In case you hadn't heard already (and because I've only seen this significant update reported by one news outlet), I thought I'd share the recent findings regarding the post-Katrina reports from the Superdome and Convention Center in New Orleans.  You may remember hearing about shootouts and murders, gang violence, rape, possibly hundreds of dead bodies lying about, crime running rampant and all manner of hell breaking loose at the New Orleans Convention Center and Superdome as tens of thousands of people found themselves stranded with no food, water or other relief.  Those reports shocked and amazed me; that survivors camped together had lost control so rapidly and that the conditions were so extremely horrific must in fact be unfounded, eh?  Even the New Orleans police chief claimed that there were hundreds of dead bodies lying about the Superdome and that survivors had become criminals within the shelters.  Then, of course, the truth comes along.

There were six dead bodies at the Superdome.  Yes, just six and only six.  Four had died from natural causes, one had jumped to his own death (most likely a suicide) and the other died from a medication overdose.  After being checked many times to ensure nothing had been missed, recovery officials made clear that there was no evidence of gun battles, no evidence of mass violence and murdering, no evidence of large numbers of dead, and frankly no evidence whatsoever that the crowds of survivors had become mad, blood-thirsty and crazed mobs of savages as had been claimed by every single major news source and many of the New Orleans officials (although not in that order), including the mayor and police superintendent.

How pitiful is is then that I have yet to see anyone save FOX News (and how surprising is that?) report this updated information as a correction to reports they had run weeks ago in the height of post-Katrina mayhem…  Is this an example of the high journalistic standards that they all claim to uphold?  Surely others must have noticed the truth beginning to sneak out from the dark corners and now realize that full disclosure is the only option they have left.

Pitiful.  Truly pitiful.  To know that government officials could so easily fall into the panic and begin spreading rumors.  I can almost understand the media outlets doing so as they were reporting the facts given to them by state and local officials during a significant crisis.  It is on that point alone that I'm willing to give them all 24 hours to issue corrections (and, I think, they all will).  The officials are another story.

In a time of crisis, as mentioned, we look to officials to remain calm and collected and to report only the facts and the truth.  We must rely on them for this since it is they who are in charge during such times (and otherwise, but more so following such a catastrophe).  In this case, we have irrefutable proof that they were passing along rumors they heard from others without actually checking them, rumors that portrayed New Orleans as a city devastated by a hurricane and then by its own people.  Sure, there was looting and sniper fire and the like, but the horrific scenes of utter mayhem and lawlessness described at the Superdome and Convention Center never actually occurred, and the idea that dead bodies were stacking up around the survivors was completely false — unless six dead bodies can be equated to an uncontrolled compilation of corpses.

I shall wait and see what fallout, if any, the officials suffer from this.  As with all of the examples of their bad judgment during this time, they fueled the fire of panic by reporting rumors as concrete proof.  Surely that's more than just a political crime.