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100 Sources and Accuracy in Disaster Sources say what the journalist can’t. During Katrina, sources said what the journalist wanted to. Boxed in by an ever-increasing skeptical public and a twenty-first century abundance of cable talk show pundits, pick-your-cause alternative media, and digital user-generated news, journalists have held their heads above the fray simply because they hold to the credence that they are fair. But scholars have always known there was an imbalance in the “he said, she said,” of newswriting fairness of who finally ends up being quoted in print or through sound bite. The VIPs—the presidents, governors , mayors, and their spokespeople and public information officers—get showcased first in news reports; and should the editor or producer extend the reporter some generosity, an advocacy group director—and really generous—the “man on the street” can see him- or herself on the nightly newscast or in the next day’s headlines. Human interest stories, those that chronicle the struggles and trials of everyday folk, often feature these less powerful, if not equally important, news sources as prominently, or even more prominently, than the “official” sources who typically dominate the order and content of a traditional news story.1 Yet, the quotes of unofficial sources must then be weighted and legitimized by the corroboration of official sources in order for the journalist to dispel reader doubt and live up to another elusive credo: accuracy. Katrina journalists across the Gulf Coast were faced with a communications blackout, and while some were embedded with local and state officials, in the first five days of the storm it was the “man on the street” who had the “facts on the ground.” The Times-Picayune and SunHerald.com, rolling news blogs from August 29 to September 5, 2005, gave equal weight to unofficial eyewitness accounts while posting word for word the statements, releases, phone calls, and quick television interviews by officials. On the TimesPicayune ’s rolling weblog NolaLive on NOLA.com, its affiliate website, the subheadlines for news updates showed who the news sources were on the ground as events unfolded. One subheadline read “From Folks Who Evacuated from Houston,” and another read “Katrina Tales.”2 In one news update on August 29, 2005, it is the residents of the lower Ninth Ward who provide 5 Sources and Accuracy in Disaster 101 the legitimacy to Mayor Nagin’s announcement on local radio that the Florida Avenue pumping station had gone down, resulting in a toppling of that levee system. As Nagin could barely confirm the scope of the flooding, the residents do. In “Water tops 9th Ward Levee system,” the residents tell Times-Picayune staffers that “houses were taking in water on Reynes Street at the Claiborne Avenue bridge.” The residents then add further detail: Not all of the 9th Ward, however, appeared to have water problems. A group of about a half dozen families, some with severe hardships, were riding out the storm near the corner of Feliciana and Marais streets. Among those who stayed was a mother with a son paralyzed in a recent shooting and a 56-year-old man with a broken leg. “The wind’s pushing pretty hard here,” the man, Paul Garrett, said in a 7:15 a.m. phone interview. “But it doesn’t seem to be destroying any rooftops. We’re doing OK.” Garrett said he stayed to help other families, as did his neighbor, Arnold Scott, 49. “There’s a little guy that’s paralyzed down the street, and he and his mother didn’t get a chance to get out,” Garrett said. “We didn’t want to leave, and then come back and find them dead or something. I made some rafts so I can get down there as fast as I can if I need to. I’m just hoping the water doesn’t come in one big surge.”3 As that first day of the storm progressed, it was these unofficial sources who provided legitimacy and a strong measure of accuracy about the impact and scope of the storm damage. Christy Franchi, who rode the storm out on Dumaine Street in the French Quarter, is quoted by reporters in a news item titled “Katrina Tales.” “It looks like the winds are calming down,” she said around 10:30 a.m. “The Quarter isn’t flooded. The building manager on the third floor, his balcony railing is in the street, and there are plants everywhere. But...

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