MEDIA FISHHOOKED BY BUSH RHETORIC: --yes yes yes

[rodeodance]

I got this as an email this morning.
nice summary with clickable stories at the website.




http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=914257&ct=1415683

Subject: Progress Report: New Problem, Same Mistakes
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 08:20:16 -0700
From: American Progress Action Fund <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]


KATRINA
New Problem, Same Mistakes

Yesterday, President Bush addressed the nation in a prime time speech about Katrina. You won't find many details on the president's proposals in today's papers, "which is understandable, since the president didn't offer any details." But read between the lines and the president's strategy is clear. Though Americans have stood aghast at the bungled federal response to Hurricane Katrina and the pervasive poverty the hurricane's aftermath exposed, President Bush has chosen to push ahead with the same ideological agenda that helped produce those problems.

CAUTION -- "OPPORTUNITY" ZONE AHEAD: Last night, President Bush proposed the creation of a "Gulf Opportunity Zone" to encompass "the region of the disaster in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama." You won't find specifics in Bush's speech, but you can find them on the Heritage Foundation's website, since it proposed the idea in its "manifesto on post-Katrina policy" last week. According to Heritage's plan, the "opportunity" in the zones is actually for the wealthy few and for special interests seeking to strip away government protections and regulations. Heritage calls for a panel of government and private sector officials to target "regulations at all levels" to be "eliminated or simplified," for capital gains taxes and the estate tax for the ultra-weathy to be repealed, and for waivers on environmental rules.

'HIGHER AND BETTER,' OR HIGHER BUILDINGS FOR THE BETTER-OFF?: President Bush described his "vision of the future, in this city and beyond: we will not just rebuild, we will build higher and better." But the policies he is proposing for the hurricane-battered areas will not achieve this goal. Already, watchdog groups, "including two in New York that have monitored the post-9/11 reconstruction of Lower Manhattan," are warning Gulf Coast leaders to "closely monitor the design of Hurricane Katrina aid packages so that low- and moderate-income people, unemployed workers, and small businesses are treated fairly." They pointed out that after 9/11, "rules that normally restrict federal economic funding to primarily benefit low- and moderate-income communities were stripped out," as is being suggested now. As a result, the groups says, "much of the $20 billion allocated for economic development has benefited real estate developers and wealthy neighborhoods."

IF YOU LIKED THE RECONSTRUCTION OF FALLUJAH, YOU'LL LOVE THE RECONSTRUCTION OF NEW ORLEANS: Speaking about Iraq in 2003, Bush pledged, "We will do what it takes. We will not leave until the job is done." Speaking about the Gulf Coast last night, he said, "We will do what it takes. We will stay as long as it takes." The similarities don't end with the rhetoric. Again, cronyism is threatening the reconstruction process. Again, strict contract oversight is doubtful. Although Bush promised to appoint a team of investigators, all will be mindful "of the fate of Bunnatine Greenhouse, a highly regarded auditor at the Army Corps of Engineers who suddenly got poor performance reviews after she raised questions about Halliburton's contracts in Iraq. She was demoted late last month." And again, as The Progress Report reported yesterday, the reconstruction effort is a thinly-veiled attempt to impose a conservative ideological agenda. In Iraq, remember, conservative twenty-somethings "straight out of the Heritage Foundation ... given responsibility they could never have dreamed of receiving at home," like twenty-four-year-old Jay Hallen, who was "put in charge of launching Baghdad’s new stock exchange." (For more on the similarities, check out this piece by Tom Engelhardt and Nick Turse.)

MEDIA FISHHOOKED BY BUSH RHETORIC: The era of aggressive, adversarial post-Katrina journalism has ended, apparently lasting all of two weeks. NBC's Tim Russert spoke of Bush's "new language." David Gregory claimed Bush voiced a desire to "get to the bottom of it working with both parties in congress to do an investigation," even as Bush actually embraced a plan for an inquiry dominated by his policial allies rather than a bipartisan, independent commission. The New York Times cheered Bush for speaking "clearly and candidly about race and poverty," as if a single paragraph in a 3,300-word speech makes up for the fact that the White House has already gutted wage protections in the disaster areas and has promoted policies that caused 1.1 million people to fall out of the middle class and into poverty just last year. And despite the fact that Bush offered no price tag and virtually no details about his reconstruction plans, he was lauded for being especially "clear about what would be needed to bring back the Gulf Coast."

[Presstitutes]

1. Thanks for pointing this out

GET PAID TO BLOG: http://www.presstitutes.com/

[Veronicrat]

2. E-mailed this post to hilary clinton

this is a defining moment in American politics

[Loge23]

3. Katrina fatigue - take this pill

The evil dr bush was back last night - open collar substituting for ER scrubs. Trained at the kkkarl rove school of voodoo medicine for the masses, bush played the fatigue card. "I know we're all tired, it's late - we care about you.... just take this pill and it will all be better..."
As Pavlov observed (and Huxley expanded on) suggestibility goes down alot easier when greased with fatigue - even better when illness is a factor. Isn't everyone virtually ill by now from the horror of this tragedy?
The anger (trauma) is passing. We are now in need of comfort. In a city tightly reinforced by the emperor's guard, the patients were visited last night by the kindly, but deadly, dr. bush.

[KoKo]

7. We have to hope that in the coming days his "comfort speech" becomes

another nail in his political coffin of lies. :shrug: Even if the media is falling all over him trying to get those ratings us...I can't believe anyone who heard that staged rhetoric wouldn't think he's just another "actor" and a poor one at that.

[MichiganVote]

4. Another bunch of overpriced millionaires who don't know dick

[mntleo2]

5. LTTE To MSNBC

You people grew a couple FINALLY, so after a 4 year hiatus from American corporate "news" that pretends to be "unbiased" I decided to tune in for a change.

But lookee here, I see Tim Russert taking one sentence from Bush's speech and making it appear as if the devastating and heartless policies the conservatives have imposed on the poor for over 30 years, are all gone and never happened. And David Gregory, I was cheering last week when he actually asked some real questions but now his, "Nothing to see here, move along..." comments are beyond enraging, they show he is too afraid to tell the truth, as you all are. What happened, did he get a spanking from Rove or something?

I am sitting here just realizing I was duped. I have *no* problem with media that says what their agenda is up front, but I am sick and tired of media that pretends something that it is not. You people could no more be real journalists than your "hero" White House correspondent and fellow prostitute, Jeff Guckart. <sigh> Oh well, back to Air America, the Net, and the BBC, at least they try to state the facts and if they have an agenda they SAY it.

Catherine Sullivan
Address and phone number included


Cat In Seattle

[KoKo]

6. Great communication with MSNBC.... Says what many of us are

feeling. We tuned back in...because we thought that the devastation of Katrina would open doors and bring conscienses out that had long been locked away...and for a little bit they tried. Bush snapped his whip and they came back in line.

I might just e-mail them about this also. I'd given up contacting them but seeing the turn and turn back needs some reponse.

thanks...