Judge supports CNN request to cover Katrina's toll

[Be Brave]

This news is a few hours old, but the CNN posting is recent.

Saturday, September 10, 2005; Posted: 1:30 a.m. EDT (05:30 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/09/10/katrina.media/index.html

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- At the request of CNN, a federal judge in Texas Friday night blocked emergency officials in New Orleans from preventing the media from covering the recovery of bodies from Hurricane Katrina.

Attorneys for the network argued that the ban was an unconstitutional prior restraint on news gathering.

U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison issued a temporary restraining order against a "zero access" policy announced earlier Friday by Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who is overseeing the federal relief effort in the city, and Terry Ebbert, the city's homeland security director.

A hearing was scheduled for Saturday morning to determine if the order should be made permanent.

[medeak]

1. so why didn't they do this re Iraq?

would have turned the world around

[Be Brave]

2. I suspect they were afraid of being labeled "unpatriotic."

But your guess is as good as mine.

[Dogmudgeon]

12. No jurisdiction

The military is a world all its own, and Bush is its master.

God help them!

--p!

[jus_the_facts]

15. The Pentagon runs the world....*ush is a puppet on it's strings....

....we all are.

[Erika]

3. The Bushbots have declared a miracle in Katrina

Only 7 are dead. They credit Bush & Fema and their planning for this wonderful news per Faux News.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. it was 312 as of this mornign

it is a miracle I tell you, the saviour has come back in multiple forms!

This is the miracle of the fish and the bread loaves but with the son of god this time....

(And my apologies to those who are Christian, but this coudl not be helped)

[uppityperson]

4. Good. Great to see the judge ruling in favor of open news.

[targetpractice]

6. Is Honore in charge of the LA National Guard?

And therefore under Blanco's control?

If not, please enlighten me re: the command and control structure as it stands.

Thanks.

[Erika]

7. The minute the levees broke it came under federal control

for national security. What Blanco did or did not do was irrelevant at that time point.

[Be Brave]

8. From what I understand, Honore is not in charge of the NG.

He is in charge of the federal troops. The NG is under the command of Major Gen Landreneau, the director of the state Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. So Honore is independent of the state. As for the command and control, the state and feds are working side by side, making it up as they go along, communicating their needs to each other.

Somebody correct me if I'm misrepresenting this.

[texpatriot2004]

9. Thanks to this Houston Judge Keith Ellison who issued

a temporary restraining order against a "zero access" policy announced earlier Friday by Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who is overseeing the federal relief effort in the city, and Terry Ebbert, the city's homeland security director.

This is the right thing to do. Protect our Constitutional Rights before they are all gone. Thank you Judge.

[tenshi816]

10. How long before the RW start

yelling about "activist judges" again?

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. when the sun rises

I mean does the sun rises every morning?

[WCGreen]

17. Who could possibly envision such a thing....

[Jawja]

18. Just remind them

of the "activist judge" who just struck down the Constitutional rights of an American citizen (Padilla)

[electropop]

27. Activist judges supporting librul media.

Wouldn't that be great?

[Lochloosa]

13. Radical Liberal Judge...

needs to be impeached! Everyone call Delay..get him on this one right away.

[nookiemonster]

14. Definitely a step in the right direction.

I hope the hearing makes the order permanent.

:)

[teryang]

16. How could the ruling be anything else?

Where does the executive branch get off making patently unconstitutional policies?

Where does the general get off? What about their oath to uphold the constitution?

Interesting how they rationalize their obviously illegal actions with phony solicitude for the feelings for the survivors. Everyone knows this censorship is politically motivated ass covering.

[Guava Jelly]

19. I was watching Anderson cooper yesterday

And a doctor that Was in the dome stated he saw around 50 bodies yet the official death toll in New orleans is under 200.
me thinks something is fishey

[debbierlus]

20. This is good news -

Hopefull, we can get as much media in there as possible. I am sure they still will make it incredibly difficult for the media - but at least they can survey the scene.

