On the other hand, "The media's coverage of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath has been criticized as some news reports of rapes and murders in parts of New Orleans appear to be unfounded. Following a background report, two media experts and a journalist who covered the storm discuss problems in catastrophe coverage."

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/weather/july-dec05/media_9-29.html
September 29, 2005

-snip-

But I believe that even the coverage of the poor coverage and negative slants some news reports gave*, helped raise some people's consciousness that there were problems that needed to be addressed.

How well those problems have been addressed is another story.

* I'm specifically referring to reporters in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina who provided a positive frame news stories of White people who salvaged food, beverages, and other essentials, but provided highly negative news reports and video/photographic captions of Black people doing the exact same thing.