09/07/2005
The Cover-Up Begins
The Bush administration's censorship of media coverage of the recovery of the dead from the flood-ravaged city of New Orleans has begun in earnest.
Like the flag-draped coffins returning from Iraq, they're the casualties the Bush administration does not want the American public to see.
Why? Because they know their lax attitude in responding to this disaster likely contributed to hundreds if not thousands of unnecessary deaths. While Bush played the guitar, Condi shopped for shoes, and Cheney went house-hunting for a million dollar mansion, the floodwaters rose and the Federal Emergency Management Agency sat on its hands.
Now, in addition to the media being banned from photographing the dead recovered from the floodwaters, new reports are coming in that all media are being banned from Jefferson Parish:
"At the National Guard checkpoint, they are under orders to turn away all media. All of the reporters are turning they're TV trucks around. Things are so bad, Bush is now censoring all reporting from NOLA. The First Amendment sank with the city."
Will the mainstream media let it slide again?
Pelosi on Bush: "Oblivious, in denial, dangerous."
Posted 5:01 PM EST by Andy Towle in Current Affairs | Permalink
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I am truly beginning to think you thrive on being uninformed.
Posted by: Robert | Sep 7, 2005 5:29:39 PM
This was actually one of the subjects of my new blog. The disrespect is not to show the dead, it is to hide them...
Posted by: NoComment | Sep 7, 2005 5:35:17 PM
I think it's pretty obvious to most people that Bush is the one that thrives on being uninformed.
Posted by: charlie | Sep 7, 2005 5:40:56 PM
I'm so glad I call myself Rob right now.
Anyway, everywhere I go for the past week I'm hearing outrage. When I brought up the new "censorship" the outrage was replaced with seething hatred. People feel betrayed and deeply sympathetic for those who have suffered Katrina's wrath and the Government's slow/barely-there response.
I can't wait til Bush is gone. And I mean GONE.
Posted by: Rob | Sep 7, 2005 5:50:03 PM
This censorship is outrageous. In America????
Some enterprising reporters better sneak in and show America the truth about this disaster.
Posted by: Dan | Sep 7, 2005 5:55:51 PM
I am astounded - first the Administration was going to investigate itself as to why it was criminally negligent in its response to the disaster (and please don't tell me how poorly the local gov't did - no doubt, but it doesn't excuse the Fed's actions).
Now it wants to shut out the media in it's entirety - originally the media was barred from going on recovery missions aboard FEMA boats - which seemed logical to me. But to not allow journalists into the affected area of Jefferson Parrish is over-reaching.
If the report of barred journalists is true, I am sickened. He and his handlers have screwed up ethics and priorities. They should pay more attention to helping those affected and less attention to their image.
Do I want to play a blame game here - you better believe it! An investigation will be tantamount to a trial for all the thousands dead - We were able to fund a multi year investigation into Bill C's penchant for hummers, I think we can independantly investigate what went so drastically wrong here. Heck, maybe we can come up with some ways to insure it doesn't happen again.
Posted by: Dan1 | Sep 7, 2005 5:56:32 PM
The only thing we can count on this administration to do is to Cover Their Own Asses. Of course there will be a cover up - it has already started. Unfortunately, most Americans will simply accept it at face value. The truth makes them uncomfortable.
Americans don't want to believe that their own government would fail them.
Posted by: Stephen | Sep 7, 2005 5:56:58 PM
It ain't working Andy:
A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of 609 adults taken September 5-6 shows:
Blame Game -- 13% said George W. Bush is "most responsible for the problems in New Orleans after the hurricane"; 18% said "federal agencies"; 25% said "state and local officials"; 38% said "no one is to blame"; 6% had no opinion. -- 29% said that "top officials in the federal agencies responsible for handling emergencies should be fired"; 63% said they should not; 8% had no opinion.
