Reporters being turned away from New Orleans

[oldleftguy]

Anyone care to comment on the first amendment issues?

[skylarmae]

1. what, where, when, by whom, etc......

[eleonora]

2. FEMA Wants No Photos of Dead

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-photos7sep07,1,5455941.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true

[VolcanoJen]

3. The people I'm most interested in hearing from are in the press.

Not much of a fuss is being made... yet.

Then again, it seems the story isn't in New Orleans anymore, it's in Houston, from their perspective, apparently.

Maybe that's why we haven't heard more about this? Although Brian Williams' blog was interesting.

I'm exhausted from being outraged and upset. What First Amendment?

:-(

[I_Make_Mistakes]

4. Didn't want to register, but I believe you. Get it to Ted Koppel he

is doing a really good job on calling the Admin. out on, just about everything. This would not sit well, with an old-timer, real reporter.

[BrightKnight]

5. FEMA needs to focus on doing it's job. -- n/t

[I_Make_Mistakes]

6. Yes BrightNight We wouldn't want to stop FEMA from doing their

stellar performance jobs! <Sarcasm exploding> FEMA? Who's FEMA?

They are defunct right?

[BrightKnight]

15. FEMA was leaving room for the soul saving efforts

It does not matter if a lives are lost as long as a few souls are saved. This is a great fundi base pandering opportunity.

There was nothing wrong with 19th century Church lead relief efforts. Lots of people died but some souls were saved.

---------
Also, it is a great way to eliminate a Democratic strong hold. Simply ethnically cleanse the Democratic voters away. Scattering the survivors to the wind is much more effective than redistricting.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

7. A nit to pick.

This says only that reporters aren't accompanying rescue boats. It says nothing of reporters being kept away from New Orleans entirely. Given the photos we're seeing today, it's quite obvious that there are still reporters coming and going from the city.

[VolcanoJen]

8. From NBC anchor Brian Williams:

They sure aren't allowing any photo-taking, that's for sure.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8045532

An interesting dynamic is taking shape in this city, not altogether positive: after days of rampant lawlessness (making for what I think most would agree was an impossible job for the New Orleans Police Department during those first few crucial days of rising water, pitch-black nights and looting of stores) the city has now reached a near-saturation level of military and law enforcement. In the areas we visited, the red berets of the 82nd Airborne are visible on just about every block. National Guard soldiers are ubiquitous. At one fire scene, I counted law enforcement personnel (who I presume were on hand to guarantee the safety of the firefighters) from four separate jurisdictions, as far away as Connecticut and Illinois. And tempers are getting hot. While we were attempting to take pictures of the National Guard (a unit from Oklahoma) taking up positions outside a Brooks Brothers on the edge of the Quarter, the sergeant ordered us to the other side of the boulevard. The short version is: there won't be any pictures of this particular group of guard soldiers on our newscast tonight. Rules (or I suspect in this case an order on a whim) like those do not HELP the palpable feeling that this area is somehow separate from the United States.

At that same fire scene, a police officer from out of town raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media... obvious members of the media... armed only with notepads. Her actions (apparently because she thought reporters were encroaching on the scene) were over the top and she was told. There are automatic weapons and shotguns everywhere you look. It's a stance that perhaps would have been appropriate during the open lawlessness that has long since ended on most of these streets. Someone else points out on television as I post this: the fact that the National Guard now bars entry (by journalists) to the very places where people last week were barred from LEAVING (The Convention Center and Superdome) is a kind of perverse and perfectly backward postscript to this awful chapter in American history.

[Pepper32]

9. Yep, the journalist are the new insurgents (nt)

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

10. Ok, I've got to stop picking this nit..

...however I'd point out that he was in New Orleans at the time of the incident.

[ladylibertee]

11. I'm not defending anybody but.....

Okay just hear me out and if I'm wrong, enlighten me. As far as the dead goes.I think that they do not want the bodies shown because like,how would you feel, you have a family member that you do not know if they are alive and then you see them half hanging out of a tree, or just their head floating or birds or something eating off it. I would freak the hell out , quite frankly am I alone on this? :yoiks:

[QuettaKid]

12. your alone in this.

THE WORLD NEEDS TO SEE WHAT HAPPENED!!!

[Mairead]

14. I don't think you're alone...but the world does need to have this ground

into their brains.

[Raydawg1234]

16. include a warning

before you show the pictures that the images are graffic, and that some viewers might want to change the chanell. Or at least, thats what the media used to say.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. With a reporter in jail right now,

it would take a brave one to come forward and complain about this.