Total deaths from Rita so far: 1 ; Deaths from Katrina: 1000+ - I dunno?

[Mr_Spock]

One person was reported killed by a tornado spawned by Rita in Mississippi. 25 people were killed in the Rita evacuation.

Does it make sense that the Rita coverage is out-of-proportion to what happened with Katrina? New Orleans, 47th largest city in the country was DESTROYED by Katrina. It's as if a nuclear bomb was detonated there. Apparently we're in BIG TROUBLE if any terrorists do the same because this government only cares about the businesses and oil. We still haven't found all the people killed by Katrina. The only story I could find regarding the rising death toll from Katrina was in the Taipei Times from Friday saying that the death toll will rise far above 1000. Katrina hit a month ago and we still don't know how many dead there are. At least we have our priorities straight in this country :eyes:

[peacetalksforall]

1. How many lost children from Rita? From Katarina - 4,000?

How fast and efficient did FEMA work Rita? How fast and efficient did they work Katrina?

Katrina appears to be a purposeful massacre or an inexcusable massacre.

[RC]

3. Those poor blacks were sitting on the rich gamblers land, such as

the Iraqi's were sitting on our oil.

[valerief]

2. How many brain-dead fetuses were lost in each disaster?

Because that's all that really counts.

[nonconformist]

4. Many of our dead are still rotting, unrecovered

What civilized country leaves it's dead rotting for a MONTH??

[DanCa]

5. The rich neighbor was saved the poor neighborhood was left on it own

Somethings definetly up . I dont know what though.

[KharmaTrain]

6. The Last Story Is Always Covered On The Next One

Kinda like the chestnut that most major powers fight the next war to overcome the mistakes of the last one.

A couple days ago, all tracks were showing Rita as being at least a Cat 4 aimed dead-on at Houston. Considering how lightly networks had taken Hurricane coverage, Katrina bit them in the butt. They didn't realize people just don't get blown around in these things...but they can die. Plus, Katrina was a drama all to itself that most of us, and most specifically, the corporate media still hasn't sorted out yet.

Katrina was the most powerful storm I can recall in my nearly 50 years...and hit dead-on to a highly populated area. Then the surges, like the Tsunamis, devestated the entire Gulf Coast and sent the massive water that led to the levee problems in New Orleans. Not that Rita could reproduce that, but who knew.

Also cable new coverage ratings surged during the past 3 weeks. Faux was hauling in over 4 million...almost 5 last week...CNN also saw a tremendous increase. When all those eyes are coming your way, give 'em what they want and lots of it.

Rita, fortunately hit in a relatively low populated area...at low tide and didn't have the storm surge that Katrina did. But who knew? I was watching TV coverage from Lake Charles Friday night and those people were experiencing 120 MPH winds...it wasn't until morning that we saw this storm hadn't torn things up in anywhere near the manner of Katrina. But again, who knew?

Lastly, what's a death toll matter? If there's one negelgent death, that's one too many. The tragedy of New Orleans isn't the number of victims...it's that they were victims in the first place and who was responsible for putting them in such peril. Only an independent investigation will dig at some of those answers.

Peace...

[Mr_Spock]

7. "what's a death toll matter"

So they should keep reporting on Rita and not turn back to the real tragedy - that many people died during Katrina due to negligence. Is one death due to negligence indeed equal to 1000's of deaths due to negligence. I feel like you are apologizing for the media. Why?

[KharmaTrain]

9. Appologing?

Rita is a story that's still in process. We don't know if there are people trapped...areas are still being reached for the first time. No matter...the major populated areas in that area didn't suffer nearly any the damage of NOLA. However, we'll have a better picture in another 24 hours.

If all continues to "go well" (if such a thing occurs in such a disaster), Rita will fade from the headlines and the aftermath of Katrina will return. There's still too much damage that remains for anyone to ignore it. However, even the Katrina story has moved from into a "recovery mode"...there still hasn't been a complete assesment of what went wrong, but the demand is there and it won't go away.

I didn't see the corporate media turning its back on the people who died...and does showing a number put some sort of importance on it? I was disgusted when I saw posts on here and other sites where people were upset the reported death tolls either weren't high enough or they weren't matching the 10,000 plus estimates that came in the immediate aftermath.

I'm not appologing, I'm attempting to explain...with some background in both life and the media...the question that was asked as to why right now Rita is getting so much coverage over that of Katrina. My explanation isn't to cover their asses, but what one sees...they will over-react to the next story to "do good" on what they missed on the last one. Also, that with such high viewer levels, these networks are gonna go with what they think those people are tuning in for. No appologies here...just the way it is.

Peace...

[Mr_Spock]

13. "I didn't see the corporate media turning its back on the people who died"

OK, I wish I had as much faith in the corporate media as you do. It's unusual to see anyone defending the corporate owned media - sorry if I see a little shocked. Katrina was a bigger disaster in many aspects than 9/11. I just think that many people will be "hurricaned out" and the media will lose focus of the biggest natural & man made disaster in our history. Do you see my point?

