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Saturday, Nov 7, 2009
Nancy Ott
Published Letters: 919 Editor's Choice: 142
I'm not surprised that rumor ran ahead of fact in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The same thing happened the day of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I live in Pittsburgh, not too far away from the site of the Flight 93 crash. That morning, I remember hearing on the radio that a plane had been hijacked from the Allegheny County airport just outside the city. This was a false rumor, yet in the chaos and fear of that day it seemed utterly plausible. The hijacking rumor could have been easily debunked by a phone call to the airport, but nobody at the radio station apparently did this before repeating it on air. Eventually someone did find out that there was no hijacking and it was duly reported that all was quiet at the Allegheny County airport.
This kind of thing happened in New Orleans after Katrina, only more so. The crisis went on much longer, the situation was more chaotic, and the disaster affected a far bigger area than the 9/11 attacks. Reporters on the scene were caught up in the chaos and had limited ability to verify whether the stories they were hearing were true. When you add in the sensationalistic nature of modern news coverage, the lack of fact checking in the rush to broadcast the latest breaking news, and yes, a fair amount of race and class bias in the coverage, it's no wonder that all sorts of wild rumors were reported as fact.
While much of the Katrina coverage was accurate (and horrifying enough!), sensationalism and hysteria sometimes trumped good journalism. Stories like the one about the dead bodies in the freezer at the convention center should have been reported as unconfirmed rumors, not fact. To its credit, the media is trying to correct the record. But the damage has been done. Evacuees at the Superdome and convention center lived in fear because of these media-fueled rumors. Relatives of these evacuees (and anyone else with a shred of empathy) heard these rumors and feared for their safety. Katrina victims were labeled as thieves because of overhyped reports of looting. Some who fled New Orleans on foot were turned back by gun-toting posses because of rumors of violence. People may have died in New Orleans because rescuers feared to save them because they heard that helicopters were being shot at. Real people suffered from this rumor-mongering, and this needs to be remembered before the next crisis comes along.
After hearing an interview with Kayla Williams on NPR, I was impressed with her articulateness and thoughtfulness and decided on the strength of the interview to buy her book. While the person I read about in the book didn't quite live up to the person I heard in the interview, I didn't think "Love My Rifle More Than You" was a terrible memoir by any means. I'm not sure what Debra Dickerson was expecting from this book. I took it at face value as a personal account of the Iraq war by a female soldier. Yeah, Williams whines a bit, seeks approval for her moral lapses, and occasionally lays it on thick. This seems to be part of her personality, though, so what's the big deal? Her inner debate about risk taking, her insights into how the military has changed her, plus the little details of military life (like trying to remain a vegetarian in a country awash in chicken jambalya MREs) were what made this book interesting.
I haven't read "Jarhead" and can't compare the two books. But I get the feeling that Dickerson is reading more into this memoir than perhaps is there, or was intended to be there. Her review is like shooting mosquitoes with a shotgun -- overkill for what seemed to me to be essentially a collection of Williams' war stories.
I don't think grandma is going to be kicking up her heels as a Rockette any time soon. While age and gravity eventually get the better of all our figures (plastic surgery just delays the inevitable), that isn't necessarily true for motherhood.
The real issue here is that Cablevision is undermining the Rockette's union by threatening to replace them with scabs unless they agree to harsh contract terms. The maternity leave issue is a nasty little bonus on Cablevision's part designed to pit younger Rockettes against older Rockettes and traveling Rockettes against New York-based Rockettes. It's the oldest trick in the book: divide and conquer.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The Maine fight was supposed to be the dress rehearsal for repealing California's Prop. 8 -- but gay marriage lost
Once one obtains Seriousness credentials in the Washington media, they are irrevocable no matter one's conduct.
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