The Washington Times’ Jennifer Harper writes about the re-examination going on surrounding some of the more sensational stories that came out of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans…
The New Orleans Times-Picayune published a lengthy account Monday of errors, misrepresentations and wildly exaggerated claims of murder, rape and abuse of children at the New Orleans Superdome. The newspaper cited publication of “scores of myths about the dome and Convention Center treated as fact by evacuees, the media and even some of New Orleans’ top officials.”
Since the hurricane hit four weeks ago, estimates of deaths at the Superdome, for example, have been revised downward from 200 to 10, and four of those were heart attacks. One was a suicide, and one man is thought to have been pushed from a balcony to the floor hundreds of feet below. Police said one man found dead at the Superdome is thought to have been killed elsewhere.
Television reporters, whose courage in the face of danger has been widely praised, are nevertheless accused of passing along fanciful accounts of mayhem. Rep. Peter T. King, New York Republican, accused MSNBC’s Chris Matthews of “distorting reality” on a broadcast Monday.
“You are distorting reality,” he told him. “And that’s the problem with you. You and MSNBC have carried away with this. You should all be ashamed of yourself.”
It is about time that someone with some power called Matthews and MSNBC on framing rumors as facts.
Comment by Tom from Virginia Beach — September 29, 2005 @ 7:11 am
Chris Matthews is disgusting. He can’t keep his Democrat bias out of his broadcasting. Furrowed brow, “gotcha” posture, waiting to pounce. “I’ll huff and puff and blow your house down.”
Say good night, Chris.
Comment by Cara — September 29, 2005 @ 9:47 am
Sounds to me like the Times is just as guilty of showing its conservative bias here as anyone else is guilty of anything. And they’re distorting things too, by the way they’ve juxtaposed things here. When Matthews talked to King, they were not talking about mayhem at the Superdome or death estimates at all. All Matthews was trying to do was keep King from doing the old “Republican thing,” i.e., blame the whole situation on the local government rather than the feds.
Comment by tanne — September 29, 2005 @ 7:01 pm