TV getting tough on authorities

[question everything]

Monday, September 5, 2005

TV getting tough on authorities

Usually deferential media relentless in demanding details about response to refugee suffering.

The New York Times

When even Fox News will not give Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld more than half the screen for his first appearance in the Hurricane Katrina disaster zone, it is clear that television is having a major mood swing.

The last time reporters and anchors were so personally and passionately involved in a story was early in the Iraq war, when journalists who accompanied troops into battle for weeks at a time became bullish supporters of the soldiers and their mission. Hurricane Katrina has had a similar, but opposite effect: After spending time with the storm refugees in the Superdome and the Convention Center in New Orleans, normally poised, placid TV reporters now openly deplore the government's failure to help the victims adequately.

And their outrage, illustrated with hauntingly edited montages of weeping mothers, sickly children and bodies rotting on the street, traveled up the news division chain of command, from camera operators to anchors and across the spectrum from CNN to Fox.

(snip)

Even the announcement that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist had died did not divert television cameras from the destruction - or the government bungling. (MSNBC has an on-screen countdown of the time elapsed since Katrina hit - "6 days/5 hours" - that is reminiscent of the "Day 110" coverage of the hostage crisis during the 1979 Iranian revolution.)

(snip)

The switch mirrors public outrage, both at home and abroad, but it is buoyed by a rare sense of righteous indignation by a news media that is usually on the defensive. Viewers could see for themselves that as late as Thursday, television news crews could travel freely back and forth from the Convention Center, but water trucks, ambulances and officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency could not. Some reporters found themselves having to help stranded hurricane victims because no police officers or rescue workers were around.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/09/05/sections/news/news/article_662702.php

[babylonsister]

1. Amen! Regardless of their political persuasions, they

are Americans and, like us, can't believe what their gov't has NOT done to help its citizens.

[skooooo]

3. Umm....does this mean

The shit has finally hit the fan??

[durablend]

4. The media saw too much...

As opposed to Iraq where the government swept a lot under the rug out of media sight, in this case you have reporter after reporter on the ground seeing things with their own eyes (as opposed to their seeing things from a "teevee" screen where things don't hit so personal).

Maybe also this is why the locals don't want to relinquish control to the feds--they KNOW stuff will be swept under the rug if nobody's watching

[Be Brave]

2. Spin for your life, Rove! Faster, faster! n/t

[MichiganVote]

5. How to improve the country? Dump the political pundits!!!!

Limbaugh
Hannity
O'Reilly
Cokie Roberts
Scarborough


Thay all need to go!

[hwmnbn]

10. To Iraq!!!! Now!...........eom

[MichiganVote]

11. Works for me

[Mira]

6. We need to write and thank them. It's like an Awakening.

I know the links to the email addresses are somewhere, but could they be posted again, please?
I have sent many already, but need a list.

[babylonsister]

8. Here you go, Mira:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=109&topic_id=17759

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. You reporters here in the U.S. what you see here is a FRACTION

of what you have missed in Iraq. A mere fraction. Think on that awhile.

[90-percent]

9. Iraq Reporting

I wouldn't want to be a reporter over there.

The US Armed Forces consider journalists "fair game", as 62 have been killed so far.

That's more than the ENTIRE VIETNAM WAR, which dragged on for 10 years!

Wonder when they'll start firing on journalists in New Orleans?

-85%