Though one is reticent to try to find silver-linings in the wake of Katrina, there has been one ancillary gain: We got our Press Corp back.
I've mentioned Anderson Cooper, who's interview with Senator Mary Landrieu set the tone (and I believe ended her career). She's gotten a bit of praise around the internets, today, for this press release her office sent out yesterday, which says:
Yesterday, I was hoping President Bush would come away from his tour of
the regional devastation triggered by Hurricane Katrina with a new
understanding for the magnitude of the suffering and for the abject
failures of the current Federal Emergency Management Agency. 24 hours
later, the President has yet to answer my call for a cabinet-level
official to lead our efforts. Meanwhile, FEMA, now a shell of what it
once was, continues to be overwhelmed by the task at hand.
Aldahlia, who brought the press release to my attention, is skeptical, and so am I. Landrieu also mentions that the 17th levee breach that the President visited two days ago appears, now to be staged. Good for her for bringing it up and all, but this is the kind of spin control which is as obvious as it is offensive. Many on the Right are pissed at Democrats for politicizing this tragedy. I've politicized the tragedy because I could watch the news and see more than our leaders were willing to admit was happening. Politicizing a tragedy by pointing out the DIRECT contributions your political leaders have made
which have exacerbated the situation or to be appalled at the
apathetic and delinquent response is warranted when you can see people dying on television. What Landrieu is doing is politicizing the tragedy in an attempt to save her political skin. It is despicable.
Of course she's not the only one spinning. Bush's own public appearances have amounted to nothing but a four day press event, meant to combat the image that his leadership has been lacking. He said he was satisfied, and he has been laughed at. Times of great tragedy, we're told, are when this President shines. His touted charisma has, however, been replaced with bumbling and insincerity, as if he is struggling to keep up.
That's because he had the wrong goal. The President wishes to appear to be a leader instead of commanding leadership itself.
And, when it became apparent that he was not in control of any situation, reporters called him out on it. Such was the case in the widely talked about Shep Smith/Geraldo Rivera rants on Fox News. In regards to that, Jeff Jarvis asks an interesting question:
Haven’t seen Shepard Smith on Fox since he quite rightly vented his
anger at Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity. Hope they just gave him a day
off because of his heroic and nonstop work. As soon as Shep left, the
talk turned rosier on Fox.
The Network has brought him back to New York, and he deserves the time off for certain, but his departure from the airwaves immediately after his unwavering depiction of what was wrong speaks volumes about the way the Fair and Balanced network is playing this.
Smith's wails, recounting day after day after day that he went on the air, telling America that the people of New Orleans needed food and water, only to find it arriving five days later has been biggest moment in the coverage on any network, and will be what I remember most.
Now, we can add Keith Olbermann to the mix of journalists who are asking tough questions. With this eloquent and completely on target commentary, he has articulated the reasons why those questions are so important. Call him partisan (which I'm sure many will), but it's going to be very hard to call him wrong:
For many of this country's citizens, the mantra has been — as we were
taught in Social Studies it should always be — whether or not I voted
for this President — he is still my President. I suspect anybody who
had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week. I
suspect a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to '08, are wondering
how they can distance themselves from the two words which will define
his government — our government — "New Orleans."
Watch the video, but the transcript is also up on his blog.
"There are more important issues to deal with than who's at fault," many have said over the past few days. To be sure, the number one priority is still to save lives. While our leaders may not be able to multitask, however, it is important for us to do so because this is an administration who has consistently said, "There are more important issues," or, "There will be a day for looking back," but that day never comes. The American public have been asking tough questions about Iraq for a long time, just as they did about Ohio during the '04 election, 9/11, and the Florida recount before that. We're still waiting for the day to come when tough questions about those events will be answered, but that's because the combination of an administration who changes the subject and a Press with a.d.d. have made it so that those days never come. To get real answers, the questions have to be asked now, while the powers that be can't look the other way.
The Press, it seems, have decided that they aren't willing to roll over this time.
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