I have had countless amounts of people tell me how extraordinary the Newseum is. So going into the Metro Station this past Wednesday, I had high expectation. As expected, the Newseum blew me away. In my eyes, one of the most powerful exhibits was the Katrina exhibit. In high school I had studied the disaster in both AP Government & Politics, as well as Civics & Economics. The main focus was the concept of federalism and the discussion of how it failed during this particular time in history. I can remember the discussion always turned to a blame game as to who's fault it was that things got to the horrible extent they reached. Many blamed President Bush, others blamed Michael Brown who stepped down from his positon in FEMA following the ordeal, and others say the blame rested with the Louisiana governor, Kathleen Blanco.
However, the Hurricane Katrina exhibit enlightened me on a new side to the story. There is a substantial argument that the media played a role in poor handling of the crisis. Reports falsely reported several rumors they had heard which riled up the citizens into a state of panic and slowed the process of help by striking fear into the minds of potential heroes. Other reporters simply reported personal accounts without researching the information. The Katrina exhibit displayed quotes and descriptions of the media's role in this disaster and ,even if they weren't the largest contributor to the chaos, how the media impeded the help from government, private, and nonprofit organizations.
Too often does society neglect to fully think the situation through. We fail to realize all the players in a game and look to demonize a specific character. If we were to step out, focus on the situation as a whole (without bias) we might have a chance in truly learning from it and working to ensure the same mistakes aren't repeated.
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