"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts"

Einstein got that right – so did the acclaimed journalist Walter Lippman who said the news and the truth are not the same thing.

Lippman believed many people, including journalist, make judgments by condensing ideas into symbols that are stored in the brain and released when triggered. When journalists take this shortcut, it is their opinion, not fact, that influences public opinion.

Once triggered, these shortcuts to judgment are a cognitive map governing the processing of new information – denying some and inventing other.

Here, 'cognition' can be used to refer to the mental models, or belief systems, that people use to perceive, contextualize, simplify, and make sense of otherwise complex problems. Put more simply, cognitive maps are a method we use to structure and store spatial knowledge, allowing the “mind’s eye” to visualize images in order to reduce cognitive load, and enhance recall and learning of information.

Hurricane Katrina created a host of complex problems that triggered an explosion of mental maps – many stemming from the handling of insurance claims.

In many cases, public opinion on the new and complex problems of post-Katrina Mississippi was shaped with little or none of the discernment, analysis, and evaluation needed to form a solid judgment that reconciles scientific evidence with common sense – critical thinking.

Critical thinkers gather information from all senses, verbal and/or written expressions, reflection, observation, experience and reasoning. Critical thinking has its basis in intellectual criteria that go beyond subject-matter divisions and which include: clarity, credibility, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic, significance, and fairness.

No where has the absence of critical thinking been more noticeable than in the rush to judgment over the intended meaning of facts contained in the various legal documents related to the federal indictment of five including attorney Dickie Scruggs and the public indictment of others such as Attorney General Jim Hood – bringing to mind the everyday application of Einstein’s wisdom – if facts and theory conflict, ignore the facts and keep the theory.


All would do well to remember this simple rhyme from one of Rudyard Kippling’s Just So stories – The Elephant’s Child – else they, too, may be seeking something they’ve already seen and denied:

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.





UPDATE:
Today’s Clarion Ledger contains a related guest opinion column, Tendency to Oversimplify Scruggs Case. Marc Harold, senior counsel and visiting professor at the National Center for Justice and the Rule of Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law, noted In certain cases, media outlets have exaggerated the impact pretrial motions may have on the outcome of the trial itself…

...the media almost inevitably attempt to simplify the events or stages of the trial process. This is not a negative, in and of itself. One of the major goals of any type of news reporting is to distill information into a digestible format for a broad audience… In most interviews, the "expert" is asked to put the legal or procedural issues "in simple terms… While explaining the law in lay terms can certainly be helpful in informing an interested general audience, oversimplifying what is not simple can act to misinform rather than educate…

The motions are often based on complex legal theories; in other words, like in math, sometimes giving the answer without "showing your work" is of little value.
Finally, and perhaps most damaging, is our desire to predict. Admittedly, this can be fun, and everyone likes to ultimately be proven correct...

In most of the interviews the legal "expert" is asked to speculate on the strategy of the prosecution or the defense. Attorneys should always be hesitant to engage in this type of speculation. Again, as in other facets of news coverage, it can, when undertaken irresponsibly, act to misinform rather than educate as the line between speculation and fact can become blurred…

Exactly Lippman’s point and ours as well– the news and the truth are not the same thing.A journalist’s version of the truth is subjective and limited to how he constructs his reality. The news, therefore, is “imperfectly recorded” and too fragile to bear the charge as “an organ of direct democracy.”

"You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."

Humanity is governed by minorities, seldom or never by majorities. It suppresses its feelings and its beliefs and follows the handful that makes the most noise. Sometimes the noisy handful is right, sometimes wrong, but no matter, the crowd follows it.

Oddly enough, Mark Twain's quote comes from The Mysterious Stranger- in the world of blogs and message boards, mysterious strangers are the norm. Here, for example, I am known as Promise; but,by any name, am a modern day muckraker.

I still believe most do; but, I am no longer so green that I can’t spot a Yellow Kid or recognize comments made by those that reflect the British English application of the word to sensationalist scandal-mongering journalist, not driven by any social principles.

Allegations and indictments have, as Cowboy would say, slabbed the integrity of our State’s legal system. Grief is a natural response, and anger is a natural part of the grieving process. Scandal-mongering, however naturally it may come to some, is not anger – it’s the sensationalized stories or outright lying that caused Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, two icons of American journalism, to be known as the two Yellow Kids.

