The "horrors" weren't the main story. People dying was the story. The initial reports of horrors were reported as unsubstantiated and second hand, and often from people claiming to be eyewitnesses. The newly awoken journalists reported on what they could. While I'm glad to get better reports (and these "corrections" are still just part of the whole situation), let's not lose focus.
Aside: Bets that they find some of the reported horrors? Many?
I believe that there were horrors and atrocities, murders and rapes. Just not nearly as many as people thought, even the people who were witnesses or near-witnesses.
I do, however, think that the story about the surprisingly small number of bodies found in the Convention Center and Superdome deserved to be front page news, not buried on page 10. In some ways, the urban legend aspect of the complete story is more newsworthy than the shock value of the original stories. Certainly you need both sets of stories to form a complete picture of what just happened.
It ran on Tuesday in the San Jose newspaper. Don't know where because I didn't see the paper itself, just looked it up online. But I suspect it was buried. Or, hmm, it may only have been in the online version.
When I first heard those stories, I thought they had the sound of urban legends. Would people have been so ready to believe them if the evacuees hadn't been poor? Or black?
Here's an excerpt from a fairly typical story on the topic: Reuters story
Other survivors recounted horrific cases of sexual assault and murder. Sitting with her daughter and other relatives, Trolkyn Joseph, 37, said men had wandered the cavernous convention center in recent nights raping and murdering children. She said she found a dead 14-year old girl at 5 am on Friday morning, four hours after the young girl went missing from her parents inside the convention center. ''She was raped for four hours until she was dead,'' Joseph said through tears. ''Another child, a seven-year-old boy was found raped and murdered in the kitchen freezer last night.'' Several others told similar stories of the abuse and murder of children, but they could not be independently verified.
I agree that there have been racist overtones in some of the reporting, but I don't think this is an example of it. The reporter took the witness' name, reported what she said, attempted to corroborate the story with other people on the scene, and reported it with the caveat that the story "could not be independently verified." I'm not sure what more the reporter could have done other than to have ignored the accounts he or she was being told. And if all the reporters ignored all of these tearful stories, they would probably have been accused of racism for doing so.
Here's a link to another media story with a sensational headline ("Rapes, killings hit Katrina refugees in New Orleans.") Yahoo new story
Interestingly enough, this article devotes about as much time to atrocities supposedly committed by the police as it does to rape, murder and mayhem among the refugees. You might accuse these reporters of sensationalism, but I just don't see a racial bias here.
I don't think the media were wrong in reporting the stories that were told, as long as they were conscientious about trying to verify and noting it if they couldn't. Yes, if black people told them horror stories and they hadn't reported them, they would have been accused of racism.
What struck me was that so many members of both the government and the public seemed to be so quick to believe it all. Twice I ran across writing from people in other countries that took the viewpoint that "the Americans reveal their true nature" in circumstances like these (those, of course, were anti-American rather than racist).
I think that reaction included some racism and classism ("those people" reactions), but I think some of it was that a lot of people really do believe the worst, not the best, of their fellow human beings. And reading/hearing constant media reports of crime and predation in non-disaster, everyday situations has conditioned people to think that it is pervasive.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2005-09-29 01:52 am (UTC)Aside: Bets that they find some of the reported horrors? Many?
no subject
Date: 2005-09-29 04:24 am (UTC)I do, however, think that the story about the surprisingly small number of bodies found in the Convention Center and Superdome deserved to be front page news, not buried on page 10. In some ways, the urban legend aspect of the complete story is more newsworthy than the shock value of the original stories. Certainly you need both sets of stories to form a complete picture of what just happened.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-29 05:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-29 03:17 am (UTC)When I first heard those stories, I thought they had the sound of urban legends. Would people have been so ready to believe them if the evacuees hadn't been poor? Or black?
no subject
Date: 2005-09-29 04:19 am (UTC)Other survivors recounted horrific cases of sexual assault and murder. Sitting with her daughter and other relatives, Trolkyn Joseph, 37, said men had wandered the cavernous convention center in recent nights raping and murdering children. She said she found a dead 14-year old girl at 5 am on Friday morning, four hours after the young girl went missing from her parents inside the convention center. ''She was raped for four hours until she was dead,'' Joseph said through tears. ''Another child, a seven-year-old boy was found raped and murdered in the kitchen freezer last night.'' Several others told similar stories of the abuse and murder of children, but they could not be independently verified.
I agree that there have been racist overtones in some of the reporting, but I don't think this is an example of it. The reporter took the witness' name, reported what she said, attempted to corroborate the story with other people on the scene, and reported it with the caveat that the story "could not be independently verified." I'm not sure what more the reporter could have done other than to have ignored the accounts he or she was being told. And if all the reporters ignored all of these tearful stories, they would probably have been accused of racism for doing so.
Here's a link to another media story with a sensational headline ("Rapes, killings hit Katrina refugees in New Orleans.")
Yahoo new story
Interestingly enough, this article devotes about as much time to atrocities supposedly committed by the police as it does to rape, murder and mayhem among the refugees. You might accuse these reporters of sensationalism, but I just don't see a racial bias here.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-29 12:09 pm (UTC)I don't think the media were wrong in reporting the stories that were told, as long as they were conscientious about trying to verify and noting it if they couldn't. Yes, if black people told them horror stories and they hadn't reported them, they would have been accused of racism.
What struck me was that so many members of both the government and the public seemed to be so quick to believe it all. Twice I ran across writing from people in other countries that took the viewpoint that "the Americans reveal their true nature" in circumstances like these (those, of course, were anti-American rather than racist).
I think that reaction included some racism and classism ("those people" reactions), but I think some of it was that a lot of people really do believe the worst, not the best, of their fellow human beings. And reading/hearing constant media reports of crime and predation in non-disaster, everyday situations has conditioned people to think that it is pervasive.