[electropop]

28. Maybe the media will finally show the plight of the animals.

As of yesterday, dogs could be heard barking in attics all over town. I hope they can be saved, and that the "authorities" stop blocking the heroes who are trying to rescue them.

[MaineDem]

21. It's not that I want to see pictures of the bodies

But it's important that we know that care is being taken in the recovery.

I want to think that everything will be done properly but...unfortunately, I have my doubts.

[annabanana]

25. text from another DUers post (please getcher credit)

I swiped and sent to all media outlets yesterday:

Any journalism that doesn't include complete depictions of the disaster is not journalism.

We're not interested in gruesome details - this is not about disrespect or morbidness. We're not interested in seeing blackened rotting flesh or faces swollen with insects crawling out of the eye sockets after days of submersion. I know what a corpse looks like up close, and I also know that every one of those corpses used to be a person, and many with families who don't WANT to see Poor Aunt Vera rotting photogenically for the camera.

I want to see long shots that tell the larger tale, and I want to see reality, and I want to see the truth. I don't want this mal-administration revising history as it happens. They don't get to, don't let them.

They "asked". Why should you do anything this adminstration "asks". The only thing they've ever done for you is diminish the profession of journalism.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

26. I don't want to see them either

I didn't look at the pix of the dogs feeding off the corpses in NOLA.
But I was glad that it was documented and that the recovery process of the human remains will be too by our newly awakened press

[anitar1]

49. If they have big semi-trucks hauling the bodies to the

morgue they established in St. Gabriel, are they only putting a few bodies in each huge trailer? I saw film of at least 5 semi's going in there. What is going on here? These trucks have been up and running for 2 or 3 days. edit for spelling

[Arkansas Granny]

81. You're right. It's not about seeing the bodies, but,

if the press is excluded we will never know the truth of the situation. They could (and would) tell us just what they wanted us to know. The press needs to be there to document the truth.

[zanne]

22. Restraining order is only good until today.

the hearing scheduled for this morning will determine whether or not we still have a genuine first amendment.

[Podface]

23. Thank God!

I hope this becomes a big story. The Government trying to control the new coming out of NO is fascist. This is a prime example of what would have happened if the Governor turned over control to the prez and feds.

I doubt many folks in the main stream know that the feds were trying to censor reporters. Show the dead! it's real. People need to know.

[meganmonkey]

24. Hell, yeah

Maybe Katrina really did save the media, or at least some of them.

Good for CNN, Good for judge Ellison, Good for America!

:patriot:

[dweller]

29. U.S. drops banning media from body hunt

Saturday, September 10, 2005; Posted: 11:05 a.m. EDT (15:05 GMT)
HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Rather than fight a lawsuit by CNN, the federal government abandoned its effort Saturday to prevent the media from reporting on the recovery of the dead in New Orleans.

Joint Task Force Katrina "has no plans to bar, impede or prevent news media from their news gathering and reporting activities in connection with the deceased Hurricane Katrina victim recovery efforts," said Col. Christian E. deGraff, representing the task force.

U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison issued a temporary restraining order Friday against a "zero access" policy announced earlier in the day by Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who is overseeing the federal relief effort in the city, and Terry Ebbert, the city's homeland security director.

In explaining the ban, Ebbert said, "we don't think that's proper" to let members of the media view the bodies.


http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/09/10/katrina.media/index.html


dp

[Spazito]

30. Excellent news!

Thanks for posting this! Kudos to CNN for fighting back.

[acmavm]

31. HMMM. Wonder what the next trick up their sleeves will be? You know

that they cannot afford, nor do not want images of bodies on the tv screen or the front page.

We haven't heard the last of this yet.

[blonndee]

32. I wonder if giving in was the only thing they could do to avoid

being seen as even WORSE. After all, banning media is something "those Russhun commies" did and would raise serious questions about what they have to hide, even among many conservatives.

I'm hoping they have no more tricks and this was the only thing they could do. Unless we have another "terror attack," these people are finished.

[acmavm]

39. Unless we have another terror attack. I'm sure that is inevitable. The

WHERE is what I wonder about.

