Hurricane Ike ripped through Galveston County on Saturday leaving the town in dismay. When the hurricane was over the town's mayor, Lyda Ann Thomas said that reporters would not be able to talk to any city officials or employees and she did not say when she would be lifting that order. Mayor Thomas and the City Manager Steve LeBlanc would be the only people allowed to speak with news reporters. Why? What is the big deal? The mayor kept tight striction to the heavily damaged areas for whatever reason.
Some Daily News reporters tried to speak with city employees but were denied and could only speak with Mayor Thomas and the city manager. An article found in CNN quoted Mayor Thomas,“We do not intend to evacuate Galveston Island … It’s the last thing we want to do. Our job is to protect lives and property, [and] right now we feel that sheltering in place is the best action for our citizens to take.” What kind of advice is this? Why isn't the media allowed to speak with city employees? The only reason the public knows what is going on in situations such as the aftermath of a hurricane is by watching the coverage on the news or reading about it in the paper or some other form of news. Not allowing coverage of such a disaster is bizarre. This town should want to put their damages out in the public, perhaps they would get more help from the country.
New Orleans reporter Chris Kirkham, who has covered the damage of 4 hurricanes, has said that the hardest part of covering a hurricane is the road blocks and usually a press pass gets you through those but not in Galveston County. He felt as though the local police were trying to be a step ahead of the media which no one knows why. Now, because of the lack of information we have about the damage control in this county, there are rumors circulating such as there have been 20,000 bodies pulled from the damage, FEMA has taken over cellphone service, and there is a bio-defense facility on the island. Freelance writer Joseph Davis says that he believes there is no reason to think that any of these rumors are true. If Galveston County would just let us in we would not have to make up our own tales about what is going on "in there".
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7 comments:
It does seem bizzare to prevent reporters gaining information about city events.
The only reason I can muster is that the mayor wants to avoid paniced city employees from giving out incorrect info.
The mayor’s actions seem suspicious. “The public knows what is going on…by form[s] of news.” The roles of the media are too accurately and fairly inform others. But, how can you complete this task if you have city authorities acting insanely? It is not possible with out assuming or misleading viewers.
Perhaps the reason behind the mayor's decision is to protect citizens, keep the town open only for emergency and post-hurricane related organizations, and to save the town's reputation. Hurricane Katrina coverage was equally covered with media rants at FEMA for not doing their job. The mayor could be trying to prevent the same thing from happening.
Regardless, Americans want to know what is going on. I personally would like to hear personal stories from the victims of Ike including how they are coping.
That's just strange. I do not know why the Mayor would try to keep a hurricane disaster situation underwraps. Perhaps she did just want to keep the citizens from panicing, but she chose a bad way of doing it? The media loves to make up stories of what if's and by keeping the information on this situation a secret, the Mayor is only setting herself up for failure with paniced citizens and an over excited media coverage.
In time hopefully the reason will come out to her secrecy, and if you find out let us know!
I always hate to hear about these sorts of problems in the media. I am majoring in journalism with the intent to pursue a career in the field.
The outlook may be gloomy, but I believe that if I can remain versatile and willing to stick with it, I will be able to pull through.
Hopefully the newspapers can do the same.
That is a really strange incident. For reporters to be barred from speaking with most of the city officials during a disaster is definitely out of the norm.
Like Gannon and Madison said, there are many reasons for this. Maybe it was meant to protect citizens, or to keep inaccurate information from reaching the press.
Still, I don't think the mayor made the right decision. Firstly, people can't help with needs they don't know about. Secondly, it just raises suspicions and leaves people wondering about hidden motives.
What the hell?! Mayor Thomas is involved in politics. Maybe she should read the constitution!
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