NewsMax.com columnist James Hirsen, author of "Hollywood Nation: Left Coast Lies, Old Media Spin, and the New Media Revolution," backed claims by former FEMA director Mike Brown and Rep. Peter King (R-NY) that the media exaggerated the chaos in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Appearing Tuesday night on MSNBC's "Abrams Report," Hirsen responded to host Dan Abrams' assertion that there seems to be an effort to "blame the media" and shift blame from local officials or the feds.
Said Hirsen, "I think they deserve some blame if in fact they failed in their primary function. If we're going to criticize FEMA for moving too slowly, isn't it fair game to criticize the media for reporting too fast?"
Hirsen applauded select members of the media - "talk radio host Rush Limbaugh and Web sites like NewsMax.com" - for drawing attention to emotionally laced hysterics reported during and after the storm's destruction.
Hirsen added that rumors were being reported as fact by eager and emotional media professionals throughout the coverage of Katrina's arrival and aftermath.
"... It was reported that there were 200 dead in the freezer at the Superdome, which caused an 18-wheeler to come down with three doctors to pick them up. It turned out that there were six dead," Hirsen said. "There were exaggerations, there was hysteria. And this was part of the infotainment aspect of the newsmedia, the search for the sensational and the emotional."
D.A. Jordan said the impression of New Orleans presented by media coverage was one of a "savage state" rife with mass murders and mayhem that did not reflect the majority of well-behaved citizens victimized by the storm.
"The mass murders are very important because that is probably the most graphic way of showing a savage state of affairs - that people are killing each other every few minutes and that was certainly [not the case] ..."
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