[Amonester]

43. Even if they "enable" another terra attack, they are finished.

They've been lying off for so long about protecting the public ("fight them there so ... --- insert the rest of their BS here ---), and just doing not only nothing, in reality, but doing even worse by cutting all the funds that would have been necessary to secure ALL loopholes, and taking them to pay for an illegal, unnecessary war of aggression based on blatant lies, for their own greedy and corrupt goals.

IMHO, any other terra disaster and they're finished even faster.


Well, we sure hope there won't be any attack to start with... Because, they're on their way down and out anyway, so let's wish they won't go as low as they are capable of...

[Punkingal]

35. Reporters missing or shot by "gangs"?????

Isn't it awful that such a thing could even cross your mind for a minute, but that is Bush's Amerika!

[halobeam]

42. Maybe they already hid what they needed to?? Who knows

I don't trust them for a second. Also, they may very well SAY they will let them, and then just do what they want to do anyway. They'll get flack, but do they care? They could just lie their way out of that.

Disgusting, but very likely.

[Julius Civitatus]

48. That's what I thought: the fix is in...

Maybe they "took care of the problem," like the Harvey Kaitel character in Pulp Fiction, "the cleaner." Or maybe they have found less bodies than originally expected and have less to fear.

Still, I think we are beyond giving this corrupt, ineffectual administration any benefit of the doubt. They would stop at nothing, and there's no low they would not reach. There's no reason why we have to think they would do the right, honest thing. So far they haven't. Not once.

[Dez]

33. That's great!

Good for CNN!! Let them pohotograph the fuck ups of chimpie, and let the whole world see!

[Sydnie]

34. Time to "crank the freak switch up" a notch and demand they

lift the ban on the returning caskets from Iraq too. Time to get back to telling the truth to the people, even if it is painful.



Just a note - the "freak switch" comment is stuck in my head from a tv commercial. It seemed to be fitting for this application.

[Patsy Stone]

50. Hey, Sydnie!

Long time no see! Isn't this a step in the right direction for once?
It seems my copy of the Bill of Rights is still valid. :)

[Sydnie]

75. Hey Patsy!!!!

:hug: I have missed you all so much, but I have had some personal tragedy to deal with in my own life lately. I need to get back to my regular scheduled clubhouse meeting though, don't I?

:loveya:

I am so excited by this news too!! The new media we see evolving now just might be what we need to save this country -- FINALLY.

[MaineDem]

36. As I posted elsewhere, it's not that I want to see the bodies

I do want to see that someone is watching to make sure things are done properly. It's sad when I can't trust my government. I think that's one of the biggest travesties of this administration!

[qanda]

37. ...

I'm surprised that there wasn't more of an outrage about how the dead were treated in this situation. I don't know of any other culture that would stand for dead bodies to be left out in the street for days on end. This entire incident has left a bad taste in my mouth for America and what it stands for.

[kestrel91316]

41. As long as there were real live people needing to be rescued, I

was willing to give them a pass on leaving the bodies there. It's a matter of priorities. The dead can wait.

Aesthetically, it's not a nice thing, but I sure wouldn't want to have troops more concerned about retrieving a dead body than retrieving my sick granny and her old dog, or whatever.

[qanda]

45. In this country, which is rich in resources

Why couldn't we have done both in a more timely fashion. This is almost two weeks later. I'm not saying that the dead should have been given priority over the living, but wouldn't dead bodies being left to rot create a health hazard to the living? Not to mention that it's just not right.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

52. Agree 100%

This is just another aspect of the clusterfuck response from FEMA. They should have been capable of multi-tasking

[kestrel91316]

71. As surprising as it may seem, dead bodies left lying around do NOT

pose a significant health threat to the living, as long as they are not allowed to contaminate clean drinking water, or they didn't die of infectious disease. If they drowned or died of dehydration, it's a crying shame, but not a communicable disease threat.

It is disgusting, however.

[William769]

38. The media spine seems to be growing bigger & bigger.

Good!

[Mnemosyne]

40. They will just start calling them

looters and shoot to kill now. Oops, we made a mistake.