Pulitzer and Hearst are often credited (or blamed) for drawing the nation into the Spanish-American War…eventually resulting in…the most famous example of the exaggeration…a version of which appears in the Hearst-inspired film Citizen Kane - the apocryphal story that artist Frederic Remington telegrammed Hearst to tell him all was quiet in Cuba and There will be no war. Hearst responded Please remain.You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war.

So - Who’s furnishing the pictures of Attorney General Hood and who’s furnishing the war on his integrity?

It would be less than honest not to acknowledge Hood himself is submitting a few snapshots – I didn't care who (Scruggs) supported. I wasn't crazy about being attorney general anyway.. – and equally dishonest not to consider the possibility Twain suggested - Often the surest way to convey misinformation is to tell the strict truth.

Yesterday’s edition of the Clarion Ledger generated a total of 160 reader comments from a front page story and three separate blog posts related to the allegation that indicted attorney Dickie Scruggs attempted to influence Hood.

Blogs started developing that picture on the 25th - that Jim Hood story was sitting there in Pacer at 7-8 PM or thereabouts. I started downloading stuff about then, and just didn’t get around to it till midnight.The first post was up early on the 26th and Holy S--t Balducci, State Farm, Jim Hood, Scruggs – all together in one paragraph appeared shortly therafter.

During the day related posts and news stories were linked to those already posted online.

Holy Cow! Do you see what this says? It says that Scruggs paid Balducci and Patterson half a million dollars to get Hood to back off the State Farm grand jury investigation. ..Seems to me that whole business needs to be explored some more, don't you think? If this is true, doesn't it qualify as some sort of improper influence of a public official?

By the evening of the 26th another picture was developing on the blogs – one chiding the old media are 24 hours behind the blogs…Actually, I’m going to frame this question more aggressively…What’s with the pros? – and, on the morning of the 27th, it was ready to print.

As you might expect, that $500,000 that Tim Balducci claims Dickie Scruggs (eventually, grudgingly) paid him and Steve Patterson to get Attorney General Jim Hood’s indictment of State Farm called off has made a splash in Mississippi’s largest newspapers this morning

On the 28th, the Yellow Kid went big time with a level of sensationalism that spread an outright lie coast to coast under the banner of none other than Legal News Line. Had it not been for my all time favorite blog post title - Why Legal News Line is fit only for the bottoms of virtual birdcages – the Yellow Kid’s nose would be longer than Pinocchio’s by now for claiming An FBI report released this week supported the headline Hood allegedly offered bribe from Scruggs.

The modest attempt to set the record straight - Editor’s note: The following story is a corrected version of an earlier article that contained many inaccuracies – fell far short of any measure of retraction. Shortly after daylight today, Legal News Line was back to the bottom of virtual birdcages - Too bad you didn’t notify The Google, LNL. I hope this helps them sue your ass for libel.

Attributing an outright lie to an FBI report can only be called an amazing act of hubris – far stronger evidence than documented in the defense Motion to Change Venue:

the print media blitz has been supplemented by Mississippi-based web logs (blogs) that report, in excruciating detail, every event in the prosecution and defense of the Scruggs criminal case; as well as their finding people piling on. Mr. Merkel. Mr. Tollison. The notion being at last he’s getting his comeuppance.

Judge Biggers called it one of the most thoroughly researched briefs I have ever seen; later adding, but it’s hard for me to believe there were no statements favorable to Dickie and denying the motion.

Considering the unanimous, accurate blog prediction of every ruling Judge Biggers made on the Defense Motions, Judge Biggers unquestioned integrity, and the assaults on Attorney General Hood, one can only wonder who’s providing the pictures and who’s providing the war - and where all these warriors are hidden.

The only thing proven thus far is attributed to Mark Twain:

Injurious truth has no merit over an injurious lie. Neither should ever be uttered. The man who speaks an injurious truth, lest his soul be not saved if he do otherwise, should reflect that that sort of a soul is not strictly worth saving.

Don’t Mess with Texas – or Connie Moran

Big Insurance, meet Connie Moran – a Fulbright Scholar with a master’s degree in finance/economics and international commerce – the Mayor of Ocean Springs, Mississippi with all perils insurance on her mind.