MORE
Government Performance -- 10% said George W. Bush has done a "great" job in "responding to the hurricane and subsequent flooding"; 25% said "good"; 21% said "neither good nor bad"; 18% said "bad"; 24% said "terrible"; 2% had no opinion. -- 8% said federal government agencies responsible for handling emergencies have done a "great" job in "responding to the hurricane and subsequent flooding"; 27% said "good"; 20% said "neither good nor bad"; 20% said "bad"; 22% said "terrible"; 3% had no opinion. -- 7% said state and local officials in Louisiana have done a "great" job in "responding to the hurricane and subsequent flooding"; 30% said "good"; 23% said "neither good nor bad"; 20% said "bad"; 15% said "terrible"; 5% had no opinion.
Posted by: Mitch | Sep 7, 2005 6:01:56 PM
Andy is into uniforms? I never knew that.
Perhaps it's just the last surviving cell of naivete in my body but I want to believe that this belated attempt at self-serving censorship is going to hugely backfire and bring even more scrutiny and condemnation down on the head of El Smirko. The press has been having an orgy with this story, and, mixed in with those covering it with sincerity are those who imagine it will move them up to the big time as surely as Hurricane Carla hurled Dan Rather to CBS HQ in 1961. They may have trick-fucked "embedded reporters" in the initial invasion of Iraq, but neither that nor "pool reporting" is going to be tolerated here. So they aren't allowed in in their vans. They all have helicopters. What are the Bush Brown Shirts going to do--shoot them down?
Posted by: Leland | Sep 7, 2005 6:13:19 PM
You guys should really be angry at Nagin, Blanco and Landrieu. As Democrats they should have been obsessed with protecting the same voters they use those now water logged buses to get to the voting booth. The quick thinking Bush must have called his buddy Rick Perry and told him to take as many of the refugees into the solidly red Texas. The purple Louisiana has now been de-Democratized, either by drowning or busing. When you hear those three screaming on camera they're doing so because they know they're fighting for their political lives.
Posted by: Mitch | Sep 7, 2005 6:24:50 PM
"Americans don't want to believe that their own government would fail them"
Why is it so hard to believe that we don't want think our government has failed us - of course no on wants to think that. No matter who is in charge, we never want to feel like our government has failed. I'm not saying that it doesn't or hasn't - because we all know that it has. The problem is that liberals always think it is failing when conservatives are in power, and conservatives do the same of liberals. Always looking for something to complain about. Sure censorship is bad - not in favor of it no matter who is talking, but did you ever stop to think that everytime a journalist goes into an area that has been evacuated, our soldiers may have to go in and save them, placing other people in harms when, when they didn't need to be there in the first place.
Posted by: Mike | Sep 7, 2005 6:28:21 PM
My belief is that the local governments which you speak of Mitch are as much as fault as the Feds for certain aspects of unpreparedness. Unfortunately, the Feds were caught in a blatant, ugly display of disregard which continued for days - a negligence for which someone must be held accountable.
Posted by: andy | Sep 7, 2005 6:40:40 PM
Blatant and ugly. Are you saying you think it was racist?
Posted by: Mitch | Sep 7, 2005 7:05:05 PM
Your ability to blame President Bush for everything and completely ignore the responsbility of the Democratic Mayor and Governor is impressive.
Your further ability to ignore the common sense of not allowing photographers on FEMA boats so they can use as much space as possible to remove as many bodies as quickly as possible, (their mission), is even more impressive. I also have no doubt that if FEMA had allowed photographers along, you would have railed against President Bush for wasting valuable FEMA boat space and "sacrificing the dignity of the dead" for the political purpose of showing the responsiveness of the Federal government (as opposed to the locals).
Really, based on your continuing illogical rants, one must wonder if you have access to any reliable info. Maybe a subscription to the WSJ would help. :-)
Posted by: Ron | Sep 7, 2005 7:20:35 PM
One this is for sure...FEMA is fucked up.
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3004197
A sexual harassment class before they go in? I wonder whose bright idea was that?
