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Hirsen: Media Sensationalized New Orleans Chaos
NewsMax.com columnist James Hirsen, author of "Hollywood Nation: Left Coast Lies, Old Media Spin, and the New Media Revolution," backed claims by former FEMA director Mike Brown and Rep. Peter King (R-NY) that the media exaggerated the chaos in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Appearing Tuesday night on MSNBC's "Abrams Report," Hirsen responded to host Dan Abrams' assertion that there seems to be an effort to "blame the media" and shift blame from local officials or the feds. Said Hirsen, "I think they deserve some blame if in fact they failed in their primary function. If we're going to criticize FEMA for moving too slowly, isn't it fair game to criticize the media for reporting too fast?" Hirsen applauded select members of the media - "talk radio host Rush Limbaugh and Web sites like NewsMax.com" - for drawing attention to emotionally laced hysterics reported during and after the storm's destruction.
Story Continues Below New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan supported this claim, telling Abrams there were far fewer murders than reported by the national media. "Reports of bloodshed on the streets of the city were grossly inaccurate," Jordan said, "and it's unfortunate that was the picture presented to the public ..." Abrams heatedly denied that the media coverage was hysterical, insisting instead that "the situation was hysterical." Jordan agreed, conditionally, while emphasizing facts to dispel many of the rumors. "I took a trip to St. Gabriel, which is where the morgue is, and I talked to the coroner and he told me that he didn't have more than one or two children who'd been killed by natural circumstances," Jordan said. "(There were) only four murder victims: one at the convention center, one at the Superdome and two in the streets of the city. That was really inconsistent with the reports that I heard from the national media." Hirsen added that rumors were being reported as fact by eager and emotional media professionals throughout the coverage of Katrina's arrival and aftermath.
'"... It was reported that there were 200 dead in the freezer at the Superdome, which caused an 18-wheeler to come down with three doctors to pick them up. It turned out that there were six dead," Hirsen said. "There were exaggerations, there was hysteria. And this was part of the infotainment aspect of the newsmedia, the search for the sensational and the emotional." D.A. Jordan said the impression of New Orleans presented by media coverage was one of a "savage state" rife with mass murders and mayhem that did not reflect the majority of well-behaved citizens victimized by the storm. "The mass murders are very important because that is probably the most graphic way of showing a savage state of affairs - that people are killing each other every few minutes and that was certainly [not the case] ..."
Editor's note:
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