News and Document archive source
copyrighted material disclaimer at bottom of page

NewsMinenature-healthenvironmentkatrina-hurricane-2005 — Viewing Item


Media outlets exaggerated some of new orleans woes { September 28 2005 }

Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
   http://www.sptimes.com/2005/09/28/Columns/Media_outlets_exagger.shtml

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/09/28/Columns/Media_outlets_exagger.shtml

Media outlets exaggerated some of New Orleans' woes

By ERIC DEGGANS, Times Op/Ed Columnist
Published September 28, 2005

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's the story of the moment regarding coverage of Hurricane Katrina: The news media likely passed along exaggerated tales of lawlessness in New Orleans in the storm's early aftermath, repeating accounts of murder, rapes and child molestations often delivered by misinformed public officials and traumatized hurricane victims.

But despite a slew of recent stories outlining the fact that the death rates, rapes and murders there have totalled far fewer than initially reported - the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, New York Times , Los Angeles Times and NBC News have all reported on this issue in recent days - experts say they don't expect media credibility to take a huge hit.

Mostly because the corrections have come from many of the same news outlets that did the initial reporting.

"I see this as an admirable amount of self-examination ... (the press) has been very quick at calling public attention to their own dirty laundry," said Steve Lovelady, managing editor of CJR Daily, the media criticism Web site operated by Columbia Journalism Review . "You don't see FEMA saying to the public, here's seven ways we screwed up."

Matthew Felling, media director for the Center for Media and Public Affairs, agreed. "The media's credibility takes a short-term hit with these public corrections," he said. "But ... the media is becoming very skillful at policing itself - which will build its accuracy in the future."

On Sept. 6, the Times-Picayune published a story in which a National Guardsman pointed out bodies at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The guardsman said 30 to 40 other bodies were stored in the center's freezer. But on Monday, the newspaper noted just four corpses were recovered there.

The Los Angeles Times said Tuesday it "adopted a breathless tone" in its lead news story on evacuations at the Louisiana Superdome, "reporting that National Guard troops "took positions on rooftops, scanning for snipers and armed mobs as seething crowds of refugees milled below, desperate to flee."'

"The guy who wrote that story is a friend. ... I hope he hasn't seen my story yet," said Jim Rainey, a media writer at the Los Angeles Times who co-wrote the Tuesday story. "The reporters and the editors can get caught up in the emotion of these stories, sometimes as much as the victims do. You're sorting hundreds of pieces of information and doing it under tremendous deadline pressure."

One blogger criticized National Public Radio reporter John Burnett for passing along the widely reported story of a young girl, estimated to be 13, who was dead and possibly raped in a bathroom at the Convention Center. The Times-Picayune reported Monday that despite numerous rumors about rapes the newspaper now could not confirm any such incidents with officials.

NPR managing editor Bill Marimow defended Burnett, calling him a "superb reporter" who provided "excellent" first-person observations.

"At the convention center, it was extremely dangerous ... not the kind of place one would venture into and begin searching for dead bodies," Marimow said. "If you have four or five credible eyewitnesses who tell you they saw something, if you subject that to high standards of proof, you report it - provided you attribute it."

And, as the Times-Picayune and Los Angeles Times stories noted, sometimes the misinformation came from public officials.

Both newspapers mentioned a Sept. 6 appearance by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and then-police Superintendent Eddie Compass on Oprah Winfrey's talk show, where the men talked about hundreds of armed gang members killing and raping people, including babies, inside the Superdome. During the show, they insisted the facility was so unsafe, even after evacuation, that Winfrey could only spend five minutes inside.

In the Los Angeles Times story, Times-Picayune editor Jim Amoss blamed the reporting errors on a lack of telephone service and the fact that evacuees were largely poor black people, which fed into stereotypical assumptions about animalistic behavior.

But CJR's Lovelady resisted that thesis. "There were two black officials saying this stuff ... and they weren't just anyone, they were the mayor and the police chief," he said of Nagin and Compass. "When you've got the mayor and police chief saying it, you can't just decide, I'm not going to write about this."

There have been times when the debunking has been tougher. On NBC's Meet the Press Sunday, host Tim Russert interviewed Jefferson Parish president Aaron Broussard, who had broken down in tears during a Sept. 4 appearance while describing how a parish employee's mother died after days of waiting for federal help.

Russert replayed his comments Sunday, then presented evidence unearthed by MSNBC and several bloggers indicating the woman died the day Katrina hit. Broussard responded angrily: "Somebody wants to nitpick a man's tragic loss of a mother ... are you kidding?"

Felling said Russert crossed the line from debunking myths to insensitivity. "(Broussard's comments) deserved an on-air correction, they did not deserve an on-air interrogation."

NPR's Marimow noted that journalists will likely be searching for the truth for a long while.

