First Reports Are Always Wrong
Interesting Post called Katrina: Folklore vs. Fact
I can't believe anyone actually bought this one:
Folklore: Katrina cannibalism. "Black hurricane victims in New Orleans have begun eating corpses to survive."
Fact: Nope.
Another rumor that I've been hearing is that Los Angeles affiliated gangs (Bloods and Crips) shipped in looters all the way from California that stripped the city bare. Supposedly they specifically targeted all the jewelry stores. I guess they needed some "bling".
I call bullshit on that.
I'm guessing that most of the jewelry store owners probably evacuated their wares or at least locked them up in fairly robust safes. So unless the gangs brought demolitions specialists with them, they probably weren't getting at any jewelry.
Plus, how did they get in? A pimped-out hovercraft?
There is an old adage in the military: "First reports are always wrong."
I'm just sad that people were so inclined to believe the worst about their fellow countrymen. That's the real cannibalism in this disaster.
posted by Kris Alexander @ Wednesday, September 28, 2005
2 comments
2 Comments:
Do you think that the MSM's audience believed the reports of violent anarchy? I'm not sure. I personally found the reports so shocking, that they were hard to believe. Although, I must admit that I don't trust the media very much.
I'm just glad to know that the MSM was wrong (again--surprise!) and that the great majority of New Orleanians behaved the way I would expect myself to behave in the same situation. The MSM, in my opinion, owes an apology to their viewers and to the people of New Orleans. It is just pathetic that they can throw all of their resources into the middle of the crisis and get the facts wrong.
Additionally, it would be interesting to know if and how the media's "first reports" compromised the rescue effort, and made the situation worse that it would have been if the media had stayed home in NYC.
Any thoughts, Kris?
I didn't see the reports you are talking about -- probably because I don't have cable. I did, of course, get the Superdome rumors. These stories are not harmless. One of the reasons given by the Gretna police for stopping the people fleeing over the bridge was that they didn't want another "Superdome", with all that implied to them, in Gretna.
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