[stepnw1f]

44. Won another Battle

Notice the trend?

[leesa]

46. Now they'll just mistakenly shoot them like they do in Iraq.

"I could've SWORN he had a flat screen teevee on his back"

[melody]

47. maybe now we'll know why they need 50K+ bags for 10K bodies

[54anickel]

76. They're going to split hairs on whether the deaths were related to

Katrina

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09_10.html#078783

Lee reports on deaths in Jefferson

Friday, 10:05 p.m.

Sheriff Harry Lee said Saturday night that the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s office had processed 152 bodies, but only 20 of those were deaths related to Hurricane Katrina. He said the coroner’s office was picking up bodies that are reported lying in the street and handling them to FEMA’s specifications. He also said that body count does not include bodies that may have been taken to the morgue in St. Gabriel.

[Gman]

51. NOLA ain't Gitmo where they can do what they damn well please

There's an annoying thing called the Constitution that they have to deal with whether they want to or not. At least the way it is right now.

[sattahipdeep]

53. DHH puts storm dead at 154 so far

Saturday, 11:10

State officials have confirmed that 154 people died as
a result of Hurricane Katrina, according to an update
provided by the Department of Health and Hospitals on
Saturday.

State and local officials had earlier predicted that
the loss of life would be catastrophic, as high as
10,000 people. But in New Orleans, officials are now
cautiously optimistic that number is a vast
overestimation of the people who perished during the
storm or its aftermath.

There are 90 bodies at the morgue in St. Gabriel,
three at the St. Charles Parish coroner’s office, 25
in the coroner’s office in Jefferson Parish and three
at the Iberia Parish morgue. The other 33 deaths were
attributed to Kenyon Worldwide Management Services,
the company hired by the Federal Emergency Management
Agency to assist in the recovery of the deceased.

Anybody who died as a direct result of Hurricane
Katrina will be counted as a death caused by the
storm. This would include people who drowned in
floodwaters, as well as patients who died when they
could not receive needed medical treatment.

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09_10.html#078651

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/

[Jersey Devil]

54. U.S. drops banning media from body hunt

CNN filed suit for access to search for New Orleans' dead

Saturday, September 10, 2005; Posted: 11:05 a.m. EDT (15:05 GMT)

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Rather than fight a lawsuit by CNN, the federal government abandoned its effort Saturday to prevent the media from reporting on the recovery of the dead in New Orleans.

Joint Task Force Katrina "has no plans to bar, impede or prevent news media from their news gathering and reporting activities in connection with the deceased Hurricane Katrina victim recovery efforts," said Col. Christian E. deGraff, representing the task force.

U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison issued a temporary restraining order Friday against a "zero access" policy announced earlier in the day by Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who is overseeing the federal relief effort in the city, and Terry Ebbert, the city's homeland security director.

In explaining the ban, Ebbert said, "we don't think that's proper" to let members of the media view the bodies.

More - http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/09/10/katrina.media/index.html

[JuniperLea]

55. First smart thing they've done

It's too late to stop the media from showing the truth now anyway. Unless there are new additives to our water supply making us believe we are all suffering mass hallucinations.

[Just Me]

59. They only did it because they knew they'd lose in court.

Trust me on that one. ;)

[JuniperLea]

63. Right

It really was the only thing they could do.

[Jersey Devil]

64. agreed - it was a slam dunk (nt)

.

[Jersey Devil]

62. They had no choice - the law is clear on "prior restraints" on the press

The precedent goes all the way back to the Pentagon Papers.

[VegasWolf]

56. Too bad KKKarl!!!!

:bounce:

[nookiemonster]

60. Ya know the mutha's gonna stroke out over this.

Good going CNN.

Jeez, did I just say that??
:silly:

[calimary]

57. Well, thereya go...

The body bag embargo ends.

GOOD. That's what's kept public outrage to a minimum about Iraq. Out of sight, out of mind. Won't be the case here. EXCELLENT!!!!!!! THANK GOD!!!!!

IMPEACHMENT NOW!!!!!!!!!