Moran wants more than stories about businesses and residents having trouble rebuilding due to insurance costs, she want hard data. According to the Mississippi Press Register, she plans to provide that data to Congressman Gene Taylor.

A small town Mississippi mayor may not sound like a threat – unless you happen to have read about her accusing FEMA of “creating trailer trash” in the Seattle Times.

The mayor first gained national attention when she locked horns with FEMA, preferring the traditional and sustainable Katrina Cottages to the standard-issue mobile homes that “within 18 months create a trash-heap of trailers up for auction.”

She envisioned a neighborhood of "Katrina cottages" — tiny, yellow houses built in a Southern style, with sloped metal roofs and big front porches.

Ocean City has actually created “a planned village of 20 ‘Katrina cottages” about a mile from Ocean Springs’ downtown.”

You don’t mess with Texas or Connie Moran – if you don’t believe me, contact the Mississippi Department of Transportation and ask about that bridge they almost had to sell.

Hello! Hello! Is this the party to whom I am speaking?

Saturday Night Live became Tuesday morning reality when State Farm attorney, the “honorable” Shelia L. Birnbaum, hit the wrong button and sent the media an email asking if Attorney General Jim Hood could be charged with Contempt of Court.

I bet you did Shelia – the panic button – when Hood’s office replied, “No, you can’t!

The case was dismissed because the allegations were false, according to Hood’s spokeswoman, Jan Schaefer.

Living in a travel trailer for two-and-a-half years can make folks crazy; but, it doesn’t make them dumb. No one’s ever called Shelia Birnbaum dumb either – most say she’s smart as a fox.

After yesterday, there’s no reason to doubt they’re right. Birnbaum looked at the clarification Hood’s office sent to the media and noted the General was about to take his coat off - his message to the media meant he was tugging at his tie.

Cowboy, you better saddle up – I do believe the State Farm’s fox is about to find out what Hood had waiting in the henhouse.

Robin' Hood of Support

Blogs are touted as the savior of democracy – a voice for the people, a place where our cherished freedom of speech enjoys the freedom of information.

…and, by the way, did I mention the bridge I’ve got for sale up in Brooklyn?

Blogs are in the information business – news you can use but news that can use you, too.

Last week blogs were big news. The defense team for the King of Torts, indicted Mississippi attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, cited the unfavorable environment created by blogs in the Motion for Change of Venue.

The named blogs responded with a “moment of silence” and noticeable absence of some of his most vicious critics. However, it wasn’t long before they were back in business -feasting on Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood with a side dish of Scruggs and the others for desert.

Hood is a state-wide elected official and his conduct is fair game for public conversation – but this game was anything but fair. Although he recently won reelection by a larger percentage of vote than any other candidate, few of his supporters comment on these blogs. Understandably so - take a look at the titles of these posts: AG Jim Hood Goes on Offense…and Fumbles the Ball; What's the Name for Hood Posts; and Hood Pours Gasoline, Strikes Match, and Sets Self on Fire.

I don’t know who picked up the tab for this feast but I know who paid the price – the people on the Coast – particularly those with State Farm claims unsettled. Banned from one blog and then another, and threatened by yet a third, robbed Hood of his strongest supporter and those who read these blogs of a balance view.

I came to offer Promise – for every voice to be heard. Meet bellesouth a fearless fighter for the people on the Coast – a diva of a defender with a sack full of rock solid fact and a spirited opinion up against a Goliath of critics who turned on her when they had nothing of substance to throw back.

(Note from Sop: To the extent this intersects with insurance we are allowing some Jim Hood discussion. We have begun the process of contacting the Office of the Mississippi Attorney General in hopes Mr Hood will comment to the extent he can on what his office is doing for us on these insurance issues. Given the pilloring he has taken, unfairly in certain respects in our opinions, we intend to provide a blog outlet that will simply allow him to present a differing point of view, just as we welcomed the Rimkus Engineer's viewpoints on our Aiken threads.)

Also a quick hello to Mr CLS and our thanks for reading us. - sop

Benefits of Doubt

Until this week, I thought Ground Zero was as low as you could go; but, I underestimated the power of Hurricane Katrina.


Sop's "Sunday Bonus" was intended as our collective "pass" on extending the scope of this blog to include the legal storm that hit the Scruggs Katrina Group. In fact, by the time we were up and running, the wind of that storm had broken the group apart and the Scruggs firm was "roof surfing" in the surge of an indictment.


