Hurricane Katrina

Media involvement

Many representatives of the news media reporting on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina became directly involved in the unfolding events, instead of simply reporting. Due to the loss of most means of communication, such as land-based and cellular telephone systems, field reporters in many cases became conduits for information between victims and authorities.

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Several reporters for various news agencies located groups of stranded victims, and reported their location via satellite uplink. Authorities, who monitored the network news broadcasts, would then attempt to coordinate rescue efforts based on the news reports. This was best illustrated when Shepard Smith and Geraldo Rivera of Fox News, among others, reported thousands of evacuees stranded at the New Orleans Convention Center. Rivera tearfully pleaded for authorities to either send help or let the evacuees leave. http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/09/02.html

Related Topics:
News agencies - Satellite uplink - Shepard Smith - Geraldo Rivera - Fox News - New Orleans Convention Center

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Geraldo Rivera went so far as to compare the convention center to Willowbrook State School. http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2678976

Related Topics:
Geraldo Rivera - Willowbrook State School

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The news media, both traditional and Internet, also played a role in helping families locate missing loved ones. Many family members, unable to contact local authorities in the affected areas, discovered the fate of a loved one via an online photo or television video clip. In one instance, a family in Clearwater, Florida discovered their mother was still alive in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi after seeing a photo of her on TampaBayStart.com http://www.tampabaystart.com, a regional news site.

Related Topics:
Clearwater - Florida - Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

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Many journalists also contributed to the spread of false rumors of lawlessness among the victims. Many news organizations carried the unsubstantiated accounts that murder and rape were widespread, and in some cases later repeated the claims as fact, without attribution. http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/27/katrina.urban.rumors.ap/index.html These rumors often impeded the relief and rescue efforts. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/29/national/nationalspecial/29crime.html?ei=5094&en=74a33a33d7d7f26e&hp=&ex=1127966400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

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Restrictions on the media

As the US military and rescue services regained control over the city, there were restrictions on the activity of the media.

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On September 7 a FEMA spokeswoman requested in an email to journalists that they voluntarily refrain from taking photographs of the many corpses still present in the city at that time. (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N07644534.htm,http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050907/2005-09-07T202716Z_01_SPI773106_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-CENSORSHIP-DC.html,http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Hurricane_Katrina/0,,2-10-1942_1767837,00.html). On September 8, FEMA spokesman Mark Pfeifle confirmed this request. On September 9, Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, the military leader of the relief effort, announced that reporters would have "zero access" to efforts to recover bodies in New Orleans. Critics of the federal government considered this effort to be similar to the controversial post-9/11 policy that corpses under federal custody should be kept shielded from media photographers.

Related Topics:
September 7 - FEMA - Journalist - Photograph - September 8 - Mark Pfeifle - September 9 - Russel Honoré - 9/11

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Immediately following the government decision, CNN filed a lawsuit and obtained a temporary restraining order against the federal ban (http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/09/10/a1.katrina.0910.p1.php?section=nation_world). The next day (September 10), spokesperson Col. Christian E. deGraff announced that the government would no longer attempt to bar media access to the victim recovery efforts (http://edition.cnn.com/2005/LAW/09/10/katrina.media/).

Related Topics:
CNN - Lawsuit - Restraining order - September 10 - Christian E. deGraff

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Journalists Brian Williams and Pete Williams (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8045532/#050907c) reported that government personnel on the scene blocked attempts to report on rescue efforts in New Orleans. Brian Williams also reported that in the process of blocking journalists, police even went so far as to threaten reporters with a weapon (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002482207_katmedia09.html, http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=2337). However, at evacuee centers such as the Austin Convention Center and the Houston Astrodome press activity was extensive.

Related Topics:
Brian Williams - Pete Williams - Austin Convention Center - Houston Astrodome

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On September 7, a journalist for the Denver Post was denied access to a survivor camp at the Community College of Aurora and reported that the camp was fenced-in and heavily guarded.

Related Topics:
September 7 - Denver Post - Community College of Aurora

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On September 7, KATU journalist Brian Barker reported (http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=79436) that his team was threatened with automatic weapons by US Marshals until they were identified by Brig. Gen. Doug Pritt, commander of the 41st Brigade Combat Team of Oregon that they were embedded with. Subsequently, his team taped the letters "TV" on the side of their vehicles in accordance with standard practice in war zones.

Related Topics:
September 7 - KATU - US Marshals - Doug Pritt - 41st Brigade Combat Team

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