EvilT’s rant for Friday
Now I remember why I don’t watch CNN (or much of any other news for that matter). I had the unfortunate opportunity to watch Larry King’s show last night.
The Rev (Jesse Jackson) was in New Orleans (naturally there was a chance for publicity) to evacuate students from a college. The Rev took issue with the federal government for cutting the Corps of Engineers budget for the water defenses of the city (Shouldn’t Louisiana cover the costs for Louisiana’s engineering and infrastructure). The Rev stated that there were 300,000 people who the government was not doing enough to evacuate (that’s more than half of the population of New Orleans). Jesse also took issue with the reports of lawlessness, stating that the shooting was remote and limited to a couple of incidents (I guess the officer with a bullet in their head was one of the two). The Rev’s assessment does not seem to match up with any of the reporting (and nothing I hear from friends in Louisiana). There was one bright spot. When the Rev (Jesse Jackson) insinuated that the hurricane could have been caused by depleted ozone, which he attributed to CARCINOGENS in the atmosphere. I almost fell out of my chair, it was hilarious.
Has anyone noticed the slanted reporting by the media? I’ve been watching CNN for over 2 hours, and I’m yet to hear about people in temporary shelters or in makeshift hospitals. I’m yet to hear about all the people out there distributing water and food to the unfortunate victims. All I see is the same pictures of the superdome over and over and over, with the recurring chant that too little is being done. A claim that seems to based largely on the fact that there is still human tragedy, which even if it was small, would be the only thing they would report on TV (ratings you know).
I put to you CNN that the least effective aid worker on the ground in New Orleans is contributing more to the effort than Larry King, who is planning a Saturday special to tell people how to help ( isn’t that a little late Mr. King, couldn’t you have done that on Wednesday).
Anderson Cooper found the time to point out that the isolated people are sick of hearing the government officials talk about all they were doing, and what a good job they were doing. Once again what is Mr. Cooper doing to lessen the pain and suffering? I say not much more than profiting from the coverage. I just cannot believe the nads that Larry has to use the poor people in this tragedy to further his finger pointing agenda. One question though, where was John Stuart, to let Larry know that his is part of the problem, that his reporting is hurting America?
It was pretty sweet when he confronted a survivor who was trying to find her lost brother, asking her why they didn’t evacuate. Strangely enough he almost seemed ashamed as she burst into tears…
Then finally, after over 2 hours of coverage, I see a FEMA field hospital (looked to be at an airport) where the reporter said that there was a continuous line of helicopters and busses bringing the sick and injured. This report seemed out of place with all the statements about the federal government not doing anything (the F in FEMA is Federal by the way). I also saw the non-stop line of busses dropping refugees off at the Astrodome.
I understand that the situation is dire, that the people are desperate, but the rescue effort is HUGE! 30,000 national guard troops have been mobilized. I hope that everyone in government has done everything they can and will be very put out if I find differently. I do also understand that the government is huge, moves slow, costs too much, and is rife with bureaucracy and red tape. Thus my expectation for rapid response are a little lower once you need more than what FEMA has.