More on the New Orleans Disaster: The Media Responds

9/4/05 - Links fixed

If you haven't seen it, here's the link to the Kanye West rant against Bush on NBC's Hurricane Telethon:
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Here's the text:
"I hate the way they portray us in the media.

"If you see a black family it says they are looting if you see a white family it says they are looking for food.

"And you know that it’s been 5 days because most of the people are black and even for me to complain … I would be a hypocrite because I would turn away from the TV because it’s too hard to watch. I’ve even been shopping before giving a donation and so right now I’m calling my business manager what is the biggest amount I can give.

"And just to imagine if I was down there, those are my people down there. So anybody out there who wants to help with the set up, the way that America is set up to help … The poor, the black people, the less well off as slow as possible. I mean, Red Cross is doing everything they can.
"We already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war now fighting another way and they’ve given them permission to go down and shoot us."

(Mike Meyers tries to get back on prompter, reads from script and then camera cuts back to Kanye. He pauses before
Kanye West: "George Bush doesn’t care about black people."
Then camera abruptly switches to Chris Tucker.

For the record, I disagree. I do think Bush cares about Black people. I just think he doesn't understand how best to care for Black people.

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CNN's Anderson Cooper (former host of "The Mole", came to Brown last semester) also seems fed up with the situation and went off on Sen. Landrieu (D-LA).
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Part of the transcript:
LANDRIEU: Anderson, tonight, I don’t know if you’ve heard — maybe you all have announced it — but Congress is going to an unprecedented session to pass a $10 billion supplemental bill tonight to keep FEMA and the Red Cross up and operating.

COOPER: … I haven’t heard that, because, for the last four days, I’ve been seeing dead bodies in the streets here in Mississippi. And to listen to politicians thanking each other and complimenting each other, you know, I got to tell you, there are a lot of people here who are very upset, and very angry, and very frustrated. And when they hear politicians slap — you know, thanking one another, it just, you know, it kind of cuts them the wrong way right now. Because literally there was a body on the streets of this town yesterday being eaten by rats, because this woman had been laying in the street for 48 hours. And there’s not enough facilities to take her up. Do you get the anger that is out here?

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Believe it or not, some of the most moving journalism has come from Fox News and Geraldo Rivera. Warning: some of this stuff is hard to watch.
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For more clips of this craziness, go to crooksandliars.com (one of the largest liberal video blogs). Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) may have said it best:

"To the President of the United States, I simply say that God cannot be pleased with our response." Cummings also said: "We cannot allow it to be said that the difference between those who lived and those who died in this great storm and flood of 2005 was nothing more than poverty, age or skin color." I have no more words.