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September 26, 2005
Who's complaining about whose exaggerations?
Everybody makes mistakes, and I try not to dwell on assigning blame because it isn't generally productive of much. Usually when someone tries to avoid responsibility for assigning blame to others, I'm not terribly impressed, unless it appears that the person trying to shift blame helped create the problem. And I'm wondering what's going on with the Times Picayune's Brian Thevenot, who's taking a hard line in condemning earlier gruesome reports of crime which he now says were untrue: As floodwaters forced tens of thousands of evacuees into the Dome and Convention Center, news of unspeakable acts poured out of the nation's media: evacuees firing at helicopters trying to save them; women, children and even babies raped with abandon; people killed for food and water; a 7-year-old raped and killed at the Convention Center. Police, according to their chief, Eddie Compass, found themselves in multiple shootouts inside both shelters, and were forced to race toward muzzle flashes through the dark to disarm the criminals; snipers supposedly fired at doctors and soldiers from downtown high-rises.(Via Glenn Reynolds.) The above is certainly good news by any standard. But what's troubling to me is that some of the bad news was reported by Thevenot himself. By implication, he's now saying that his own story, which I was unfortunate enough to link before in the assumption that it was accurate, was either lying or exaggerated. The link I posted to Thevenot's earlier Times-Picayune story now goes nowhere except to the story Glenn links today. But via the Kansas City Star, here's the earlier Times-Picayune story [edited version, unfortunately] which still bears Thevenot's name: The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, on its Web site, reported on an Arkansas National Guardsman, Mikel Brooks. It followed him as he stepped through the food service entrance of the convention center on Monday, flipped on the light at the end of his machine gun, and started pointing out bodies.Contrast that to Thevenot today: A Washington Post report quoted another soldier who concluded that three of the four people appeared to have been beaten to death, including an older woman in a wheelchair.I'm a bit baffled by this. It's one thing to correct your own story, but the earlier one appears to have been pulled, without a retraction or correction ever being issued. Instead, the reporter who wrote it seems to be attacking bad reporting -- and completely failing to point out that his own story played a key role. Something isn't right about this. I didn't save the full text of the original Thevenot story, and I'm now sorry that I ever linked to it. Regardless of who was responsible (and regardless of who refuses to accept responsibility) I find myself in full agreement with Glenn: THE PRESS'S PERFORMANCE DURING KATRINA wasn't any better than the governments involved.But didn't the governments involved have special privileges which allowed them to avoid accountability and instead assign blame elsewhere? Yeah, I guess there are a lot of similarities. MORE: I am not the first to raise these concerns about Thevenot's reporting. Here's a letter to the Editor of the Times Picayune: To the Editors of the Times-Picayune: MORE: Hugh Hewitt has a more complete version of the Thevenot text: "Don't step in that blood - it's contaminated," he said. "That one with his arm sticking up in the air, he's an old man."Again, I am sorry I linked Thevenot's story, and I am glad he has at least implicitly discredited it now. But couldn't Thevenot have avoided this tone of what comes close to moral sanctimony? (Really, it's as if I should apologize to him for relying on his own story and linking it in my blog....)
AND MORE: I have located what appears to be the full text of the Thevenot story, and the link works. I'm sure Thevenot wouldn't deny writing his own story, but I still haven't been able to find a retraction. (And in any case he isn't saying anything about it.) UPDATE: Via Glenn's update, I see that John Cole thinks that money ($250 billion) might explain some of the hurry by journalists to shun any honest discussion of factual errors: I can see why we wouldn’t want facts to get in the way of the ‘story.’John refers to an earlier post titled "A Backlash for Correcting the Record?," pointing out that hysteria fuels power grabs: a large part of the movement to engage in these power grabs and re-organizations was fueled by the hysteria immediately following the disaster, much of which has turned out to be false.I'm with John. If there is to be a power grab, I'd rather not have it based on journalistic hysteria, which I don't think should be swept under the rug (even by those who played a part in generating it). "Get it right and make sure the rest of us d[o] too." MORE: Was there an attempt to foment (or exploit) racism by circulating these bogus stories? Who would do or encourage such a thing? Reporters? Government officials? The mayor and the chief of police? Oprah? Why? ...why was everyone so quick to believe (and report) that a mostly black group of mostly poor gathered together would turn to such violence? Even early reports on cannibalism? These are people like you and me, not some sub human race. When I watched the news reports I wasn't fully buying into the wildest stories, but of course the wildest stories made the news. And they made the news often, without being questioned or fact checked.The more I look at this thing, the stranger it looks. One thing is abundantly clear: the MSM (probably working with corrupt government officials) deliberately whipped up a climate of hysteria. Whether they'll get away with blaming the people who fell for it remains to be seen. (Hey, at least I've admitted my mistake in falling for Thevenot's story the first time.)
