[Rhodes22-list] The Media, Mass Semi-Hysteria, and The Goodness of the Human Spirit (Political)

[Herb Parsons]

You folks will remember, although I never claimed to be an expert, I related that what I saw of New Orleans was people trying to do their best in a bad situation, both victims and those trying to help the victims. I realized that this flew in the face of the reports of everything that was going wrong. I have to admit, I also believed many of those stories before I left - One of my biggest fears that I related to my wife was that I would run into someone with a gun, who wanted me to give something, or do something, that I would be unable to do (my other two fears were having to deal with retrieving bodies, and getting down there and not actually being able to do anything). Fortunately, none of my fears materialized.

As I said before, virtually everything I saw confirmed that nature of the human spirit in rough times. Don't get me wrong, I know there were problems, but I didn't see them.

Probably the worst that I heard, and one of the things that FEMA and the Bush administration was roundly chastised for, was the "rampant lawlessness" in the SuperDome and the NO Convention Center. Mayor Nagin himself talked about "babies being raped". The coverage by the news media prompted people in the Dome to leave in fear of their lives.

Turns out the media had it wrong, the mayor had it wrong, maybe even a person or two on here had it wrong. 6 people died in the Dome, not hundreds. Four died of natural causes, one overdosed on drugs, one committed suicide. The story wasn't much different in the convention center (4 dead, one possibly by foul play).

The story is here : http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09_26.html#082732

I suspect we're going to see more and more sensationalist "news" cleared up. Of course, it'll be harder to find the buried in whatever current sensationalism the media is engaged in, as the truth comes out.

Herb Parsons

S/V O'Jure
  1976 O'Day 25
  Lake Grapevine, N TX

S/V Reve de Papa
  1971 Coronado 35
  Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana Coast