Karina Sensationalism

It doesn't take superior intellect to realize that when Mother Nature comes calling, fortune favors those who are prepared. What happened in New Orleans was a terrible tragedy and it resonates with me somewhat personally due to the fact that we visit the city every year during Jazzfest. The way it has been politicized is nothing short of disgusting. Local government blamed the state government blamed the Federal government blamed the local government and so on. Scoring cheap political points trumped tangible aid on the ground. Global warming experts such as Barbra Streisand placed the blame on our failure to sign the well intentioned yet ultimately ineffectual Kyoto Protocol for the intense hurricane activity without noting that destructive hurricanes have been devastating the Gulf Coast for as long as we've cared to keep record of them. Then you have rapper/cultural anthropology expert Kayne West explaining to the world that George Bush doesn't care about blacks and has given the National Guard permission to "go down there and shoot us!" Historian Jesse Jackson compared the scene outside the Superdome to the "hull of a slave ship." And what did the good Reverend Al Sharpton have to say? I'll let you look it up yourself. One has come to expect these limelight worshipers and their ilk to say whatever they think will retain the most shock value. Obviously the truth is secondary if it's considered at all, and statements such as the ones noted above are utterly devoid of perspective. To nobody's surprise the main stream media was breathlessly chasing every unsubstantiated rumor, running it through the mill and churning out "credible" reports. What was reportedly going on at the Superdome almost defies belief, as rumors took on a hyperbolic life of their own.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune on Monday described inflated body counts,
unverified "rapes," and unconfirmed sniper attacks as among examples of "scores
of myths about the dome and Convention Center treated as fact by evacuees, the
media and even some of New Orleans' top officials."

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."

The wild rumors filled the vacuum and seemed to gain credence with each
retelling — that an infant's body had been found in a trash can, that sharks
from Lake Pontchartrain were swimming through the business district, that
hundreds of bodies had been stacked in the Superdome basement.

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.

Fox News, a day before the major evacuation of the Superdome began, issued
an "alert" as talk show host Alan Colmes reiterated reports of "robberies,
rapes, carjackings, riots and murder. Violent gangs are roaming the streets at
night, hidden by the cover of darkness."

The Los Angeles Times adopted a breathless tone the next day in its
lead news story, 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. Gunfire crackled in the distance."

The tabloid Ottawa Sun reported unverified accounts of "a man seeking help
gunned down by a National Guard soldier" and "a young man run down and then shot
by a New Orleans police officer."

London's Evening Standard invoked the future-world fantasy film "Mad Max"
to describe the scene and threw in a "Lord of the Flies" allusion for good
measure.

Nagin and Police Chief Eddie Compass appeared on "Oprah" a
few days after trouble at the Superdome had peaked.Compass told of "the little
babies getting raped" at the Superdome. And Nagin made his claim about hooligans
raping and killing.


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.

What happened to simple fact checking? What happened to asking Who, What, Where, When and Why and proceeding to write a story based on verifiable facts? Stay tuned for the forthcoming apology from the media--surely they'll want to clear a few things up to save their tarnished image.