Continuous scenes of death and destruction, along with constant reporting of looting but underreporting the work of the relief organizations seemed to sensationalize the reporting in the interest of raising ratings.

Also, “star” TV journalists dressed in “explorer” duds interviewing victims trapped in the rubble seem to be filmed to provide more exciting reporting rather than to provide assistance to the victims.

The head of the UN mission in Haiti, Edmond Mulet, said that the reports of looting were greatly exaggerated while the underreporting of the relief organizations was demoralizing to relief workers on the ground.