MSM.

Michelle Malkin documents a little whopper by the New York Times — just more weirdness reported after Katrina! Makes you wonder just what that ombudsman is really there for . . .

Final word on this goes to John Podhoretz:

The unprecedented nature of the story as it was should have been enough for everybody. Instead, far too many people — from cable-news folks to reporters to bloggers — ended up retailing fiction as fact.

(db)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 27th, 2005 at 8:17 am and is filed under Blogger News, Media Bias. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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