Developing a critical eye for the media also demands culling information from multiple sources and not believing everything stated by the media. The media is not an authority; the media consults authority figures to gather sellable data. For "They Shoot Helicopters, Don't They?"

1. Matt Welch cites general "communication breakdown" and an "information vacuum" as main culprits in the misinformation leaked about Katrina (p. 13). However, Welch places the blame squarely on reporters for not having enough skepticism of the oral sources they acquire information during a natural disaster. Rumors spread readily during a disaster also because of a breakdown in telecommunications infrastructure. What Welch refers to as a:rumor mill" seems to be the source of much of the media's coverage (p. 13).

2. The kinds of rumors and stories spread by reporters and enhanced by sensationalist media coverage suggest that various lenses are used to view reality. One of those perceptual lenses is that lawlessness and chaos characterize American life. Reporters covering New Orleans during the Katrina disaster expected that people were shooting at rescue helicopters, looting indiscriminately, and generally acting hostile to government workers. Although some of the rumors helped to mobilize assistance to the region out of sympathy, the situation...

The perceptual lenses through which reporters view their subjects are often heavily smeared with false evidence.
3. Watching the Katrina disaster unfold on the news, I heard about all the stories that Welch refers to in "They Shoot Helicopters, Don't They?" In addition to the title reference, I also heard about the looting, and many people still believe that New Orleans is a disaster zone because the media coverage was so intense. I did not believe most of the rumors but I did believe that the city had descended into a sort of chaos. I had thought that the Oprah comment was a purposeful exaggeration because of the anger felt at seeing so many homeless people, the poor who were unable to leave the city before the disaster. Welch disproves many of the stories but I still believe that some were true: that even if the media exaggerated or distorted evidence that some individuals were hostile because of the frustration of not being able to save their homes from destruction. However, I also felt empathy for the scores of aid workers who were being harshly criticized by the news media. The FEMA and other disaster workers were doing their best to offer help and they received no appreciation, only criticism.