The great lesson of Katrina, however, has been the benefits of doubt - so much so that the only certainty at times has been the storm. If it weren't for doubt about claims handling, there would have been no justice for all who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina.


The benefits of doubt balance the scales of justice. Too many are weighing the claims related to the indictment of Scruggs without benefit of doubt - and, guilt or innocence aside, injustice is the result.


Thus, I open the scales of justice here for discussion and welcome all who want to weigh in and provide the benefit of doubt.

"Lawyer’s spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke."

We end the third year since Katrina with more lawyers shoveling smoke in Mississippi than in any other state - certainly on a per capita basis, if not by actual count. The question yet to be answered is "Where's the fire?"

Katrina left over 60,000 Mississippi families homeless. One of those happened to be the family of a man the Wall Street Journal has called the King of Torts. To those on the Coast slabbed first by Katrina and then by their insurance provider, he was known as Dickie, King of Hope

Now, he has lawyers; his son has lawyers, his associate has lawyers and there is no longer a group of lawyers known as the Scruggs Katrina Group – and all are shoving smoke blown their way by a lawyer named Balducci – reportedly working for either Scruggs or SKG – who made what can only be called a significant error in judgment by either attempting to bribe a judge or confessing to such. There's still too much smoke to tell exactly which it was; but, under all that smoke is a case filed against Scruggs by a group of lawyers that were associated with the Katrina Group. Now they have lawyers, too.

We've got such a booming lawyer business going here that our Insurance Commission picked up the tab for lawyers to represent State Farm when SKG deposed a member of the Department's staff on matters related to claims filed by State Farm policy holders. The Commissioner had to get approval to pay State Farm's lawyers from the Attorney General who has lawyers of his own because State Farm is suing him – remember Mississippi is the Hospitality State. Come to find out, that what we got for our money was a State Farm lawyer telling the man, "Don't answer that".

In light of that shovel full of smoke, it's hard to believe that State Farm has now filed a suit to make Scruggs "answer that" - at least, they're paying their own lawyers this time. If you're confused, don't be ashamed. The judge got so confused he couldn't tell whose interest Scruggs was representing. It seems like he could have asked; but, at Ground Zero, points of law and common sense can be two entirely different matters.

We don’t shovel smoke here at the Mississippi Insurance Forum. Our purpose is to blow all the smoke away and see if there’s any fire under the hot tin roof that’s smoldering down here – and that would be Tennessee Williams and not John Gresham, by the way. Stay tuned for more and Happy New Year.

Mr. Rogers Couldn't "Make Believe" this Neighborhood

Before Katrina, the mix of neighborhoods in the three coastal counties of Mississippi was typical small town America and the place called home to those living there.


Home after home looked like this in neighborhoods from Ground Zero to the Alabama state line after Katrina. Because the wind had earlier blown the roof off this house, when the water came, the lucky owner and his family were able to roof raft their way to safety in what he later called the ultimate water ride.

Over two years after Katrina, this home and countless others look like this - each in some way a casualty of the insurance war. Many, like this homeowner, are victims of the uncertainty. As Mr. Rogers sang, he "wants to have a neighbor just like you...to live in a neighborhood with you."

Rebuilding is more than construction. Neighborhoods are the infrastructure of both the built and social community. Unless a home owner can self insure, he is limited to the current $250,000 limit of flood insurance since windstorm policy recovery has proven problematic. At the current cost of construction, that equates to a home of approximately 1800 square feet - larger than the largest Katrina Cottage but considerably smaller than many of the homes lost to the storm.

The longer the uncertainty lingers, the more difficult it becomes to rebuild the social community. Social networks provide relationships that connect people to essential social supports in much the same way that roads connect the built community. Many consider these social networks "the 'scaffolding' or framework upon which successful community-building efforts are created."

The wind came first, then the water - washing away all but the truth. "Somewhere deep inside each one of us human beings is a longing to know that all will be well."

Home for Christmas...only in dreams

Since Christmas 2004, many of the people of Katrina Ground Zero have been home for Christmas...only in their dreams.

All do dream. Whatever they called "home" - humble or grand, rented or owned, is gone. Some 14,000 are celebrating yet another Christmas in a travel trailer. Others are sharing space in another family's home. Many of those able to find temporary housing found little more than a roof over their head.

