Were they really dying?? It will be interesting to find out how many actually died in the Convention Center. There are bound to be a few deaths. Many of those seeking shelter were old and infirm. Video images show many who were not in good health. Overweight, out of breath, and many without medicine for diabetes or heart conditions. How many of them died because of the "horror" in the Convention Center?
“People inside were literally dying,” ABC News correspondent Chris Bury told The Observer over the phone.
He was talking about the New Orleans Convention Center, where he spent the day on Friday, Sept. 2, and from which he filed an impassioned report on the evacuees from the sinking city who had sought refuge there and found horror.
In such situations it is easy to become emotional and overreact. We saw that, deplorably, in reports by SHEPARD SMITH and GERALDO RIVERA (most famously as Rivera spoke with the Superintendent of Police, both shouting about how these people were gonna blow and there would be a riot!!!! They virtually screamed this at each other, performing for the camera. This, while those people seeking security and calm behind them were probably even more terrified.) Then there was STEVE HARRIGAN (again FOX news) who ranted because New Orleans firefighters who were without water pressure were not fighting a fire in an empty building where no lives were at risk. I suppose it would have been better video if they had uselessly thrown themselves into the fray. A photo op, so to speak, to keep Steve happy. He's back to Iraq, frustrated at his ability to help. He actually had the chance to do so by relating the story minus the histronics. He could have given them hope that the world knew of their plight. Instead, he gave them a hissy fit on camera.
When we review the coverage of hurricane Katrina after the inquest, with an actual body count, then we can start to put such reports into context and decide who had the most credibility. I suspect the media will not rate well. Rivera spoke several nights after his outburst and baldly claimed that his tirade got the results, didn't it? The military came in the next day, didn't they? No doubt, because they were just waiting for Jerry Rivers to give their lives direction. That's not ego. That's an egomaniac.
There were many mistakes in New Orleans.
4 The mayor failed to evacuate the most vulnerable populations. It's possible no one could have, but there were those 250 buses and the mayor was the quickest to blame everyone else. Did many of the reporters take their cue from his hysterical outburtst?
4 Some 300 New Orleans police either quit or failed to show up and after the storm, they quickly lost control of the city, a few joined the looting and shamelessly strolled in front of cameras, their baskets full.
4 Most citizens evacuated but the remaining either couldn't or wouldn't provide for themselves.
4 The Louisiana governor would neither send in the state National Guard to evacuate the city nor allow Bush to federalize the Louisiana state guard and coordinate the evacuations while the governor dithered about sending anyone in to do the job.
4 The Louisiana Homeland Security refused permission for the Red Cross to deliver food and water into the city to people who could not leave. (See the Red Cross site to verify this.)
Notice that I didn't say - the Democrat mayor, the Democrat Governor, the Democrat Louisiana Homeland Security. Because it is truly irrelevant.
None of these facts are prominent in the tales of journalistic heroism that reporters like to spin about themselves. They were heroes for what? Emoting?
Contrast that to the people actually doing something, like the Air Force digging out Keesler Air Force base and then quickly moving to help communities around them. They didn't have the time to stand around postulating, "Look how caring I can be? !!!" They did something.
It isn't easy watching human suffering. It is far too easy to add to it by adding the element of uncertainty and fear. It is easy to undermine efforts by casting unwarranted aspersions. It is easy to panic a fearful population.
Much of this catastophe appears to be an audition for the Most Caring For Blacks Award. If I were blacks, I would give em all a 0.0.
Except for the people who actually did something. No awards for emoting.
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