Katrina and the media

Katrina was the big media story of 2005. Katrina was also bad and partisan reporting. It was too much hype and exaggeration.

Do you remember the 10,000 dead? The media was about 9,000 wrong. It turned out to be 1,000 dead rather than 10,000!

The media got something else wrong.

Remember Katrina and race?

It turns out that Katrina killed across racial lines.

Nicholas Riccardi, Doug Smith and David Zucchino wrote "Katrina Killed Across Class Lines" for the LATimes. This is their conclusion:

"The well-to-do died along with the poor, an analysis of data shows. The findings counter common beliefs that disadvantaged blacks bore the brunt." (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bodies18dec18,0,7754290.story?coll=la-home-headlines)

Another big Katrina lie was its economic impact. Do you recall all of the doom and gloom about Katrina turning the US economy upside down?

It did not happen. The US economy is doing just fine. Check the economic data. As John Rutledge, an economist and chairman of Rutledge Capital, put it on the October 8 edition of CNN’s “In the Money”:

“We have a $13 trillion GDP, we have a $155 trillion asset base in the United States and no one, not Alan Greenspan, not the Federal Reserve, not Katrina, not Rita, are going to knock that over.”

Another lie is that Pres. Bush could not use The National Guard because of Iraq. However, as James Robbins wrote in National Review Online, only 10.2% of the U.S. Army, including guard and reserves, is stationed in Iraq. The other 74.2% are stationed in the U.S.

In the end, it was Gov. Blanco, and the extremely incompetent Mayor Nagin, who made matters worse in New Orleans. Check out Mississippi next door. Gov. Barbour was excellent. Don't be surprised if Gov. Barbour is the next Republican VP and the Democrats keep Gov. Blanco away from their convention.

Why did the media repeat so many lies about Katrina? Why did they become a megaphone for every anti-Bush theory? Among these were Bush is a racist; Bush did not fund levee repairs; and, Bush caused global warming.

The media needs a little self examination. Why did get so many things wrong about Katrina?

More on Katrina's lies? Check out: "Assumptions about Katrina victims may be incorrect, data reveal" BY JOHN SIMERMAN, DWIGHT OTT AND TED MELLNIK--Knight Ridder Newspapers (http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/13509754.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp)