okla tornado disaster and the media

[LCHIEN]

I'm not in anyway minimizing what has happened to the people of oklahoma.
I feel terrible for them and hope that will not happen to anyone else.

What I have a problem with is the media. Last night (Monday) when I went to bed multiple reports said the death toll was 51. Early thiis morning, tuesday when I got up, multiple reports said there were 40 more dead found overnight bringing the toll to 91 dead. This afternoon, buried way down in the bottom of the articles they are saying the toll is 24 dead with others still unaccounted for, or just not saying at all.


Does the press bother to check facts anymore before they publish stuff? Are bodies waking up and walking out of the morgue? What gives?

Does this bother anybody but me?

P.S.

I just read an article, "The death toll was revised downward from 51 after the state medical examiner said some victims may have been counted twice in the confusion. More than 200 people were treated at area hospitals." "After nearly 24 hours of searching, the fire chief said he was confident there were no more bodies or survivors in the rubble."

I guess there was some confusion.

[All Thumbs]

Does the press bother to check facts anymore before they publish stuff? Are bodies waking up and walking out of the morgue? What gives?

Some victims were double-counted, it wasn't a media screw-up, they just reported what they were told. I think local officials have struggled to get the #'s right just because of the magnitude of the storms and devastation, I'm sure the confusion level is quite high. So in this case, I'm cutting everyone a lot of slack.

[cabinetman]

Some victims were double-counted, it wasn't a media screw-up, they just reported what they were told. I think local officials have struggled to get the #'s right just because of the magnitude of the storms and devastation, I'm sure the confusion level is quite high. So in this case, I'm cutting everyone a lot of slack.

+1. There's that rush to report details. Same thing happens with hurricanes.

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[LCHIEN]

Some victims were double-counted, it wasn't a media screw-up, they just reported what they were told. I think local officials have struggled to get the #'s right just because of the magnitude of the storms and devastation, I'm sure the confusion level is quite high. So in this case, I'm cutting everyone a lot of slack.

OK, it seems to be a local official screwup due to confusion, not the media. Still, going from 51 to 24 means that everyone was double counted and some were triple counted...

[cabinetman]

OK, it seems to be a local official screwup due to confusion, not the media. Still, going from 51 to 24 means that everyone was double counted and some were triple counted...

Twenty four is horrendous but not as drastic as 51.

.

[leehljp]

So there is a problem either way - wait and get it right or report what is "known or understood" at the moment, however incorrect.

When delays in reporting so that everything can be properly and correctly assessed, public outcry for wanting to know about family and property can be overwhelming. The news media will get creamed or public officials will be sued by someone because of the trama of "hiding" information, wheter valid or not (in the public's opinion).

There is less damage emotionally by revising downwards than waiting and waiting and gradually revising upwards. People are not machines, precise stats do not outweigh emotions.

When I lived in the Osaka area in '95 and Kobe had the quake that killed 6000, (Kobe and Osaka bordered each other) the news and public officials were very very slow to report anything other than what could be seen from the air. Officials did not want to panic anyone, they wanted to be correct and show that they were in charge. It backfired. In that case it turned out to be worse than expected. In the firt two days, officials said no help was needed because they did not know the full and accurate scope; but any ordinary person could see from arial photos that there had to be 1000's dead. I managed to get a call through to my family in the States within 5 minutes of the quake and said to my mom and dad that I may not be able to get through (phone calls) for days to weeks (This was before the news had even been reported internationally). I also said don't be surprised if there are a few thousand deaths that resulted. - my opinion at that moment. Officials delayed getting national police and military help in because there were no ways to gather "correct" information on deaths or injuries.

Information was not flowing, whether correct or not, and hampered disaster relief efforts. That did in fact cause more deaths. Not reporting deaths injuries and destruciton because of the need for accuracy in the first 24 - 48 hours can result in more deaths due to people waiting to respond to the need.

In major disasters, no news can be worse than wrong news. Choose your poison.

