Texas Rainmaker » MSM’s “We Only Have to be Right for a Day” Syndrome

MSM’s “We Only Have to be Right for a Day” Syndrome
September 29th, 2005 11:30 pm

One of MSM’s biggest problems today is information access. The average citizen can now search through mountains of archived information generated by the MSM in minutes and quickly see the inconsistencies and errors made by improper fact-checking, lack of credible sources or just plain old bias.

The story of New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina is the latest example. A month ago, the headlines read like Armageddon was fast approaching:

Rapes, killings hit Katrina refugees in New Orleans

People left homeless by Hurricane Katrina told horrific stories of rape, murder and trigger-happy guards in two New Orleans centers that were set up as shelters but became places of violence and terror… The refugees, who were waiting to be taken to sports stadiums and other huge shelters across Texas and northern Louisiana, described how the convention center and the Superdome became lawless hellholes beset by rape and murder.

Several residents of the impromptu shantytown recounted two horrific incidents where those charged with keeping people safe had killed them instead.

In one, a young man was run down and then shot by a New Orleans police officer, in another a man seeking help was gunned down by a National Guard soldier, witnesses said…

“There is rapes going on here. Women cannot go to the bathroom without men. They are raping them and slitting their throats. They keep telling us the buses are coming but they never leave,” she said through tears.

On top of the anarchy, Mayor Ray Nagin came out and “warned that 10,000 people may have died.” TEN THOUSAND! And what was the real total? As of today, 1,132. Only 896 of those were in Louisiana, and a smaller number yet in New Orleans itself. Unless they discover a Saddam-esque mass grave, the numbers will never even come close to Nagin’s dire… and completely unfounded warning. But, for a day, it made for good “news”.

In addition…

Police Chief Eddie Compass reported: “We have individuals who are getting raped; we have individuals who are getting beaten.”

Five days later, he told Oprah Winfrey that babies were being raped. On the same show, Mayor Ray Nagin warned: “They have people standing out there, have been in that frickin’ Superdome for five days watching dead bodies, watching hooligans killing people, raping people.”

So where’s the issue?

All of these breath-taking reports led to the finger-pointing and accusations of a federal government that was too slow to respond. The liberals quickly attacked Bush, using these reports as their basis. The local officials said the lack of federal response had caused the total anarchy, lawlessness and deaths. It’s a serious charge to level… especially when it’s untrue.

Because, you see, the real story paints a very different aftermath…

Reports of rape, murder at Katrina evacuation sites were probably exaggerated, officials now say.

and…

The vast majority of reported atrocities committed by evacuees ï¿½ mass murders, rapes and beatings ï¿½ have turned out to be false, or at least unsupported by any evidence, according to key military, law-enforcement, medical and civilian officials in positions to know.

In fact, not only did the reports which formed the very foundation of the accusations against Bush and the federal government turn out to be mostly untrue, the very fact the reports were being made publicly and picked up by the MSM so readily may have actually led to slower response times by officials on the ground!

[Police Chief Eddie] Compass conceded that rumor had overtaken, and often crippled, authorities’ response to reported lawlessness, sending badly needed resources to situations that turned out not to exist.

So will we see some corrections and retractions in the MSM and those on the Left who used the baseless and false claims of mayhem to attack the President and the federal response? A federal response, I might add, that was faster than the response to at least 5 major hurricanes in the 1990s.

Probably not. Because yesterday’s news is just that… yesterday’s news. Despite the fact that today’s news puts a very different context around those prior reports. So, in the end, the Left gets a no-lose situation.

That is until people come full circle and view the current stories in light of the prior ones. But don’t expect the MSM or the Left to help you make that loop. Nope, they benefit when you forget their entire argument was based on stories that at the time seemed to support their claims, but later are proven totally untrue.

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Reports of rape, murder at Katrina evacuation sites were probably exaggerated, officials now say.

The vast majority of reported atrocities committed by evacuees ï¿½ mass murders, rapes and beatings ï¿½ have turned out to be false, or at least unsupported by any evidence, according to key military, law-enforcement, medical and civilian officials in positions to know.

[Police Chief Eddie] Compass conceded that rumor had overtaken, and often crippled, authorities’ response to reported lawlessness, sending badly needed resources to situations that turned out not to exist.