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September 27, 2005

Everything You Know is Wrong

Shame on me. Shame on me for believing anything that the media reports, even in the US, even when there are dozens or hundreds of purported witnesses and even when there are government officials saying the same thing. (And shame on me, too, for believing anything government officials say without checking up on it first.) What is the topic that inspired this thought? Well, it turns out that not only were most of the horrible conditions reported in New Orleans false, they were off by orders of magnitude. Large numbers of rapes, including children? Nope. Hundreds of dead in the Superdome? Nope. Murders and attacks on rescue workers by the boatload? Nope, just a few isolated incidents. Looting on a grand scale? Well, there was obviously some, but at this point I'm going to guess that the looting was far more confined than reported.

Why did I fall for this? Well, when you have the media and the politicians both reporting the same thing, over and over again, it sounds pretty plausible. They are, after all, on site or getting information from people on site (like police officers and rescue workers). That's pretty heavy evidence. I already discount any story with known poisoned sources (that is, sources with a known agenda whose purposes would be served by the story in question), or with only a single source, or with only unnamed source or only one named source. But these stories appeared to have dozens of sources behind them.

But here's what apparently actually happened to generate those news stories:

  • Something bad happened. A person died at the Superdome, or a person was raped, or looters fired at rescue workers in one place.
  • In the fragmented connectivity of the rescue community, with the police radio system underwater and the other services frequently not being able to talk directly to each other, tales of such an event spread by the telephone system, one person to another with some level of distortion (generally embellishment) at every stage, and many stages.
  • Eventually, a horrible rumor was to be heard in the lunch lines where the police or rescue workers were grabbing a bite and taking a break: 200 bodies were in the Superdome (there were 6, plus 4 more in the surrounding streets) or 40 bodies in the freezer at the Convention Center (there were 4, only one of which was murdered), or kids were being raped (unsubstantiated at this time), or rescue workers were getting shot at (wildly exaggerated).
  • Reporters passed the rumors on as established fact. I can remember at least one case, I think on CNN [UPDATE: Nope, Times-Picayune report], of a reporter saying he had seen the bodies in the freezer at the Convention Center. Again, the "reporters" were not filing reports, but telling stories, with their own embellishments added.
  • Government officials, unable to communicate with their own people with any speed or reliability or clarity, would ask them if the reports were true, and get something like, "I heard that from some of the Coast Guard guys." The politicians would then confirm the story to the press.
  • The press would then report the story as confirmed.

Like I said, shame on me for believing that our incompetent press could get a story right even in our own country.

UPDATE: Just to drive the point home, it's not just the stories, but the photographs, too. (And, certainly, the video.) Thanks to Transterrestrial Musings for that link.

Posted by jeff at September 27, 2005 3:38 PM

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Tracked on September 29, 2005 6:00 PM

Comments

Yeah, this whole thing has been irritating me as well. I happened upon Joe Scarborough on MSNBC tonight with other media members circling the wagons (which they are all doing now). My favorite bit was Scarborough twice saying something to the effect of 'we know that three babies starved to death (at either the Super Dome or Convention Center) because it was reported by the AP.' Are you serious? With all the gross distortions coming out, he has the nerve to say we know it's true because it was reported in the press? Um, so was the Rathergate memo Joe. Was that true? Oh wait, I forgot, "fake but accurate".

The media no longer has enough credibility for me to take their reporting on faith, or, in fact, seriously at all. And if their reporting ever includes numbers, or fantastic claims, I know to automatically believe they are wildly exaggerating. The media has become incredibly sensationalistic for the purpose of driving up ratings. Bully for them; apparently it's working like gang busters. Just don't expect me to play along any more.

I should have known better, too.

Posted by: Brian Medcalf at September 28, 2005 12:34 AM

Only 4 people in the freezer, one of which was murdered. Yeah, no big deal.

Posted by: Anonymous at September 28, 2005 9:33 AM

Stalin famously commented that a single death is a tragedy and a million deaths is a statistic. It's a very good thing that we are dealing with tragedies, rather than statistics. The "reporting" out of New Orleans certainly made it seem like we'd be dealing in statistics.

And to be blunt, one murder in New Orleans on a weekend would be a record low, and three people dying in a city of — what, half a million? — is not much either, nor is 13 if you count in the 10 from the Superdome (including the suicide). I understand that the current fatality count for the entire storm across all the states it hit is in the range of about 1000 (but I'm getting that number from the media, so it could be wrong); that's a far cry from the 10000 fatalities estimated for New Orleans alone.

The point is that these deaths, while tragic, do not match up, even remotely, with what was being reported. If the media is incapable of honest and accurate reporting, or even of getting in the ball park, then the media is useless except as a propaganda tool. In a free society, I doubt many people want that outcome. (If you like the general media slant, consider what would happen should your ideological foes instead come to dominate the media. Is it still a good idea for the media to be a propaganda tool in those circumstances?)

Posted by: Jeff Medcalf [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 28, 2005 10:04 AM