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09/04/2005: :: Criminally Absurd

You Know It's Bad When FOX News is Telling The Truth
from Crooks and Liars

I am currently without a television, and even if I had one, I would probably not have any cable. As a result, I have only been able to find out about the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast through the internet. On Crooks and Liars they have been posting video files of really choice tidbits of coverage. The clip that totally blew my mind was from FOX News' "Hannity and Colmes" show, where Shepard Smith and Geraldo Rivera took Sean Hannity down a couple of pegs. Geraldo, reporting from inside the New Orleans Convention Center, burst into tears at the situation he was reporting on, and a totally devastated Shepard Smith telling Hannity that "this is perspective." I don't think I have ever seen such unvarnished journalism on cable news, and it hit me right in the gut. I also recommend CNN's Anderson Cooper interviewing Sen. Trent Lott, Kanye West telling the American people (on the East Coast) that "George Bush doesn't care about black people" and any other clip they have up there. I had never heard of these guys until now, but they seem like they are on the ball.

I also want to say that my heart goes out to the people affected by this natural disaster. You can talk about logistics and lack of communications all you want, but there is no excuse for the appalling efforts the local, state, and federal officials have made to "help" our fellow citizens! Was there any pre- planning? Emergency preparedness? Washington D.C. is less that a thousand miles from there- what is going on?

This is a turning point in the history of our country, as much as or even more so than 9/11. It is one thing to have a bunch of religious fundamentalist terrorists completely surprise us and take advantage of our freedom, it is QUITE ANOTHER to know beforehand that a natural disaster is going to happen, to leave the poorest and sickest citizens behind to fend for themselves, to have no coordinated plan of action, to go on vacation (Hey Condi- shoe shopping and Monty Python musical watching while thousands of people die- see if anyone votes for you now!) while all this is going on? I do not know for sure what the future is going to hold, but I do think that after the poor response of every single part of the goverment to this tragedy, we need to realize that things have to change. Too bad we had an election last year.