The Media - Fact or Fiction?

"If you read it in The Sun, you know it to be true." Or words to that effect. That's what Little Virginia wrote to the editor of the New York Sun newspaper many decades ago when she wrote the famous letter asking about Santa Claus.

I wonder whether we should be writing letters to the editor about news reporters of today. Should we write to ask whether journalists who report facts really exist? I have to do something I really don't like doing: I'm lumping all reporters together. We all know that there are reporters who are careful to follow the rules of journalism: report what you know to be fact. And I personally don't have an objection to reporting rumor if it's also reported as a rumor. I apologize to those who report facts. I personally don't trust MSM now. I watch mainly Fox News and I'm careful about what I believe even there. I have more trust in Fox than I have in most other media, but still not total trust.

Hurricane Katrina is a prime example. Media was reporting before the storm that being a Category Five hurricane, Katrina would leave tens of thousands dead. Not so. Last I heard the toll was less than 1,000. Media reported that murder and rape were rampant in the Superdome. Again, not so. No one was murdered. Yes, there were seven deaths. Four of natural causes, one suicide, one overdose, and one other who's cause I don't remember. There were no rapes. It was no picnic, don't get me wrong. I'm sure it was a living nightmare. But what we were hearing before the authorities could get in and find out what was really happening, was wrong.

And of course Katrina was going to totally wreck the oil industry. Oil rigs would be destroyed. Refineries would be devastated. Price would reach all time highs. I believe it was within a week that all oil rigs and refineries were up and running, most at full capacity. Oil prices did shoot up, but they began to fall again, once some of the strategic oil reserve was released, the refineries got up and running again, and perspective was restored.

Then along came Hurricane Rita. She would do to Galveston-Houston what Katrina did to New Orleans. There were at least two differences. One, Galveston-Houston isn't in a bowl between a major lake and a major river and, two, Texans saw what happened to New Orleans and wisely left days before Rita rolled into town. No levees broke in Galveston-Houston, so there wasn't the flooding that Katrina caused. New Orleans was hurt by Rita too. They had a lot of rainfall they didn't need. I believe another levee was breeched and more flooding occurred.

There wasn't nearly as much reporting on Rita as there was on Katrina. Rita was downgraded to a Category 3 before she made landfall. Much of the drama was removed. We were again treated to scenes of reporters trying to stand against the wind and rain reporting that the weather conditions were increasing as the hurricane came closer. Well, duh! That's what happens.

After the hurricanes, it seemed to me that the name of the game was Point the Finger! Who is holding a press conference and who will they Point the Finger! at today? Will Mayor Nagin Point the Finger! at Governor Blanco? Will she Point the Finger! at the Bush Administration? There's enough blame to go around. Mayor Nagin didn't use city and school buses to get people out of town. He also refused Amtrak's offer to train people out. Governor Blanco failed to ask for Federal help as early as she could have. Bush offered to nationalize the Louisiana National Guard. Governor Blanco refused and I'm not sure she was wrong to do so. FEMA turned away Red Cross help. People could have had food, water, and medical care earlier than they did had FEMA relaxed it's ridiculous procedures and done the job.

FEMA is under the President. I can't argue about that. But it wasn't Bush who turned the Red Cross away from New Orleans. That was FEMA and their bureaucracy. It wasn't Bush who failed to ask for Federal help. That was Governor Blanco. It wasn't Bush who didn't get the buses rolling and refused Amtrak help. That was Mayor Nagin.

Sure, I'm focusing on the reporting of problems in the Superdome, but if I can't trust the media to report fact, and not rumor about a hurricane, I can't trust them to report what's really happening in Iraq, London, or Washington.

I looked up "journalism" at Dictionary.com. The third definition is: the style of writing characteristic of material in newspapers and magazines, consisting of direct presentation of facts or occurrences with little attempt at analysis or interpretation (emphasis mine).

It's not the job of a journalist to decide what facts to present. A reporter has the ability to choose which "facts" to present and which not to present. There's way too much reporting of the negative, and not nearly enough of the positive. In my opinion, the media chooses to report what is negative, and it's even better if they can point to the Bush administration and say it's Bush's fault. Once again I will say that Bush has made decisions I cannot support. But, he is isn't Satan incarnate either, despite what some segments of the public want to believe.

I want reporters to give me the facts. I'll make the determination how concerned I need to be about the current news events or what I need to do. Mark Steyn of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote a good article on this subject. You can find it here. It's well worth the read.