"Daily journalism is ... always subject to amplification and clarification," he said. "I suspect people are going to be amplifying the record on this for the rest of our lives."

--Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report.

[Last modified September 28, 2005, 02:30:38]


21 mysterious deaths during katrina
Airlines planes buses canceled during evacuation { September 1 2005 }
All parts of new orleans included in rebuilding plan { January 8 2006 }
Anger mounts at federal response { September 5 2005 }
Big oil loots new orleans { September 2 2005 }
Bodies in new orleans left uncollected { October 27 2005 }
Brown removed from fema
Bush admits serious deficiencies in katrina response
Bush chertoff warned of levees before katrina
Bush fema hire knew arabian horses { September 8 2005 }
Bush list of katrina charities are mainly religious groups
Bush plans to blame envinromentalists for katrina { September 16 2005 }
Bush rallies for robertson to get katrina charity { September 7 2005 }
Bush rebuffs castro offer for hurricane relief
Canadian rescuers in lousiana first { September 7 2005 }
Chavez offers victims food oil and water { September 2 2005 }
Cheney heckler is gulfport physician who lost house
Cheney heckler tells story on ebay
Cheney told to fuck himself in mississippi
Chertoff admits lapses in katrina responses
Chertoff delayed federal response memo shows
Conservative paper criticizes bush
Debit card idea from fema scrapped
Democrats secretly replaced black mayor { May 21 2006 }
Dismantling fema was a disaster { September 6 2005 }
District purposely flooded to alleviate another { September 4 2005 }
Engineering probe into levee failure { October 10 2005 }
Evacuation ordered from toxic timebomb { September 7 2005 }
Exxonmobile taking 110m a day { September 7 2005 }
Federal reserve downplays katrina fears
Feds hinder local response and rescue { September 6 2005 }
Fema blocks journalists from reporting
Fema destroyed by homeland security { August 30 2005 }
Fema director joked partied as katrina churned
Fema informed levee breach earlier
Fema planning and response faulted { September 2 2005 }
Fema promotes pat robertson diamonds { September 9 2005 }
Fema sent to sexual harrassment class instead
Fema to end paying for victims hotel
Former first lady hurricane donation aids bush son { March 23 2006 }
Gop bankcruptcy law hurts katrina survivors
Governor says troops from iraq know how to kill
Guardsman on hold with no mission
Halliburton tapped for katrina repairs { September 5 2005 }
Hospital may have euthanized patients during hurricane
Hospitals run out of food and power
Hurricane destructiveness increased over last 30yrs
Hurricane donation benefited president bush brother { March 25 2006 }
Instead of levee funding bush gave pork { September 8 2005 }
Katrina causes 44 oil spills in southeast louisiana
Katrina will turn new orleans into cesspool { August 29 2005 }
Lake water courses into mid city before hurricane
Levee leaks ignored before katrina hit
Levees didnt act appropriately { November 3 2005 }
Looting cartoon [jpg]
Louisiana superdome situation ghastly { September 1 2005 }
Louisiana vunerable from loss of wetlands { August 28 2005 }
Lousiana officials indicted for emergency fund misuse { September 17 2005 }
Major oil spills in mississippi river
Media outlets exaggerated some of new orleans woes { September 28 2005 }
Mexican military joins effort { September 8 2005 }
Military occupation turns new orleans into war zone { September 6 2005 }
Military threatens shooting journalists in new orleans { September 9 2005 }
Mississippi suffering overshadowed in news
Mississippi troops are refused leave to help families
Navy pilots who rescue victims are reprimanded { September 7 2005 }
New orleans convention center [jpg]
New orleans crime after katrina exaggerated
New orleans evacuation money misused
New orleans facing environmental disaster from hurricane
New orleans resident compares evacuation to nazis { September 12 2005 }
New orleans residents traumatized by police { September 12 2005 }
New orleans rocked by explosions
Neworleans housing demolition protesters clash { November 2007 }
Oil spills from katrina may be worst on record { September 16 2005 }
Potential infectious diseases outbreaks worries doctors
Presidents approval dips below 40 perc { September 10 2005 }
Private mercanaries protect rich in new orleans { September 12 2005 }
Reports of raped babies were ruinous rumors
Reports of rapes and murders were exaggerated { September 27 2005 }
Sewage in floodwaters carries disease { September 1 2005 }
Soldiers assaulted hurricane victim { September 7 2005 }
Storm survivors must show breasts for rescue
Superdome evacuations enter second day
Thousands dead and dying in new orleans { September 4 2005 }
Tons of ice for katrina victims went nowhere { October 2 2005 }
Troops ordered shoot to kill
Warning of unprecendented storm day earlier
Water pollution concern in new orleans

Files Listed: 89



Correction/submissions

CIA FOIA Archive

National Security
Archives
Support one-state solution for Israel and Palestine Tea Party bumper stickers JFK for Dummies, The Assassination made simple