The emotional and financial toll is staggering and there is no Santa Clause delivering a Gulf Coast version of Miracle on 34 Street for those caught in the crossfire of the "insurance war" or the logjam in Congress over HB3121.

As they have done since Katrina, the people of Ground Zero continue to give to others at Christmas - even when all they have to give is themselves.

Although most had been "slabbed" by Katrina, the remaining members of the Coast Choral - about one-third the number before the storm - gathered to sing their annual concert that first Christmas. Yet unable to replace the music and other items lost to Katrina by Christmas 2007, they continue to bring "Joy to the World of Ground Zero.

In the spirit of Christmas, please remember the people of Ground Zero who will be home for Christmas...only in dreams.

Wind: "Breaking News"

If you missed Sop’s post last Friday, scroll down and take a look and look at the pictures he took after Katrina. Pay particular attention to picture number three. Note his question - How is it that the majority of the houses on this street stood while three houses in close proximity of one another were reduced to rubble?- and his answer – a tornado or mini-tornado – evidenced by the damage to nearby trees.

Some claim there were no tornadoes documented in Katrina as the storm hit and passed over the coastal counties.

Could this be a case where there are two sides of the story and both are true? Let’s visit the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, take a look at a hurricane, and see what we can find out.

Hurricanes initiate from an area of thunderstorms. Once these thunderstorms become a hurricane, an “eye” is located near the center and surrounded by an “eye wall” containing the most damaging wind and intense rain. Tornadoes [are] found within the eye wall and in the spiral bands outside.

However, a tornado’s circulation is present on the ground either as a funnel–shaped cloud or a swirling cloud of dust and debris. In other words, evidence of a tornado will be a damaged area somewhat circular in shape.

The damage Sop pointed out was linear. Nonetheless, it was very real and distinctly different from other wind damage – exactly the type of damage caused by what is called a plough wind.

Plough winds belong to a family of strong, straight-line downburst winds found in thunderstorms. When they strike the ground the air spreads horizontally in a burst of wind, much like water pouring from a tap and striking the sink below.

Plough winds can blow continuously but the damage is usually confined to an area less than 3 km [or approximately 2 miles] across. They are more common than tornadoes and have the power of a twister but the damage pattern looks different - a starburst or more commonly a straight line.

How could the linear pattern of damage in Sop’s picture be the result of anything other than plough winds from the thunderstorms that formed hurricane Katrina?

Ask Sop who paid. "I personally know of at least one such resident who was only paid on their flood policy instead of their private wind policy. That's right ladies and gents, the bill was on you, the taxpayers."

The Right Side of Hurricane Katrina

The right side of a hurricane is the wrong side to be on.

You could take that sailor's warning to the bank after Katrina – if there had been one after Katrina.

The weather wizards say "ground zero" is where the eye of a hurricane makes landfall.

Katrina's eye passed just to the right of the Louisiana-Mississippi state line in Hancock County, Mississippi. We're the orange spot on the map.

Of course, it didn't take the wisdom of a wizard for any of us to figure out we were "ground zero". All we had to do was take a look around and see nothing - "zero" - on the "ground" escaped Katrina's wrath.

There's still more nothing than something down here, rebuilding is stalled in the court, the economy is heading further south, and some are starting to wondering if we haven't hit "Ground Zero for Hope".

The right side of an insurance claim is the wrong side on after a hurricane.

When you purchase a homeowner's policy with hurricane coverage, you expect the insurance provider to know what a hurricane is and what it does. If they don't, you'd sure expect them to look it up and not make it up. Nonetheless, make it up appears to be exactly what some did.

All 82 Mississippi counties were included in the disaster declaration and 60% (49) were eligible for full federal disaster assistance. The insurance folks north of the Coast didn't seem to have a problem understanding that water damage is covered if the wind blows a hole in your roof and water gets in your house.

Most of us didn't even have a roof after Katrina blew through here. You would think, then, it wouldn't be hard for the ones they sent down here to figure that water damage was done before the surge followed Katrina inland. Actually, it appears they did figure it out – probably right about the time they started trying to figure out ways to get by without paying when all that Katrina left behind was a slab.

The wrong side of a hurricane to be on is the one it takes a lawyer to make right.