AND MORE: I'm now wondering whether in fact "many black New Orleanians" really did tell WaPo's Eugene Robinson that "the levee breaks had been engineered in order to save the French Quarter and the Garden District at the expense of the Lower Ninth Ward, which is almost all black." In a previous post I assumed Robinson was accurately reporting what he was told. Sigh. I now find myself questioning the premises of my premises!
No matter how much disdain many of us have for the mainstream media, we shouldn’t mistake sloth for malice. posted by Eric on 09.26.05 at 02:25 PM
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» The Fog of Media takes toll on truth from Swanky Conservative
The Mainstream Media is starting to turn on itself over the fake (but accurate?) reporting that came out of Hurricane Katrina’s effects on New Orleans. Some of the media is celebrating itself in promo spots run on television pontificating how ... [Read More] Tracked on September 27, 2005 10:07 AM
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Thanks Jim. I think this will go down in the annals of bad journalism. (To say nothing of bad government.) Eric Scheie · September 26, 2005 09:20 PM Thanks for the link, Eric. Although I my blog is more humor-oriented, the stories of children raped and murdered in the Morial Convention Center shocked and upset me. I also linked to the original reports. When Eddie Compass made his statement that there were no children's bodies recovered in the Convention Center and that such reports were "vicious rumors," I was relieved and hoped it was true. At the same time, I realized I might have fallen for shoddy reporting. Almost a week after the "vicious rumors" press conference, NPR broadcast an audio segment called "Hell on Earth at the Convention Center," in which even more "vicious rumors" were spread by reporter John Burnett, who quoted Convention Center evacuees, but did not include independent verification of any kind, except for a vague statement about an "unknown" body count. I transcribed part of the segment and include links here. Bonnie Wren · September 27, 2005 08:55 AM Thanks for coming, and for the valuable information. Today's LA Times has jumped on the bad reporting bandwagon -- citing Thevenot's story from yesterday's Time Picayune without any mention of his own role in the bad reporting. A coverup of bad reporting by bad reporters themselves? Eric Scheie · September 27, 2005 09:12 AM The question I have is: Were they lying then or are they lying now? I am aware that 'lying' is perhaps a bit strong in at least one of these cases. Fundamentally I am asking: What really happened and how do we find out? Names have been named. Do these people exist? Can they be found? Can they be questioned under oath? Did some one "high up" in the MSM or elsewhere see this crap and lay down the law? This whole thing stinks of being a bit more than a 'mistake.' Uncle Bill · September 27, 2005 11:14 AM I couldn't agree more. Eric Scheie · September 27, 2005 11:18 AM Get off it. God what is WRONG with you people?? Everything Thevenot reported originally was sourced - direct quotes from named sources that now say they were being hysterical and giving him the wrong information. In SOME cases. A politician or cop backpedals and suddenly it's the reporter's fault? What he did that the others didn't was note in his own stories that they weren't independently verified. He didn't just randomly, breathlessly report it like CNN and FOX and some of the others did. Karen · September 27, 2005 02:01 PM You're missing my point entirely. I don't doubt Thevenot was under pressure. I just haven't seen any retraction or correction from him. His complaints about bad reporting without mentioning his role in it strike me as more than a little self serving. (BTW, I've repeatedly criticized Compass and Nagin. Compass has already resigned, but I think he should be held to answer for his unconstitutional actions.) Eric Scheie · September 27, 2005 08:38 PM |
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Eric - I just put up a post on "Oh, That Liberal Media" asking for nominations for worst performance by a journalist during Katrina. I think you may have a fine candidate here.
By the way, on a related subject, Rita Kepner, a woman with considerable experience in these matters has accused national broadcasters of causing many deaths during Katrina by failing to get the right information out. Here's my post on the subject, along with a link to her article.