[cwsmith]

My wife heard a report that almost 20 children had been taken to a basement area of the school "where they drowned"... she believes this was reported on CNN late that afternoon.

While it didn't make a lot of sense to me at the time, my wife wells knows me for being extremely skeptical of anything and almost everything I hear on the News.

As of last night, I have yet to hear of anyone "drowning" but perhaps I've just missed that.

The point is that, I too am getting really tired of the "News" with its, more often than not, over zealous story telling. You see these people often putting themselves in harm's way to show us how high the wind is, how deep the snow is, and how fast the water is flowing. It seems that the News folks just live to tell the story, and to heighten the anxiety of the event as much as possible. One would think that the tragedy as it is, would be more than enough for all of us, without the overstatements.

CWS

[gsmittle]

My wife heard a report that almost 20 children had been taken to a basement area of the school "where they drowned"... she believes this was reported on CNN late that afternoon.

Last I heard some pipes had burst and they were unable to get out of the basement because of the rubble.

g.

[JimD]

As in all things, I think there is a balance. Waiting weeks for information doesn't seem appropriate but waiting a day for an accurate count doesn't to me. The fact that we know that the news media wants to make things as interesting as possible makes me more skeptical that there isn't some self interest involved in the extreme need for speed and the over estimating of consequences. We contribute to the frenzy when we ping websites for information, I believe. I doubt it will get any better. The thing we seem to be getting better and better at is quick communications (accurate communications seem to be another matter).

Jim

[LCHIEN]

I would have no problem if they announced that the number of dead was in estimated the dozens (or tens or hundreds) to get a rough idea of the magnitude of the disaster. and some idea of the amount of recovery. Tornadoes are very intense and destroy things pretty completely, but cover a relatively small area (1 mile wide and 10 miles long in this instance which is a BIG tornado) whereas hurricane damage covers a larger area with less intense devastation, may be 25 miles wide and 100 miles long. So the search effort can be a lot quicker. I heard they had to use GPS since all the landmarks, road signs etc were gone.

But back to the original, they shouldn't be blowing specific numbers all over the place if they really don't know.

[cabinetman]

I wouldn't minimize the destructive capabilities of an F5 hurricane. The media reports whatever data they get, and the media plays out the coverage. The devastation looks very similar to what tornadoes do. In many cases tornadoes accompany hurricanes.

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[JR]

But back to the original, they shouldn't be blowing specific numbers all over the place if they really don't know.

The reports I saw indicated they had been told by the State Medical Examiner of 51 deaths. Who else should they ask in order to "know" the correct number? Is there another official agency responsible for collecting that information?

IMHO when the media quote the agency from whom that information was gleaned and that agency has the kind of responsibility as the M.E. they have done exactly what they are supposed to do. If they had said, "Our investigative journalists have polled all the coroners in the affected cities and counties and we can exclusively confirm that 51 people are dead," that would have been another matter entirely.

[LCHIEN]

The reports I saw indicated they had been told by the State Medical Examiner of 51 deaths. Who else should they ask in order to "know" the correct number? Is there another official agency responsible for collecting that information?

IMHO when the media quote the agency from whom that information was gleaned and that agency has the kind of responsibility as the M.E. they have done exactly what they are supposed to do. If they had said, "Our investigative journalists have polled all the coroners in the affected cities and counties and we can exclusively confirm that 51 people are dead," that would have been another matter entirely.

when i said "they" I really meant the coroner /ME. I have transferred the blame to the ME's office.

[JR]

when i said "they" I really meant the coroner /ME. I have transferred the blame to the ME's office.

Oh. Sorry. Never mind.

[dbhost]

I've been wrapped up in other issues this week. So I haven't posted much...

Loring, in response to your post. You are showing a certain level of expectation that just can't be granted to what passes for journalism in the modern era.

Honestly there is so much garbage out there that passes for news that is really just propoganda and sensationalism that it is hard to glean even a nugget of truth out of these clods...