Monday, October 03, 2005
Press Rant
Mark Steyn unloaded on the press in his Sun Times column yesterday.
I do emergency planning for my clients, one of the things we emphasize, continuously, in the plannng and the training is no one but authorized individuals talks to the police, fire, government and most especially the press. The charge of censorship is always leveled. HOGWASH! Those parties need good information in a crisis, not rumor.
I usually illustrate this point with a simple drill. Pop a smoke cannister in one corner of a 25,000 square foot building employing about 100 people and call an evacuation. When you get to the evac point, start asking people what is going on. Invariably you will get a dozen or so wild stories -- someone's dead -- they spilled that chemical we don't know what it is -- so and so screwed up again. Heck, I've even heard people speculate mole people came up through the foundation of the building in these circumstances. That's when you're dealing with 100 people --imagine a city of half a million. Limiting who speaks to whom in these situations is not censorship, its insuring that the right information gets to the right people. It's insuring a true view of the situation, not an andecdotal one.
While the press should have known better in New Orleans, they should have had the common sense to double check the fantastical, much blame here belongs to, as Steyn calls them, "the goofs in power." While we rightly pillory the press, we need to also point out that elections and government are serious business.
We have to have good government in a crisis. Goofy government is OK when things are gong fine, but New Orleans illustrates as much about the failure of goofy government as it does the press. The problem is, we don't know when the crisis will happen - so, we cannot afford goofy government anytime. I still shudder to consider a Gore presidency on 9-11. Gore would have been goofy government at its goofiest, likely more worried about environmental impact than the fact we were attacked.
This is, to my mind, the greatest lesson of New Orleans. We need to elect genuine leadership, not pretty boy posturing.
Er, no. The facts they put in front of us were wrong, and they didn't talk truth to power. They talked to goofs in power, like New Orleans' Mayor Nagin and Police Chief Compass, and uncritically fell for every nutso yarn they were peddled. The media swallowed more bilge than if they'd been lying down with their mouths open as the levee collapsed. Ten thousand dead! Widespread rape and murder! A 7-year-old gang-raped and then throat-slashed! It was great stuff -- and none of it happened. No gang-raped 7-year-olds. None.I am reminded of 9-11. I came to that party very late in the events. By the time I found out, both buildings were down. Prior to that event my wife and I tried to preserve mornings for the Lord and each other. I cancelled my appointments for the day, stayed in the office, did what I could and had the TV on in the background -- FoxNews. For 24 hours they ran the same several minutes of tape loop over and over, and when I bothered to tune into the sound they were saying the same thing they had said a few hours before.
I do emergency planning for my clients, one of the things we emphasize, continuously, in the plannng and the training is no one but authorized individuals talks to the police, fire, government and most especially the press. The charge of censorship is always leveled. HOGWASH! Those parties need good information in a crisis, not rumor.
I usually illustrate this point with a simple drill. Pop a smoke cannister in one corner of a 25,000 square foot building employing about 100 people and call an evacuation. When you get to the evac point, start asking people what is going on. Invariably you will get a dozen or so wild stories -- someone's dead -- they spilled that chemical we don't know what it is -- so and so screwed up again. Heck, I've even heard people speculate mole people came up through the foundation of the building in these circumstances. That's when you're dealing with 100 people --imagine a city of half a million. Limiting who speaks to whom in these situations is not censorship, its insuring that the right information gets to the right people. It's insuring a true view of the situation, not an andecdotal one.
While the press should have known better in New Orleans, they should have had the common sense to double check the fantastical, much blame here belongs to, as Steyn calls them, "the goofs in power." While we rightly pillory the press, we need to also point out that elections and government are serious business.
We have to have good government in a crisis. Goofy government is OK when things are gong fine, but New Orleans illustrates as much about the failure of goofy government as it does the press. The problem is, we don't know when the crisis will happen - so, we cannot afford goofy government anytime. I still shudder to consider a Gore presidency on 9-11. Gore would have been goofy government at its goofiest, likely more worried about environmental impact than the fact we were attacked.
This is, to my mind, the greatest lesson of New Orleans. We need to elect genuine leadership, not pretty boy posturing.
