This story by Aaron Kinney rang true to me -- as a volunteer in other areas effected by H. Katrina (AL) I saw firsthand how quickly and contagiously anger at "the government" turned into false charges of racist remarks, for example. As a psychotherapist I know it's a small jump from acusations of racism to accusations of other sorts -- especially when one already feels disenfranchised, and when mob or group psychology takes over in frightened, displaced people.

While there were many flaws in our collective response to the Katrina disaster, the damage was so widespread, I do not know, especially after having seen not the worst of it (which was bad enough) first hand, how any government could be expected to be ready to respond quickly and perfectly.

We must stop expecting our government to protect us from things that we cannot and never could have been protected from. Like natural disasters. And terrorism.

We must, at long last, grow up. We live in the greatest nation on earth, and if we want it to stay that way we need to be responsible, accountable, and generous to our neighbors.

Such are my thoughts after reading Mr. Kinney's story. I hope to see more of his work.

Melissa Miller

As someone who has worked in the movement to end violence against women and children for 25 years, I worry any time I see that rapes might have been "exaggerated."

I do agree emphatically that racism and the popular disgust and contempt for poor people (who of course are poor because they don't work hard or some other convenient reason to blame them for their own poverty)led to outrageous exaggerations of the violence in New Orleans.

I applaud Salon for exposing this tendency to throw emotional kerosene on the fire. I was always suspicious of the "firing at helicopters urban myth".

However, I do want to bring to your attention -- that batterers, rapists and child abusers would probably have taken this opportunity to be abusive, controlling and to sexually assault women and children.

Susan McGee, Eureka, CA

The author did an excellent job of explaining how otherwise-reliable people ended up creating or spreading horrific rumors and how otherwise-reliable news sources ended up reporting those rumors. Great reporting on the dark underbelly of human nature in a time of crisis.

Stories about looting and killing make it possible to justify the theft and murder committed by the various "contracting" agencies, like Blackwater and the others.

Just like WMD, the Bush Gang always has its cover in place to protect the profiteers, con artists and thieves.

I don't think racism had much to do with the misreporting of conditions in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. I say this because I saw several Black evacuees, who claimed to be eyewitnesses, speak of rapes, gangs, guns, crime, etc. that they allegedly observed in the two major New Orleans evacuation centers. Perhaps, these evacuees exaggerated their stories and the media simply reported these exaggerations as facts.

I also recall seeing a White doctor speaking with Nancy Grace on her Headline News show, about the criminal activities taking place in the convention center. Was he wrong? Possibly. Was he racist? No. Mistakes are made by human beings under the best of circumstances. I think we will have to forgive reporters who made mistakes during one of the worst natural disasters to have hit America, and hope for better reporting next time.

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.

Once more we are reminded, everything you hear from Fox is wrong.

Just want to thank you for the thorough follow up. I found the stories at the time not credible and didn't know what to make of the widespread reporting. I'm so glad to know my sense at the time has been verified by the follow up by the national guard themselves. And the information about how the phenomenon may have occured was helpful in understanding the media in the future. Thanks Aaron Kinney and Salon for once again being an accurate source of information!

Sincerely,

Marcia Sarka

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