It's incredible how insinuating this sort of 'spin' becomes. There's a complex set of narratives going on here in addition to the 'disaster porn' thread.

1/19:
Mediahacker - Propaganda antidote
Tell CNN to stop hyping fears of violence in Haiti. For shame.

CNN lead on the 19th: "In the shadow of Haiti’s wrecked presidential palace lie the new homes of the capital’s 500,000 displaced residents. But with 4,000 convicted criminals on the loose, nothing and no one is safe."

Ansel Herz, freelance journalist based in Port-Au-Prince: "They started pushing the violence meme the day after the earthquake.

"When they came back to me, I began to explain that I had walked through the remains of the jail (here’s the video). That many of the prisoners were reportedly shot dead by police as they tried to escape. And that I had not seen or heard of violence so far."