Katrina

From MediaMythBusters

Summary

The aftermath of 2005's Hurricane Katrina was horrific, with a staggering loss of life and property. Some of the early reports from New Orleans however, particularly those immediately following the storm, were later found to be inaccurate or completely untrue. Some of the news reports of rape and murder in the Superdome and the Convention Center were later found to be based on unsubstantiated rumors and civil rights leader Randall Robinson's claim that "black hurricane victims in New Orleans have begun eating corpses to survive" was later retracted. In addition to those inaccurate stories, some of the reporting of the racial makeup of the victims of the hurricane were misrepresented.

Chronology

Myth and Fact

The actual facts about Hurricane Katrina -- how it began, where it traveled, when it hit, and the physical destruction it visited upon New Orleans -- are well documented elsewhere. (This Wikipedia entry is particularly good on the objective facts.) What distinguished Hurricane Katrina from other natural disasters was media credulity and grandstanding.

Myth: African-American hurricane victims were cannibalizing each other.

Fact: Randall Robinson, who promulgated this myth at the Huffington Post eventually retracted it.

Myth: In the wake of the Hurricane, the press immediately began reporting lurid stories of murder, rape, and suicide ("Stories of rape, murder and suicide have emerged.") One man alone was responsible for widely spread reports that, during his stay in the Superdome, a man was murdered, a woman was raped and stabbed, and a man jumped from a balcony. Other reports had murder in the streets, widespread looting, and rape all over New Orleans. (This story from England is a good example.)

Fact: Within days for the media's hysterical reporting, it emerged that almost none of the anarchy alleged had actually happened. Even the World Socialist Website attacked the completely inaccurate reporting emerging from Katrina, although it saw the rumors as part of a government plot.

Myth: The government's slow response was because more blacks than whites were at risk, making rescue less of a government imperative.

Fact: Proportionally, more whites than blacks died as a result of Katrina. Almost half the people who died were white, despite the fact that almost 70% of New Orlean's pre-Katrina population was black.

Myth: The government was too slow in responding to Katrina, an idea the public quickly embraced.

Fact: The government actually responded more quickly than it did when Hurricane Andrew hit Florida. While in a perfect world it could have responded more quickly so as to save more lives and property, it did not perform below its usual standards.

Other storm coverage

Random related silly stuff: While covering floods in the northeast, The Today Show set up a spot with a reporter who appeared to be in a boat in deep water, only to have the illusion destroyed when a couple of men inconveniently walked by.

Many newspapers The New Orleans Times-Picayune exposed the. reporting of rumors, hoaxes and lies. “… 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’.” Also see Popular Mechanics for a refutation of Katrina myths.

External Links

Katrina: Forget Everything You Thought You Knew Kevin Aylward The Examiner, August 31, 2006

Reporting Katrina

Debunking Some Katrina Myths Michelle Malkin

The media's Katrina malpractice, by Jonah Goldberg

Screaming Time Writer Tells Maddow It Was Army Corps Engineers Who Killed 1,000 During Katrina Tim Graham, Newsbusters, November 21, 2009

Footnotes