Media myths exposed on Katrina, Nixon, McCarthy

by Carol Forsloff - Nixon's Presidency was brought down by the Washington Post.  Edward R. Murrow exposed McCarthy.  The media did a good job reporting on Hurricane Katrina.  W. Joseph Campbell debunks these myths.


A new book entitled Getting It Wrong : Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism by  W. Joseph Campbell takes a look at these issues  He tells us there are myths that are driven by the media and become what he refers to as the "junk food" of journalism.

This is how Campbell explains it, “These myths can be thought of as the junk food of journalism,” Campbell says. “Alluring and delicious, perhaps, but not especially wholesome or nourishing.”

Then he offers the question, "Why Should We Care?"

“Media-driven myths aren’t trivial,” Campbell says. “They aren’t innocuous. They can distort the understanding about the role and function of journalism in American society.”

Campbell gives two important reasons for this.  "First, he declares it gives the media far more power than they actually have, and they tend to minimize important historical events by making misleading or false statements they don't bother to check thoroughly. 

Second,  Campbell says, they can feed stereotypes.  He uses as an example how the news media was said to have produced excellent coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.  

But this is Campbell's take on that,  “The highly exaggerated news reports of nightmarish violence in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina’s landfall in 2005 essentially defamed the battered city and impugned its residents during their deep despair."

Certainly it was discovered by a judge's decision and investigations promoted by Levees.org that many news media declared the people of New Orleans partly at fault for the problems experienced by the hurricane when they knew the levees would fail and continued to live in the region in spite of that.  Later investigation found people had trusted in the security of the levees that had not been properly maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers.  

Debunking media myths is important, Campbell tells us, because that is the fundamental objective of mainstream journalism.

That fundamental objective, according to Thomas Jefferson, is to inform, educate and hold power to account, the essential reason why Campbell declares it is important to get it right.