The Networks Lied…
…about the number who died. In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, virtually everyone (myself included) was quick to believe every wild story that came down the pike. 8-foot sharks, 20-foot alligators, rape and murder on a massive scale, a body count that started at 10,000…
Well, information was tough to get, no doubt, and it is also true that horrible, horrible things DID in fact take place, if not on the scale we originally feared. So, maybe the networks didn’t lie, originally. But aren’t they lying now?
That is to say, if you report something as fact, and that something doesn’t pan out, and yet you leave it uncorrected, in full knowledge that you were wrong, doesn’t that then become a lie, i.e., the intentional assertion of something that one knows to be false? I submit to you that this is, in fact, a form of lying. Power Line has more on this, as does Michelle Malkin…
UPDATE 10:21 a.m. central: Of course, it doesn’t help matters that the public officials in Louisiana are, quite honestly, a bunch of hysterics. Add to the poor performance of Mayor Gavin that of Jefferson Parish President Allen Brousard, who won’t admit a blatant ‘mistake’ when the proof is incontrovertible…
I have to say, I’m a bit surprised that FoxNews hasn’t been all over this. I thought the whole point of getting a center-right news channel was to bring the adversarial system to the news networks — let Fox expose wrong-doings from the left, and let CNN expose wrong-doings from the right, then no one gets a free pass.
The much-lower-than-expected total death toll has gotten wide press. I would have thought that would have primed Americans to tune in to a “why did we get it so wrong” round of mea (over there!) culpa from the press. If the NYT can get away with slandering a FoxNews reporter without getting Fox involved… there seems to be no hope of them getting involved in this fight. Thank goodness for the blogs.
Clint has an excellent point on the reluctance of MSM outlets to critique each other’s performance. Right now, that function is performed exclusively by the blogs, which for me personally is one of their most attractive features. It wouls be nice if Fox, or somebody, would step up to the plate on this; I suspect there’s a vast untapped market for this sort of coverage.
Incidentally, Stephen Spruiell over at NR’s Media blog notes that, in addition to Broussard, Russert’s other guests this Sunday were David Brooks, Thomas Friedman, and the indispensable MoDo. The show bore more than a passing resemblance to an infomercial for TimeSelect…
Some Katrina Accountability
The Seattle Times: Reports of anarchy at Superdome overstated
Remember Frank Rich’s “Hell in New Orleans” screed?
It might have been based on a little exaggeration:
After five days managing near riots, medical horrors and unspeaka…
Don’t hold your breath over any self – examination from Fox over this one, Mark. Fox participated in some of the sloppy reporting during their Hurricane coverage, so they’re culpable in this as well. I saw a recent transcript where John Gibson was reiterating some of the reports of “looting and rampaging” near the Superdome, with no clarification later given as to the inaccuracy of the reports themselves.