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Media Coverage on Hurricane Katrina Essay

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Media Coverage on Hurricane Katrina
News of the devastating hurricane Katrina and its economic, political, social, and humanitarian consequences dominated global headlines in an unprecedented manner when this natural catastrophe struck the region of New Orleans in mid August 2005 (Katrinacoverage.com). As a tradition, large-scale disasters like Katrina, inevitably, bring out a combination of the best and the worst news media instincts. As such, during the height of Hurricane Katrina’s rage, many journalists for once located their gag reflex and refused to swallow shallow and misleading excuses and explanations from public officials. Nevertheless, the media’s eagerness to report thinly substantiated rumors may have played a key role in …show more content…

In deed, a survey posted in the LexisNexis database reveal than on September 1st 2005, the narrative of the news media with regard to the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina shifted.
John Gibson, the Fox News anchor somewhat helped set the stage for this shift (Brauer 216). To paraphrase him, Gibson said that there were all kinds of [media] reports of massive looting, fires and violence in New Orleans. He then said that “thugs” has opened fire at rescue crews. Gibson then said that thousands of police personnel and National Guard troops were on the scene working round the clock to contain the situation, and thousands more were on the way there (Brauer 216). As a consequence, he warned looters to stay alert. As a rejoinder, David Lee Miller, the interviewee, concurred with Gibson that there were a lot of murders taking place in New Orleans. However, after Gibson was done interviewing Miller, he acknowledged that they (Fox News) were yet to confirm most of such reports.
But the flaming baton would not die out. Later that same night, when conversing with the Reverend Al Sharpton, MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson said confidently that people were being raped, shot, and murdered (Carr). He also alleged that even police officers were being shot. Some journalists seemed to rely on what they called rumors and scraps of information. However, some did find authentic sources. Around 10 p.m. that very same night, Fox’s Greta Van Susteren conducted an interview with Dr. Charles Burnell, a

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