Check out this article by Michael Crichton. It's long. I like the part about Chernobyl at the beginning. He says that the actual fact is that 56 people died directly as a result of the Chernobyl meltdown, and maybe another 2000 due to lingering radiation problems. The NYT and other papers were saying as many as 20,000 direct deaths and 3.5 million radiation deaths, and they were saying this as recently as this year. That means they are still spreading the same incorrect information 20 years later and will continue to do so. It doesn't matter what the truth is, the media has been saying Chernobyl was a huge international disaster with gargantuan deaths for all these years, and it'll be a cold day in hell before they admit to being wrong all these years. Besides, it's now popular knowledge that tens of thousands died because of Chernobyl, so who cares about the truth, it serves their agendas (both left-wing, and revenue-wise) to keep the same inaccurate story.

What really makes this story a laugh is a UN report from 2005 saying the worst Chernobyl related problems were psycological issues that developed due to a lack of correct information. In other words, the false reports continual put forth by the media caused depression and anxiety and far more related health problems than the meltdown itself. I feel we are seeing the same problem with the Katrina aftermath. All the lies spouted by the media about racism, neglect, rape, death counts, etc., have created this huge controversy on racial, political, and financial lines, yet a fair and accurate reporting of the truth would belie so much of the controversy... If only people would believe. The media has ingrained the horrible government response in to the minds of America so much that people are still believing the lies that support controversy and rejecting the truth.