The recent Editor’s Note, “Exodus,” showed me
that you need to be more careful when reaching for analogies (HCN,
10/3/05: Exodus). The comparison of the Anasazi to modern-day New
Orleans included the now debunked media stories about widespread
“murder and rape” in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Those
stories made front-page news in my Oregonian
newspaper; weeks later, an article buried in the paper indicated
they were probably fabrications of a handful of rattled survivors,
happily disseminated by the ravenous 24-hour-news media. This kind
of media distortion is all the more dangerous when it furthers
long-held and wrong-headed equations, such as the association of
dark-skinned people with the “dark side(s) of human nature.” We are
all “light,” we are all “dark.”
John
Fiedler
Rose Lodge, Oregon
THE EDITOR RESPONDS:
Thank you for the
correction. During the last week of September (the week after my
editorial mentioning New Orleans went to press), news reports began
to debunk the early reports of murder and rape — reports
dished out by the city’s police chief, among others. Between
the Superdome and the Convention Center, the two main centers for
refugees, there was only one confirmed death due to violence,
according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
Police said that most of the reports of rape were false.
Still, there’s no question that chaos did break out, perhaps
most notably among some law enforcement officers. Acting New
Orleans Police Chief Warren Riley has suspended four officers
without pay and put more than a dozen others under investigation
for looting, or failing to combat looting, following the storm.
—Greg Hanscom, editor
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Dangerous distortions.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
