Wednesday, September 07, 2005
"Has Katrina Saved the US Media?" Not Quite Yet.
An essay in the BBC site asserts that the horror of Katrina's aftermath has shocked the US news media from its sycophancy and inspired them to commit real journalism. Don't schedule the ticker-tape parade for those heroic journalists just yet. They're still abetting the pro-Bush spin. MediaMatters debunks the finger-pointing lie that Mayor Nagin didn't call for mandatory evacuation until Bush had "pleaded" and "insisted". The truth is documented in the joint press conference held by Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco in which the mandatory evacuation was announced. Governor Blanco said:
Just before we walked into this room, President Bush called and told me to share with all of you that he is very concerned about the citizens. He is concerned about the impact that this hurricane would have on our people. And he asked me to please ensure that there would be a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans.Note that the significant detail "Just before we walked into this room" was sliced from the media sound bites, destroying the evidence that the press conference to announce the mandatory evacuation order was scheduled before Bush called Governor Blanco. And apparently he didn't speak to the mayor at all, who was actually ordering the evacuation, so mayor couldn't have been responding to anything Bush said.
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