"Rumor often reported as fact in aftermath of Katrina" - Biloxi Sun Herald

Biloxi Sun Herald: Rumor often reported as fact in aftermath of Katrina

"The bigger and more diffuse the disaster, the more the gatekeeping function of the media fails in the rush to get the story out," said Henry W. Fischer III, director of the Center for Disaster Research and Education at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. The French paper Liberation ran a detailed report on 1,200 people drowning inside a school on Read Boulevard. Not true. Evacuees railed on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" about dead bodies and gang rapes. The accounts were false. . . . So where did the stories come from? "If you think about the conditions the victims of Katrina endured ... the stress and fear must have been unimaginable," David Emery, an expert on urban legends and folklore for the Web site About.com, said in an e-mail interview. "When real news isn't available, rumors percolate to fill the gap. ... People start conjecturing." Officials repeated the rumors.