[KharmaTrain]

15. You're Mixing All Kinds Of Stories...

Defending? Sounds like you are so jaded no matter what you would see it would be biased or insufficient. In some ways, I'm the same...thus I search for news and information in many different places...I have no faith in one source, but through getting information from many I get a far broader perspective of things than it appears you do.

You're confusing the concept of investigative reporting for reporting news as an event. It's like blurring opinion and reporting of an event...which many people do these days. The corporate media isn't a watchdog...they do so when they see a motive or a profit or a good story, but they are under no obligation to play advocate.

Katrina is a different disaster than 9/11. It's impact on people also are far different. I don't see how you can link the two together. Yes, both involve government neglegence. But show me a major event that hasn't?

Katria's neglegence has and will be investigated. But it won't be the corporate media that will lead this charge...and best they don't. My distrust of them is that I don't want them to get involved in the story since they'll try to spin it for their corporate parent's advantage.

Instead, this will be played out in courtrooms. Surely there are lawyers already preparing wrongful death suits, land claims, contract disputes and plenty of fodder that will allow investigative journalists and others to pry into the specific neglegence that went on.

The best way to get the answer you're asking...and so am I...is from an Independent commission...similar to the 9/11 one...with some real subpoena power and the ability to pass along advisories for further legal action (something the 9/11 commission didn't have). Now is that your point? If not please explain.

[onenote]

8. thanks

Not everything, including the weather, is a conspiracy. Shit happened during Katrina that shouldn't have happened. Fortunately, because of (1) a more organized effort to prepare and (b) dumb luck as to the storm's path and strength, the number of fatalities appears to be substantially less than Katrina. This isn't a bad thing. It didn't matter where Rita was planning on hitting...the preparations were going to be improved. And even Rita exposed that there are serious problems with evacuating a metropolitan area, even with several days advance notice.

onenote

[Mr_Spock]

11. So if I turn on MSNBC will I still see Rita coverage or ?

I'm not tallking about the lead up to the storm - that was appropriate. The long term devastation from Katrina is and will be felt for years. It was a colossal blunder. That's where I think our eyes should be focused now that Rita turned out to not be so bad.

[onenote]

14. sure, until the story is fully told

They are still assessing areas for damage. Its going to be the story. And,while I don't condone it, the fact is that even without Rita, the coverage of Katrina was going to diminish...its the nature of "news" coverage...they look for the latest thing.

onenote

[UTUSN]

10. The Elderly People on the Bus Don't Count? n/t

[Mr_Spock]

12. Read my post.

I accounted for them - that almost underscores my point. More people were likely killed due to the evacuation than the storm itself.

[Catrina]

17. I guess not, since the rightwing

media is not counting them. Only one death so far? 24, elderly, sick US citizens do not count in Bush's America.

And best not to remind people either, because we are in the 'rehabilitate George' phase of these disasters now and the media is back on track after a brief moment of conscience as they watched their government ignore their fellow citizens dying of criminal neglect!!

We need our own media, one that will not respond to calls from a future Karl Rove ~ as it was evident Tim Russert has this morning. There are still bodies of US citizens rotting in NOLA and probably Mississippi, and not one body has been released to families for burial, I heard this week.

Also, I noticed, CNN has taken away the 'missing children' split screen since Karl got back on the job. Did they find them all? I know that at least one baby was crushed in the Superdome and another stillborn on one night alone. We also know that two at least died in front of reporters, for want of a drink of water. How many more? Can they really hide all this because they were poor, and because it makes our guitar playing president look bad? I think so, sadly!!

[Igel]

16. Strictly speaking , we don't know how many dead there are

from Rita. Probably by now they have a good idea, but some areas were still inaccessible last night when I last heard the news.

One problem is the positioning of the critical mass of reporters: all the reporting was from Galveston, and some from Beaumont, that I heard. The hurricane shifted, leaving the 4th largest city looking fairly pretty: some damage, but fairly trivial in the grand scheme of things.

NOLA wasn't destroyed. Enough is still standing. When 80% was under water, that included inundations of 25 feet as well as 3 inches. Much of the city is trashed, to be sure; much isn't.

Rita and Katrina both produced the same problem: fast evacuations. In coastal TX, they knocked on the doors of those known to need home care, as well as nursing homes: all of them, they claimed. This took time and organization. Neither Port Charles nor NOLA were under mandatory evacuation orders until relatively soon before landfall. But where Rita hit had much lower population density, allowing for a better, faster evacuation. Moreover, low population density areas have few people without cars. In this day and age, carlessness is mostly an urban state.

But Katrina also ensured that people would leave. What do you think the death toll would be from Katrina if 95% of the people had left the flood-prone areas?

MSM will mostly combine the two events, except as far as the post-hurricane evacuees are concerned--but then again, the pre-landfall Katrina refugees are almost entirely ignored anyway, and many of them constitute a larger long-term problem. Progressive news sources will ignore, largely, Rita. Expect coverage to shift: NOLA is sexier.