Katrina Violence Overblown

[RedScare]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9503449/

"They have no official reports of rape and no witnesses to sexual assault. The state Department of Health and Hospitals counted 10 dead at the Superdome and four at the convention center. Only two of those are believed to have been murdered.

One of those victims

[Guest danax]

Good. An example of the human tendency to over-dramatize reality once emotions are mixed into a situation, adding to another tendency to have the story become exagerated and less accurate exponentially by the number of mouths passing it on.

In other words, "Never believe the initial hype" or "Buy the rumor, sell the news".

[dbigtex56]

Thanks for posting this article.

Some of us might remember seeing New Orleans people screaming "They're raping babies in there!" outside the SuperDome. Some people will say or do anything to get their point across, or even for the pleasure (?) of being on television.

The day after evacuees arrived at the AstroDome, I went to a bar. A woman was loudly proclaiming that the rapes were continuing here, and that evacuees were vandalizing the Dome left and right. I've heard nothing to substantiate her claims since.

[TJones]

Good. An example of the human tendency to over-dramatize reality once emotions are mixed into a situation, adding to another tendency to have the story become exagerated and less accurate exponentially by the number of mouths passing it on.

In other words, "Never believe the initial hype" or "Buy the rumor, sell the news".

(i.e. Dan Rather) I am in total agreement.

[RedScare]

bigtex, there were 2 reported rapes at the Astrodome. HPD spokesmen said that one was completely unfounded and the other they could not substantiate.

In other words, the exact same thing as New Orleans. One was a rumor, the other was made up.

Good news - people aren't as bad as we thought.

Bad news - well, yes, some are, but in a different way than we thought.

[kjb434]

yes,

That's why the message is and history the time it was written is more important than the word for word interpretation.

Anyway, couldn't the all news media outlets be charged with contributing to the hysteria and false reporting?

Free press is one thing, but lying is a completely different thing. I guess blogs and forums are just as good as old fashion media, if not better even though copy editors aren't present.