Reports of violence in New Orleans exaggerated

[Nate]

[quote="Associated Press"]On Sept. 1, with desperate Hurricane Katrina evacuees crammed into the convention center, Police Chief Eddie Compass reported: ``We have individuals who are getting raped]
Meh. It figures. Journalists trying to sell a story, I guess. Though the ends never justify the means, at least the stories DID compel people to send aid to the victims faster. So I guess we can be grateful that humanity isn't quite so depraved as we thought.

[Mr_Ross]

Meh. It figures. Journalists trying to sell a story, I guess. Though the ends never justify the means, at least the stories DID compel people to send aid to the victims faster. So I guess we can be grateful that humanity isn't quite so depraved as we thought.

Thank God all of that stuff isn't completely true.

It's bad enough down there as it is without everyone pillaging and raping each other, though I think the media is bashing those victimized and left homeless by the disaster, who are looting. Someone who is stealing a television just MIGHT be stealing it to barter it off for food, because it's most likely still total anarchy in a lot of places. And there are still more people who are just taking food that they need to survive anyway, since the response to the hurricane was pretty poor at best. However, reports of the police stealing from others at gunpoint (saw a CNN report about police stealing from a hotel manager multiple times, and their superiors never even reprimanded said officer((s)) ), just for their own greed, is sickening.

[Yumie]

Well, I am glad that less of that happened than we though, it was just disheartening to hear the depths to which people would sink at a time when other people are most vulnerable. It stinks to see so much greed and lust arise from a situation as horrible as that.

[Mangafanatic]

I heard about this.

. . . Why am I not surprised?

[mitsuki lover]

As a rule I wouldn't believe too much anything that appears on Oprah.

[Ingemar]

Though the ends never justify the means, at least the stories DID compel people to send aid to the victims faster. So I guess we can be grateful that humanity isn't quite so depraved as we thought.

Who says anything about the ends being justified? (PM me for a thought). This is just another reason why not to trust the legacy media.

[Technomancer]

I don't know if I'd consider Oprah to be a viable news source. However, I don't know if you really blame the media for reporting material put forward by the Chief of Police and the Mayor, who presumably should have had better sources.

[agasfas]

As a rule I wouldn't believe too much anything that appears on Oprah.

As a rule, I don't believe much of what any News stations say. It's all controlled by 2-3 major companies and it's always biased and controlled one way or another. They flat out lie (embellish) about most things anyways.

[Arnobius]

Meh. It figures. Journalists trying to sell a story, I guess. Though the ends never justify the means, at least the stories DID compel people to send aid to the victims faster. So I guess we can be grateful that humanity isn't quite so depraved as we thought.

Actually, there has been some mention that the reason FEMA deployed so slowly was because they believed the news reports... they didn't want to send unarmed volunteers into what they thought was anarchy.

Of course how much credibility to give that, I don't know.

[Hitokiri]

Though we have found out the reports of raping, multilation, and cold-blooded killings were not true, by no means was post-Katrina a "wal trhough the daises". I think thier were to a large extent chaos and violence, though not exactly to what we were told. There was a story which came in to where I live of a local visiting New Orleans, caught in the hurricane, and had to experience "hell of earth". She was interviewed by news and radio stations (one radio station being Christian) and her story stayed the same so I doubt that she was told she was to say this and that to make it appear New Orleans was going crazy. She explained how people upstairs in her htoel the day of the hurricane were shot and killed by gangs. She was rescued and sent to the convention center where she said "the only way to live was to run with the crowd. If the crowd ran, you ran. If they scattered and hide, you better do the same or you will be shot."

So what Anime Heretic said about not sending aid in due to violence, it was not what the mayor and such exaggerated it to be, but never the less, thier was anarchy and chaos.

As well, in defense of the mayor and whoever exaggergerated, it's easy to exaggerate in a crisis like this and to be overwhelmed. In part, exaggerated helps remove the stress from yourself into something you make up.

[Flying Tigers]

Ya the media tend blow things out poportion fore their own wants a lot. Fore example down here in Houston Texas they went on and on and on about how huge huricane rita is compared to katrina of course this made people panic and run after they sall what happen to New Orleans but they failed to mention that New Orleans was well below sea leval compared to Houston.

[Arnobius]

And remember the death toll of 10,000+ that was expected? I understand that the actual toll is nowhere close. We need cool heads in a crisis. Unfortunately we didn't get it.

[Technomancer]

Ya the media tend blow things out poportion fore their own wants a lot. Fore example down here in Houston Texas they went on and on and on about how huge huricane rita is compared to katrina of course this made people panic and run after they sall what happen to New Orleans but they failed to mention that New Orleans was well below sea leval compared to Houston.

Again, that's really the authorities: they're the ones that issued the evacuation orders and gave out the warnings. The media would have been very irresponsible not to pass that along. Of course, the fact that Rita was an extremely dangerous storm also had something to do with. Remember, the maximum windspeeds were around ~280 km/h at one point, and that has the potential for a lot of destruction. Being above sea level doesn't necessarily offer a lot protection either. Winds of the magnitude literally push a wall of water onto land; this sort of storm surge may be several meters high.

[Slater]

funny... just watched a film by Nom Chomsky about this kind of stuff and how the media is swayed in order to reflect the views and ideas of the "elites" and filter out the truth where it might hurt them...

[Fsiphskilm]

Always

[Roll]

I hadn't heard those particular reports. The worst I'd heard on the news was about the gang shootings. My uncle lives in MS and was somewhat close, losing several large trees in his yard. He said that rescuers were getting stabbed by the people they were trying to rescue because, according to the latter, they "took too long." He works in the ER of a hospital and saw the aftermath of that firsthand. (In fact, he was stuck in the hospital for three days because the roads home were all blocked by fallen trees.)