Journalists Disgraced At The Superdome

Read the whole thing - h/t to Richard and Dean Esmay, as well as two readers - one was Jeanne.

Such shoddy professionalism might be expected from one team or another at some of the more boring Super Bowls. But you would think that when certain journalists get their shot at the big time, they might have brought along a better game.

We don't normally cover this type of thing, but seeing it first hand air live on Hannity & Colmes  Sept 2nd, we felt compelled to post this disturbing emotional plea on behalf of these two brave reporters.

Geraldo Rivera and Shepard "Shep" Smith are in the front lines of the New Orleans Super-dome refugee camps, trying to beg the US Government to release the tens of thousands of refugees from hurricane Katrina. Mr Smiths piece mentioned he's seen people with their throats slashed, babies stuffed in coolers, and worse human atrocities.

Or maybe they were just playing the ratings game, after all.

After five days managing near-riots, medical horrors and unspeakable living conditions inside the Superdome, Louisiana National Guard Col. Thomas Beron prepared to hand over the dead to representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Following days of internationally reported killings, rapes and gang violence inside the Dome, the doctor from FEMA - Beron doesn't remember his name - came prepared for a grisly scene: He brought a refrigerated 18-wheeler and three doctors to process bodies.

"I've got a report of 200 bodies in the Dome," Beron recalls the doctor saying.

The real total was six, Beron said. Of those, four died of natural causes, one overdosed and another jumped to his death in an apparent suicide, said Beron

Comments

[frenchymom]

The situation was a breeding ground for discontent, anger and frustration. With 25,000 plus people in the dome you effectively had a city living in an arena. Of course, there was a chaos. Of course, there were problems! How could you expect otherwise, when that many people were together.

That being said, I do not believe you had the rampant rapes and murders going on that some have reported. It certainly appears that when the chips are down, the exxagerators show up to boost ratings. Sad, but true, stories have a way of growing as people share them.

There are many, many excellent media correspondents out there who pride themselves on telling and showing the truth. In many cases that was done in this situation.

God bless all who were there and all who tried to help. Overall, inside the dome, there were few deaths and much bonding. at least, from the standpoint of those that were there.

[Frustrated in New Orleans]

Thanks tuynvurvivor, for the kind words.

Also, in case some might think my view might be colored because my husband may have been one of the high ups involved in the poor decision making and thus trying to cover-up...he wasn't, his efforts and work were as basic as distributing things, relocating resources, loading and unloading supplies when they came in, etc. He lost 15+ pounds in less than 7 days due to the combination of lack of food and round the clock work. He has always been one to tell it like it is, and he was greatly impacted by the suffering around him.

It looks as though the accountability may be beginning, this fresh from New Orleans WWLTV, local tv:

"NOPD Superintendent Eddie Compass resigned from his position at a 2 p.m. press conference Tuesday...No details were given and no questions were answered including who would become the next superintendent....Compass had come under some criticism in the press lately on charges that he had exaggerated the amount of death and crime at the Superdome and the Convention Center in the aftermath of Katrina."

[tuyvnsurvivor]

Frustrated from New Orleans

Thank you very much for sharing. Have good life.

[Frustrated from New Orleans]

OK, I have this to add...my husband was a rescue and relief worker who was stationed in St. Bernard (the hardest hit/flooded) through the storm to be prepositioned to do post-storm management and he was AT THE DOME from the day after the Hurricane hit and he remained until long after the last evacuation bus pulled out. He told me via cell phone as the events were unfolding not to believe the media because they were not correctly reporting. He was in the crowds of the Superdome. He would not lie to me. Yes the conditions were unbearable and some people got unruly, and there were incidents of fights and problems, but that is to be expected when you have 28,000 meals to feed 30,000 folks and when you have a minority subset of addicts going through withdrawl. But 95% of the people there acted civily and were examples of grace under pressure…the mass rioting, murdering and raping…it did not happen. The conditions that these people had to endure at the Dome were unacceptable by anyone’s standards, food, water and basic necessities shortages, no restroom facilities, and little to no medical care. Thanks to the disservice of MSM inaccurately reporting events, and the incompetence of some High Level public officials in the city who are CLUELESS and incorrectly reported and oversensationalized events themselves, FEMA pulled their medical personnel immediately after they landed and more folks suffered and died that wouldn't have if they had been given medical attention. And for what happened in the streets, yes there was some looting of non-essential items, but lots of “looters” were folks looking for food and water. This type of natural disaster in a large populated area is unprecedented, lots of mistakes were made for which New Orleans will have to answer, for example the delay of the mayor in calling the evacuation, the lack of resources to evacuate those without transportation, the inability of officials to coordinate and get post-hurricane resources more quickly, and the incompetent statements of public officials in over their heads who made public statements based on fear and rumor instead of fact. I hope that New Orleans and its officials will be held accountable for these mistakes, as the feds should be held accountable for theirs and the state government should be held accountable for theirs. But what the city should not be held accountable for is the untruthful reports of mass riots and rapes, murders, etc....THAT NEVER HAPPENED. It isn't fair to the people who were there that have already been victims of Katrina and who have endured so much and lost so much. I wanted to link an article, it is one you will probably never see MSM and the AP pick up...out of yesterday’s Times Picayune, (New Orleans newspaper) which is much more fair, but it has been archived and can‘t be accessed without paying a fee. As for the videos on TV, how closely did you watch...I evacuated and saw on tv the dead bodies outside the Superdome and in downtown over and over too...but they were the same 2 or 3 bodies...over and over and over...reported like they were 200 hundred, not just 2 or 3. And they also found the scum of the earth looters and fools and played them over and over…but failed to equally show the tons common citizens doing heroic acts in addition those heroic act of the official rescue personnel. In this article, one official who was at the Dome speaks of how citizens there (some dressed in a manner that some folks might stereotype to be gang related -my paraphrasing) aided the vastly out-numbered officials at the Dome by caring for those suffering from dehydration and exhaustion and running them on stretchers to the nearest medical outpost, and in aiding in group control when the crowds got restless by doing things like leading in song and prayer. I am from New Orleans, I still live there, I will go back to rebuild, it is home...and I believe it was unfairly portrayed during this crisis.

