It’s difficult to know where to start on this subject. The media coverage has been so incredibly biased and so horribly inadequate it would take volumes to chronicle their inaccuracies and unethical reporting.
It’s difficult to throw criticism on the people of New Orleans who have suffered so much generally, but it must be said that the decision of so many able bodied people to stay, to loot, to shoot at rescuers, and then to criticize the very people there to rescue them, rather than assisting in the rescue is a tragedy on the scale of the hurricane itself. Have you ever heard someone being rescued criticize the rescuer before? Ever?
One small insight into the media mess is the conversation I heard on NPR today. Terry Gross was interviewing some NYTimes reporter and they were babbling on about how FEMA and the Bush administration responded so poorly to the crisis and then Terry blew it by going down a path most of the media has avoided. She asked the reporter what FEMA did so incredibly wrong and he replied that they just did not respond quickly because they said they were not asked to respond quickly. So she asked why they wouldn’t be asked and he responded that State and local officials were partly to blame - they thought they could handle it themselves, then they realized that nobody would help them since those who were helping were getting shot at, so then they asked FEMA. Then they went on to a different topic since the reporter had just blown the media party line that FEMA was at fault and explained exactly why FEMA was not to blame, but that the local officials and the people of New Orleans were to blame. Incredible.
What they left out is the point that nobody seems to remember or want to talk about in the media, which is that on Tuesday, the media were all writing stories about how New Orleans had dodged a bullet and avoided disaster. They had survived the hurricane just fine after all. That’s the other reason the response was delayed. Nobody thought there was anything to respond to until later on Tuesday when the levees started giving way. Everyone thought the people at the Superdome would go home soon, not have to be evacuated to Texas! Why are memories so short?
But the real story is the tragedy of government in general. Not just FEMA, but the corrupt, Democrat-controlled government of New Orleans and Louisiana that was so horribly unprepared for the disaster. They failed in every way. They failed to plan for disaster. They failed to follow any plans they did have. They failed to understand the problem with the levees. Then when the flooding started, they even failed in their estimates of the number of deaths that were occuring, further contributing to the media disaster of misinformation. But first and foremost, and for the last 40 years, they have failed to help people understand the responsibilities they have to take care of themselves and their society. Liberalism failed to build a decent society.
It’s interesting to see the press and the Democrats rail on the government’s response, but then call for an increasingly government-focused solution in the future. When at the same time the press is reporting on how much more effective Wal-Mart, a private company, was in responding to the disaster.
So much could be said on this disaster. It hasn’t exposed racism in rescuers. It hasn’t exposed weakness in the Bush administration. It has exposed the increasing bias of the press. And it has exposed the complete failure of the Democrats in New Orleans to serve the people they always promise they will serve if government is given the power and resources to do everything for them. In the end, they did nothing.
james (at) conservativevoice (dot) com