[UrbScotty]

58. Bush flip-flops! (nt)

[Jade Fox]

61. Very bad news for Bushco....

The only reason Bush has gotten away with his vanity war in Iraq is that
Americans cannot see what we are forking over billions for.

Visual images are very powerful.

[54anickel]

65. Has there been anymore talk of the "much lower than anticipated

death count"? I remember that coming out shortly after the media ban. I thought for sure they would be hiding bodies in mass graves or fresh concrete being poured by Hellaburnin.

[sattahipdeep]

67. 154 people died

State and local officials had earlier predicted that
the loss of life would be catastrophic, as high as
10,000 people. But in New Orleans, officials are now
cautiously optimistic that number is a vast
overestimation of the people who perished during the
storm or its aftermath.

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09_10.html#078651

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/

[54anickel]

72. I'd like to feel thankful, but I just don't trust them. They have lied

and deceived for so long now, and with this coming on the heels of the media ban...we'll have to wait and see.

[54anickel]

79. Why is this pathologist talking about large volume and thousands?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1771258

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050909/NEWS01/509090338


snip>

DeJong, medical director of forensic pathology at Lansing's Sparrow Hospital, is working with other professionals to identify some of the thousands of people who died during or after the hurricane.

The federal team's effort will last weeks if not months, she said by cell phone Thursday.

"I do this job day in, day out, but seeing this volume ... we have young people who have died here ... children who have died," said DeJong, a veteran of seven disasters. "Seeing this at this volume ... it does affect you."

more...

[sattahipdeep]

80. Storm death toll reaches 197 in Louisiana. (Sunday)

The confirmed death toll from Hurricane Katrina increased to 197
Sunday, state health department officials said late Sunday.

Although body-recovery operations were still under way, the death toll
represents the number of bodies that have been counted where the
deaths were a result of Katrina’s winds, rains or floodwaters, or those
who died as a result of medical equipment that became inoperable
during the hurricane.

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09_11.html#078881

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4740621#4740643

[54anickel]

83. Thanks, there are some interesting links in that DU thread to keep an

eye on. The Wikpedia one looks especially interesting. Hope they keep it maintained.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina#Death_toll_.28summary.29

[nookiemonster]

66. Ebbert said, "we don't think that's proper"

Uh, fuck you Mr. Ebbert. Take your fascist enabling bullshit elsewhere.

Homeland security, my ass.

:mad:

[sattahipdeep]

68. How many people are actually missing?

http://messages.yahoo.com/bbs?action=l&tid=hvkatrint16f0&sid=37138446&mid=1000000

[jarnocan]

69. 50,000 or so but many

may just have left.-there was an ABC article -NBC's Bryan Williams who discussed the media suppression on the Jon Stewart show mentioned bodies being everywhere. To me it was so spokey that you read of 25,000 and then 50,000 more bags being ordered , and of a mortician who is working on this being told they should expect as many as 40,000 victims and then right after you read about the media suppression -you hear the governments "good" news that FAR fewer have died. I wanted to be glad but it is way to soon.
Beside whatever the number it is still horrific and the reality of what occured and why does not change.

[melody]

78. The lower the count, the better of course

But there are 1000 city/county workers missing, 1000 children missing, 300 police and police employees missing, someone mentioned a 1000 Federal employees missing, etc. It has been a week and a half...one would think most would have made some contact by now, or at least an appreciable part of that number would have.

Somebody is cooking the numbers, as usual.

[Bravo411]

70. Just the fact that they've tried to ban the media...

tells you that there is a big problem considering that it is unconstitutional to do so.

Posted by Bravo411
http://bravo411.blogspot.com

[milkyway]

73. The media now needs a judicial ruling to report the truth?

[Tatiana]

dupe. n/t

[Tatiana]

74. It's sad, isn't it?

I thought in America we understood the concept of freedom of the press.

[Tight_rope]

77. Oh Good...Guess Bush can't hide the truth after all!

[verminator]

82. Katrina Satellite Pics.

Can someone start a new thread with this please as i can not as i'm new here.

Katrina Satellite Pics.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/new-orleans-imagery.htm