[tuyvnsurvivor]

Geraldo and Smith, did they waste resources by going in there? Though I am a one time survivalist by training and inventor by birth and should know how to make do, let us remember Geraldo and Smith had direct connections with the normal and outside world at the time. So they or contacts had internet, library connections. I thought and yet think G and Smith careers enjoyed the misery they were seeing.

Did they pass out information on how to easily distill water, bring in any iodine/bleach, charcoal or other filters, advise of how to use any heat source (ones body included) and plastic for collecting water, how to toss a piece of plastic over green vegitation in the sun and watch it drain off distilled water, or much more simplistically did they pass on information of how to suck fresh water out of water lines with a 1/4 inch flexable tube? And of what household appliance has just such a tube right on the back of it?

Several times Geraldo and Smith stated one group or the other had not had any water at all for so many days. Bunch of bull, they were still alive and talking too. Smith loves to tell, with structures in the back ground, that this home looks repairable, but there is nothing of value here. Golly he loves to make that hype over and over. More bull. The slab or foundation is good yet, as is surface plumbing. Many things from guttering to windows are salvageable. Lumber and trusses can be removed, sprayed with 1/10 th bleach and dried. Many bricks are salvageable. Many other items can be recycled. Perhaps Smith makes enough money hyping news to see no value, but ones of little resources will find better use of goods than landfill material.

All in all, I am going to predict, that if messengers of hype get their way, and the areas where average Joe's lived get bull dozed, that a heaping helping of the commoners neighborhoods get locked into the hands of the wealthy, building plush grand homes behind the new mega billions of dollars levees.

Vietnamese used to make buildings out of flattened out soda and beer cans. Pretty good buildings...not for strong wind I suppose, not that I know.

The poor will never ever be made whole again, so I would much rather see them have access to their own slavage plus booty-- property and all, leaving Smith wrapped with the salvageable electrical.

[Bigfish]

Posted by: tuyvnsurvivor | Sep 27, 2005 11:44:48 AM

Nicely written and thanks for sharing. A whole different perspective for me!
BF

[tuyvnsurvivor]

I have seen big events, that 'never happened', until as much as 20 years later. Have as well seen events I was directly involved with reported so poorly and exaggerated I could not recognize it as the same event. Have too seen a good reporter like Bob Shieffer (spelling sorry) who was near, reporting responsibly/accurately. Even before I went to the U for journalisum I had written my first book, learning firsthand the difficulty of reporting fairly in the fleeting moment of human interest spans. Learned some, to write within ranges of human emmotions and to basic senses, and that being caught exploiting those looses audience. As happpens to some, if embarrassed to be a journalist...toss rocks at those that are.

Over the years I have tried to be forgiving of Geraldo...the vault, but the kiss and tell tried my patience most, well...others also. -- Smith I feel a purist modern day journalist...messenger of hype, directly bound to get his words and views reported with an attitude. Why do we have to have reporters with attitudes? Does Smith need to talk less?

About the time Geraldo and Smith were at their peak at the dome, I could not watch them and stay seated. For me, the story was then on them. Because when the chips are down, I appreciate most those that can in the heat assess a situation...that would be without adding to existing frenzy or contributing to riot.

In the months to come there will be many blames from congress, and at least I can think of a blame towards congress over the National embarrasements/tragedies. Hoping Geraldo and Smith get a mention and escorted by the back of the neck.

[misty]

Dan, Scared Monkeys posted this earlier today and I'll say the same thing to you as I said to them. I SAW the videos with my own eyes. I READ the eye witness accounts. Surely you don't believe EVERYTHING the gov't tells you....do you? I think they are underscoring QUITE A BIT how many were dead there. I don't believe it for a second. Why else would the media be FORBIDDEN entrance to watch the recovery of the dead? Duh, so they could pad the #'s in their favors. Don't you remember the message boards at the relief shelters? How many THOUSAND are still unaccounted for? It's impossible to tell. How soon we forget..........