'Katrinagate' fury spreads

[sabra]

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Hurricane_Katrina/0,,2-10-1942_1766111,00.html

'Katrinagate' fury spreads

Washington - "For God's sake, are you blind?," a woman shouts at the head of the federal emergency management agency (FEMA), Michael Brown.

"You're patting each other on the back, while people here are dying."

The woman is not a victim of Hurricane Katrina. She is a reporter with US television network MSNBC who is so affected by the misery she has witnessed she can hold back no longer.

"Katrinagate" is the term being used by the media to describe the biggest challenge facing the political establishment in the US since the Watergate affair in the 1970s toppled Richard Nixon.

Not for decades has there been such merciless questioning of the president and his administration by the US media.

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. Perhaps the media now realize that they are US citizens as well,

thus open to the same uncaring hypocrisy as those unfortunates that they report on each night. Knocks them down a few notches, doesn't it...

[leveymg]

20. No, they're part of the same "political establishment" that America is

beginning to call into question. This whole thing brings up the question: wouldn't we be better off without governing and media elites?

[July]

2. ??????? "Not for decades . . .

. . . has there been such a merciless questioning of the president and his administration by the US media."

Where was this writer during the Clinton years?

[librechik]

23. remember, we are NEVER to mention Clenisgate

otherwise our credibility would come into question.

I'm waiting for the press to ask Bush what colors the freckles are i=on his penis. Then it would get up to the level of what they did to the last elected president.

[Richard Steele]

3. About damn time. Too bad it took THIS to make it happen.

"are you blind" is a question that should have been
asked at almost every press conference for the last 5 years.

Perhaps "reality-based" news is gonna get back on it's feet.
We can only hope.

[malta blue]

4. any idea who the reporter was? n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Finally!

------------------------------------------------------
Save the Gulf:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=106&topic_id=22507&mesg_id=22507

Then save the nation!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm

[SammyWinstonJack]

6. "Stop the press conferences and send someone to save us"

:cry:

[malaise]

7. More rage from TomPaine

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050906/when_the_saints_dont_go_marching_in.php
snip
You want moral values? This government doesn't have them. That lack is visible in the fetid Third-World swamp we've all been watching in horror. What we're watching is not the consequence of a corrupt government or even an incompetent government. It is the consequence of an immoral government.

Morals, in case Bush et al. have forgotten, grow from the central commandment to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Caring for others in extreme distress is the most basic tenet of morality. Doing so requires a decision to act. Our federal government decided instead to abandon those in need.

Yes, decided. Bush’s government decided—in advance—not to protect an American city from an inevitable disaster, despite years of warnings from tediously fact-based sources. Our government decided—in advance—to cut the funding that the New Orleans Corps of Engineers had requested to forestall precisely this flood.

[Doctor_J]

10. I love Tom

they're a little too gun-happy for me, but besides that they REALLY pull no punches when frankness is called for.

[Tennessee Gal]

12. WOW! WOW!

That's a good one!

[Doctor_J]

8. I bet it wasn't Whorah O'Donnell

She's been on her knees since this whole thing started. I can't wait for her hard-hitting report on why Smirk's golf game last week was the right response to this tragedy.

[RagingInMiami]

9. It's refreshing to see the media hasn't lost their flair for originality

Aren't the "gates" getting a little tiresome?

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. There was some psychic

that supposedly predicted that a woman would create a scandal that would bring down Bush. I think we now know her name is Katrina.

[AspenRose]

13. Between "Katrina" and "Cindy"

let's hope either/both bring him down.

[politicaholic]

14. "gate" just shows how completely unimaginative the media really is...

Gawd! I wish someone today in the United States professional media would have an original thought in their heads. The only time they have a breaking headline it's stolen from a foreign source or a blog.

I support their efforts, but they cheapen the efforts by not calling it what it is...The Katrina Scandal.

[Hamlette]

19. no, gate is good, it reminds us of the horrors of excess

[Lorien]

15. From Wells mouth to God's ear, I hope:

"Never before, say some observers, have US reporters been so emotionally involved in a story to the point of being enraged.

They are not just telling a story, they have become part of it.

"Has Katrina saved the US media,?" asked BBC reporter Matt Wells who sees the shift in tone as a potentially historic development.

A number of US journalists who cover federal politics, especially television presenters, had become part of the political establishment, says Wells.

"They live in the same suburbs, go to the same parties. Their television companies are owned by large conglomerates who contribute to election campaigns."

It's a "perfect recipe" for fearful, self-censoring reportage, he says, but thinks "since last week, that's all over".

(snip)

[madokie]

16. Its about damn time, considering their help in getting us here. n/t

[RevCheesehead]

17. wouldn't "Floodgate" be more appropriate?

[malaise]

18. Well the floodgates have been opened

and the neo-con ideology will be drowned in the cesspool they created.

[DS1]

21. Of for fucking hell's sake, who's the asshole who called it a gate

[goclark]

22. KATEGATE is easier to say and we know exactly

who is responsible!
BUSH GOTTA GO!