Quote:
Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA
But that waiting, in this case, should have then fallen on the state officials.
What do you suggest, that the media simply ignore what they're told on the record by a high ranking state official who is one of the few people who should actually know the accurate number at that point?
It's not like this came from the aide to the assistant to the chief of staff of the Lt. Governor or something, it was from the state chief medical examiner's office (who presumably outranks the local M.E. in some fashion).
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CNN reported "91 confirmed dead" at one point last night. They went double over what the medical examiner (apparently) reported. Maybe the medical examiner counted everyone twice, and then CNN reported everyone twice again (or maybe the medical examiner counted every victim three times). The medical examiner obviously screwed up too, since they have a media function in an emergency situation. But today, they're just saying that communication was bad and it was "chaos". Which tells me that they weren't ready yet to "confirm" dead, but did anyway, for whatever reason.
It's good news that the death toll is lower, of course. But people rely on this shit, they rely on accurate reporting, both before and after the tornado. When people are reckless like this, it ultimately becomes a part of conspiracy theories too, which are just a pain in the ass more than anything. "Confirmed dead" should be a pretty easy number to nail down, even if it takes a while. Maybe they should call them "speculated dead" if they're in such a hurry.