Katrina Isn't Going Away - For Bush, For Anyone:

[phantom power]

(His Rudeness points out a small candle of reality-based reporting in the darkness)

Last night, on NBC Nightly News with Brian "Behold My Manly Jaw of Objectivity" Williams, a kind of extraordinary thing occurred. Williams ended the broadcast by discussing the mail the program receives about its coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. "While most of the e-mails we get are from folks wanting to thank us for our coverage," Williams said, "an increasing number of them are not." Williams offered examples, like "I'm getting just plain sick and tired of hearing the constant drumbeat about New Orleans" and "Enough. We're sick and tired of THE LONG ROAD BACK." Then, perhaps because it's easy to take a stand against such stupidity, Williams fired back:

"Our Katrina coverage started before Katrina arrived onshore. We were in the Superdome for the storm and then watched what happened in New Orleans during that awful week. We have gone back many times, including this past Monday, and we've gone to Mississippi. We've covered the struggle in Florida and along the Texas coast as we cover any event that causes human suffering. Katrina, though, is different. It displaced two million Americans. It destroyed 350,000 homes. Not all the bodies have been found yet. It exposed cracks in our society. It has us talking about race and class and money and relief. It affected what we pay for gas and what we will pay in taxes. It literally rearranged the map of the Gulf Coast. There are many heroes, but no one villain. Tonight, one of the great American cities is partially in ruins, and many of our fellow citizens are hurting and have nothing left. In some places, nothing's been done yet. And so, while we are reading all the mail, and we enjoy it, we also have a job to do, and we have a big story to cover. And along with the news around the nation and the world each day, we intend to keep covering it."

It ain't the bravest thing that a newscaster has ever done, but it was just damned nice to hear a major media person say that the story ain't goin' away, despite the wishes of viewers. And, of course, despite the wishes of the Bush administration.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2006/01/katrina-isnt-going-away-for-bush-for.html

[baby_mouse]

1. How refreshing.

"After the break, more visible vertebrae from our diplomatic correspondent"

We can dream...

[bluestateguy]

2. Brian Williams has pleasantly surprised me for the last year

I really was skeptical about him when he was taking over for Brokaw, but I found him to be at the least, tolerable, and sometimes he even does a good job. I really don't care what his personal views are anyway, only what he does as a newsman, and I don't see any evidence that he is acting as a White House mouthpiece.

[stillcool]

13. I will never forget his coverage...

after 9/11...in the days that followed he kept asking the question...'Where is the president?'...when they shoved Karen Hughes forward to address the American people he was flabbergasted that they chose such an incompetent spokesperson. Then again, in the pre-shock-and-awe days, reporting from Kuwait he expressed some concern that what he was hearing and seeing were not jiving. Course...that type of reporting is now 'quaint'.

[FloridaPat]

3. Says a lot about the current America. Wonder how many US cities

have to be totaled before these kinds of people care.

[phantom power]

4. I believe we're going to find out. 2005 was the end of the beginning.

[Coastie for Truth]

10. We will soon see

as we enter 2006-

Global Warming means more killer storms (both hurricanes and tornadoes)

Peak Oil - as China and India start buying more oil

Loss of Our Military Dominance (pissed away on wars of choice)

Loss of Economic Dominance

Loss of Scientific, Technical Dominance

Loss of BioScince Dominance (Thank you "Intelligent Designers" and "Anti-Stem Cell" fanatics)

And we are led by "The Great Divider"

[bluestateguy]

14. reply

These were probably the same dolts who sat on the every last word of Nancy Grace and the other cable news bobbleheads yakking on endlessly about Natalie Holloway.

[bloom]

5. It's weird to think that some people

are trying to shut them up.

I wonder if there is a right-wing/freeper campaign. It wouldn't surprise me. They would love to be in denial.

[babylonsister]

6. Rec'd! I think those journalists who actually went to NO and

environs were emotionally impacted by what they saw; hell, I was watching Katrina unfold on the tube and don't plan on 'getting over it'.
This is as it should be; no one should forget. I may just have to go send an e-mail thanking Brian Williams.

[Angry Girl]

7. I saw that and was nicely surprised

I was channel surfing when I blipped in. I had to stop and listen because you could tell he was actually feeling what he said (I don't watch the news, since I think it's just actors reading scripts). So that was nice that somebody stood up for the millions of people affected by Katrina.

[tigereye]

8. good to hear!

I think Williams is ok. Brokaw got on my nerves. Peter Jennings is who I really miss.

[hatrack]

9. NPR had an appalling article on post-Katrina NO a few weeks back

It was all about promises, promises - from the Mayor, from the Governor and from the Feds - that if all the NO residents would return, they'd have the levees all fixed up in time for the next hurricane season.

Bullshit. They don't even know the CONDITION of the levee systems - and remember, we are talking about hundreds and hundreds of miles of structures, tens of thousands of pilings and slabs and footings.

Worst-case scenario - lots of people return to New Orleans, and Katrina II sweeps through. With the Swiss cheese flood control systems now in place, it would be worse than last summer's catastrophe.

[phantom power]

12. Most are indulging in the delusion that 2005 was "unique."

It's hard to blame them, since even guys like Jeff Masters are treating it that way. If 2006 goes down like I think it will, we'll see people really start to "get it." Then things will become very interesting along the Gulf Coast, as folks start to move away, or at the very least cease to arrive. And the insurance companies will truly start to soil themselves.

[Boomer]

16. Masters has really disappointed me this last year

He's really good at describing a particular storm condition, but hasn't made the leap to seeing the whole picture. In fact, he's been a strong promoter of the dodgy researchers who try to deny any impact of climate change on the hurricane season of 2005. That's plain lunacy. The BEST we can claim is that we don't know the full extent of the impact, but increasing evidence is showing that there is indeed a correlation, even if we haven't deciphered all the dynamics at work.

[hatrack]

17. How you can have no fewer than 3 Tropical Storms in six weeks . . .

Going from TS to Category 5 in less than 36 hours (less than 24 hours for Katrina & Wilma), one of which was the strongest Western Hemisphere storm ever recorded, and blithely ignore the role of record high water temperatures in those events, and the probable reasons for record high water temperatures is simply beyond my understanding.

I'm not arguing climate increasing storm frequency - still waiting for something definitive on that - but you can't ignore the roles of water temps in storm strengths, and the spate of water temp records of late suggest very, VERY strongly that something bigger than seasonal variation is at work here.

[Kurovski]

11. K&R

Many thanks to The Rude Pundit and phantom power.

And thank you Mr. Brian Williams.

[applegrove]

15. Good for NBC. And I think the news shows & journalists should

be able to know the names of the people emailing them. So they can get through the "paper" coming in and distinguish real Americans from political machines.

Let us just watch and see if Brian Williams becomes a target of the noise machine.