Posted by: Mitch Cardwell | Sep 7, 2005 7:28:24 PM
Actually, if FEMA's goal is to remove as many bodies as quickly as possible then why did FEMA director Michael Brown wait until five hours after Katrina made landfall before summoning 1,000 Homeland Security employees to the Gulf Coast and then allowed the workers two days to arrive? That's a fact that's been widely reported in mainstream media.
And I said in a comment above that I place as much blame on the local governments and mayor. Maybe you should be the one doing the research Ron.
And no, Mitch, my comments above were not meant to be interpreted as saying the Feds' actions were racist.
Posted by: andy | Sep 7, 2005 7:33:06 PM
Andy: Google the words "Clinton," "Dover" and "coffins" to learn when the practice of prohibiting cameras from showing the return of fallen soldiers actually began.
It flummoxes me that in the midst of such tragedy, the left continues its spin game to make Bush look as bad as possible, especially when the TRUTH is bad enough.
Posted by: The Malcontent | Sep 7, 2005 7:46:29 PM
Attention Bush Butt Monkeys: it's not anyone's "spin"--Generalisimo Smirk was finally caught with one finger in his nose and the other up his ass. Others' failures are what they are--their failures. But, with the greatest power comes the greatest responsibility and, with all the warning in the weather world, Bush was still where he's always been when it comes to the well-being of anyone not in his circle--on vacation. Or is it only Democratic Presidents who have the courage to confess "The buck stops here."?
Posted by: Leland | Sep 7, 2005 7:57:06 PM
Malcontent:
Follow this link:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB136/1991policy.pdf
You'll see it was actually then-Secretary of Defence Cheney who instituted the policy forbidding the photography of soldiers' coffins in 1991, during the reign of chimpie's dad.
Ron:
Why would anyone pay for a WSJ subscription when they can get pro-Bush propaganda for free on Fox News ?
Posted by: Chris in SF | Sep 7, 2005 8:08:23 PM
And it befuddles me that in the midst of such tragedy, the right still continues its spin game to make Bush look as good as possible, especially when the TRUTH speaks for itself.
Posted by: noir | Sep 7, 2005 8:08:30 PM
"Or is it only Democratic Presidents who have the courage to confess "The buck stops here."?"
You must be joking? That is the best one I have read yet. Let me know when you find a Democratic President who confesses to anything, other then wanting to take "the buck" in taxes.
Posted by: Mike | Sep 7, 2005 8:09:49 PM
The blame, it seems to me, can be spread pretty evenly. Check out this great assessment of what went wrong:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4216508.stm
Posted by: Mitch Cardwell | Sep 7, 2005 8:31:12 PM
"But, with the greatest power comes the greatest responsibility..."
You were clearly asleep in civics class Leland.
The feds are responsible for some things, state governments and local municipalities for others. The responsibility for calling an evacuation falls squarely on the governor and the executing it falls on the city. They both failed. The feds are responsible for the mess that occurred afterward, but if those thousands of people had been bussed out, instead of bussed to unprepared facilities, much of this wouldn't have happened.
Posted by: Mitch Cardwell | Sep 7, 2005 8:38:53 PM
Mitch Cardwell, it doesn't matter what anyone says - the liberals are going to blame everything on the President no matter what. Even when one of the most respected news agencies in the World, the BBC reports that it was basically a failure on all levels, and even points out that the President tried to intervene sooner - it doesn't matter - the Liberals have one thing on their minds - BLAME BUSH.
Posted by: Mike | Sep 7, 2005 8:55:37 PM
Kids, Bush is such a colossal failure on so many fronts this incident is but another one of them. Sure, blame can be spread, but Bush dropped the biggest ball, again. The death count on his watch is heinous. His bravado adds insult to injury-- the man is incapable of admitting mistake, of which there are many, and plays cover-up and spin at every turn. He's a myopic elitist, at best, and highly ineffective at worst.
Posted by: Honkybitch | Sep 7, 2005 9:12:41 PM