In a post of that title simple57uk brings together several BBC reports of events in the New Orleans Superdome. He quotes extensively and compares earlier and later reports.
People evacuated to the Superdome had to spend days in squalor made worse by acts of intimidation and an atmosphere of incipient violence. Dreadful rumours telling of multiple murders and rapes must have seemed very plausible to them. However members of the press corps, who did not have the excuse of having undergone sleepless nights and frightening days, should not have let sympathy triumph over careful checking. Simple writes:
Looking back at the BBC article, hindsight clearly reveals a rumour-driven story-telling style of reporting
Of course the BBC was far from unique in that respect.
We all know that the BBC is not unique in sometimes being inaccurate, biased and of dubious journalistic quality. It is funded in a unique way. That’s the problem I have with it.
In truth we don’t know what did or did not happen. The Local, State, and Feds (lest we forget what Patrick Henry said about them) are now in full cover-up mode.
The least we should be able to demand of the BBC, given that it has a secure stream of money, is that it spend some of it employing people to confirm or deny rumours.
Semi-relevent to Natalie’s last point (and delightful it came from the Guardian):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/story/0,12980,1578498,00.html
Simple: “Looking back at the BBC article, hindsight clearly reveals a rumour-driven story-telling style of reporting”
Yup… and its been going on for years. The first time I personally noticed it was during the Gulf War. That was when my TV went out the door.
” In truth we don’t know what did or did not happen. The Local, State, and Feds (lest we forget what Patrick Henry said about them) are now in full cover-up mode.”
Right, it’s all a coverup! Of course we do have an embarrassing lack of bodies both Superdome and Convention Center to explain away….
I suggest you visit http://www.isteve.com for his take on the Katrina whitewsh now in progress. As he points out he predicted this three weeks ago.
Er, that would be http://www.isteve.com for those of you too idle to copy n’ paste.
When they were interviewing people who were returning from th eDome, they all reported “hearing stories” of murder, gang rapes etc. but none actually saw it themselves.
The BBC have really been scrpaing the barrel and that says something about the bBC.
OT : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4297958.stm
If the inquiry finds that there was a deliberate leak, criminal charges might follow. That would be a huge blow to the Bush administration, says the BBC’s Justin Webb in Washington. It is equally possible that no criminal charges will be filed and this affair will be a political embarrassment to the White House, nothing more, our correspondent says
So it could be (a) a “huge blow” to the Bush administration or (b) a “political embarrassment” to the Bush administration. Those are the only possibilities ? What about a “huge lemon” of no relevance to the Bush administration ? Other than another reminder of the BBC’s eagerness to present any and all stories as falling within a range from “huge blow” to the Bush administration to “political embarrassment” to the Bush administration.
As I’ve said many times, Justin Webb is an ignorant embarrassment. He’s been all of ten minutes in the US and thinks he is an expert on that nation-continent. Most American reporters wouldn’t be as arrogant and smug as he is. So when is the Webb sacking party? No redundancy money. Let him live off the spoils of his hatred.
As the Wall Street Journal keeps pointing out Ms. Plame (or however you spell her name) had not been an active overseas agent for nearly five years, (understandable as she has two small children) meaning she had no ‘cover’ to be blown. No laws have been broken here, and no harm done, but the MSM persists in beating a dead horse.
Typical really.
BBC/NPR/MSM lie, pretty much all the time. They are part of the media political party, usually aligned with the US Dems, GB Libs.
They want only one thing: power. They want to run things. The country, preferably. They think they know truth and want to tell the rest of us in flyover country how to live. To hell with them.
In case anybody’s interested New Orleans is almost dry, residents are returning in the tens of thousands to pick up the pieces and the death toll for *all* Louisiana now stands at 932 with an additional 221 for Mississippi.
Way short of the Left’s desired minimum of 3,000. Anybody who thinks our MSM would co-operate with a ‘cover-up’ that would increase that toll is dreaming!