Today's New York Times will carry an article by David Carr entitled, "More Horrible Than Truth: News Reports."
The article concerns the rumors, hearsay and urban legends that grew out of the post-Katrina chaos in New Orleans and found their way, often with "attribution," into radio, television, print and internet media.
The central point of Carr's article is this:
"Victims, officials and reporters all took one of the most horrific events in American history and made it worse than it actually was."
Where were all the rapes? None have yet been substantiated (although two attempted rapes have been documented). Where is the 7 year old girl who was raped and had her throat slit? Where are all of the murders in the Convention Center (none) and the Super Dome (one)?
Yes, a police officer was shot. Yes, a National Guard soldier was shot in the leg. Yes, some idiot did take a shot at a rescue helicopter and, yes, police from Gretna, La., did in fact turn back hundreds of fleeing refugees.
The situation was not helped by outbursts such as these from New Orleans Police Chief Eddie Compass and Mayor C. Ray Nagin on the September 6 "Oprah." Compass on the Super Dome: "We had little babies in there, some of the little babies getting raped." Mayor C. Ray Nagin concurred: "They have people standing out there, have been in that frickin' Superdome for five days watching dead bodies, watching hooligans killing people, raping people."
Fox News and MSNBC are also cited for allowing on-site reporters to broadcast unconfirmed reports live on national broadcasts. After one outburst, Fox News' John Gibson was honest enough to concede, "we have yet to confirm a lot of that."
Even bloggers are cited as spreading false reports and giving them legitimacy.
It is hard, however, to find fault with any news source that uses direct quotes from Police Chiefs, Mayors and National Guard troops as story material. If media cannot assume that these folks know what they are talking about, who should they consider to be a reliable source?
Article comments
1 - Tom Maguire
Two comments - first, Matt Welch wrote the same column on Sept 6.
Second, Carr says, twice, that the reports of a helicopter being fired upon were confirmed. Welch debunks that - it was "confirmed" by a National Guard officer (so Carr has a technical defense), but the heads of the FAA and Homeland Security had no reports of such an incident.
2 - cowgirl
Unfortunately for Carr and several others who try to minimize the horrors of NOLA, many of those events *did* happen. When police confirm those incidents, they are called corrupt and untrustworthy. When several witnesses tell the same story about a crime, it's called hearsay. What will it take for people to acknowledge what happened there? Surveillance tapes? If people are waiting for DNA confirmation of all of these crimes, good luck. Weeks of 90-plus degree temperatures don't bode well for preserving evidence. Here's one link (of many) I've found that tell the same story of violence in the Superdome...
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/1/230732.shtml
But by all means, let's continue to ignore all this "hearsay", and maybe we can just wish the whole ugly incident away.
3 - cowgirl
Oops, wrong link above. Try here and here.
4 - Temple Stark
Reliable source
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Right Wing Nut House
hee hee. c'mon now.
5 - Temple Stark
I was the last comment here, huh?
Ah well. Now I got a second reminder chuckle out of it.
Culture/Tech Editor Lisa Hoover picked this his pick of the week. Go HERE to find out why. And thank you very much.