In the great review that is taking place in the wake of hurricane “Katrita”, as the one-two punch to the Gulf Coast is now being called, the media displayed courage and confusion, conspiracy and callousness in the effort to simultaneously fill the airwaves and their pockets. The LA Times produced an article this morning taking the media to task for sensationalism that did nothing to serve the survivors of Katrina.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...home-headlines
Much of the sensationalizing over the roving bands of gunmen, the rapes, the murders, the bodies stacked in freezers, the thousands upon thousands of deaths, and the extreme suffering of individuals are proving to be largely fictional. Ordinary tasks of journalism, fact-checking, confirmation by multiple independent sources, and simple skepticism - seemed to disappear in the rush to deadline. News-as-it-happens is very vulnerable to this kind of dangerous rumor-mongering.
Stand-up live shots are problematic, first because they do not filter events through the ordinary journalistic checks, but worse, they tend to be over-sensationalized in the interest of creating a dramatic situation. In review, many of the hottest, most sensational stories of criminal activity, death and suffering turned out to be largely fiction. Was this done in pursuit of ratings, or was it simply a few junior reporters trying for a career boost,
a la Dan Rather's manufactured drama in hurricane Carla's surf?
Talk shows like Oprah's that flocked to cover the story are neither trained nor equipped to sort out the facts. Shooting from the hip, they gave local pols and private citizens a national forum on which to make a case that often had no basis in fact. Without a network of correspondants to investigate and verify some of these specious claims, they presented a one-sided and usually wildly inaccurate picture.
Quite a different scene emerged from the coverage of Rita - local media acquitted themselves extremely well. For the most part anchors and field reporters were professional, informative, calm, and even good-humored. Sometimes they were stupid, some were just stuffed shirts. My nominees for the fools of the week:
- Geraldo Rivera (who may well retire the trophy) who squinted and grimaced his way through the obligatory dramatic “here I am standing out in the storm” live shots on Fox, in full-face tight shots screaming over the storm “I’m in Sa-BINE Pass, on the banks of the Sa-BINE River . . .” OK, natives know it’s Sa-BEAN, but the funny part was this error went on for hours – no one, not the anchors (who were pronouncing it properly), or even his entourage and video crew offered to correct him as he attempted to manufacture one dramatic crisis after another.
- The unseen reporter who, at the conclusion of a press conference with the Mayor of Bellaire announcing the death of a large number of elderly nursing home patients in a tragic bus fire, was heard to ask, “What injuries did the victims die of?” The stunned silence in the room said it all . . . (Hmmmmm – do you think it might have been BURNS?)
- Sheila Jackson Lee, who showed up at a large number of news conferences, but was totally ignored by both the officials and the press. When she stepped to the mike at the conclusion of several announcements, camera crews snapped off their lights and the crowd dispursed, leaving the congresswoman to address a quickly emptying room. A very few politicians who sought photo-ops as a part of the disaster response were shouldered aside in the interest of working the problem. Congresswoman Lee became the poster child for useless political posing and quite possibly kept other opportunistic politicians from making fools of themselves as well.
- The TV and cable networks that were calling every available shooter in the Houston area, looking for additional cameramen and crews to stand out in the storm at the risk of life and limb for scale. When they called me, I responded like every other shooter who’s experienced a hurricane at close range, “Are you NUTS?”
With only a single story to cover, a limited number of field reporters, and only so many officials to interview, the wall-to-wall coverage was extremely repetitious. That’s OK, it wasn’t necessary to watch full time. It is good to get away from the bad news for a while now and then. When you came back, it took only a few minutes to catch up with the developing situation. With the exception of a few dim bulbs, the TV lights shown brightly through hurricane Rita.
Media coverage in a disaster - "Katrita"'s legacy
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