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SCANT ATTENTION PAID

Coverage of Hurricane Katrina was marred by ludicrous exaggeration of bad news, much of it (“sharks swimming in the business district! Fats Domino cannibalised! Sean Penn scooping out human brains with a red plastic cup!”) now discredited. Good news barely emerged at all:

[Maj. Ed] Bush, of the National Guard, said that reports of corpses at the Superdome filtered back to the facility via AM radio, undermining his struggle to keep morale up and maintain order.

“We had to convince people this was still the best place to be,” Bush said. “What I saw in the Superdome was just tremendous amounts of people helping people.”

But, Bush said, those stories received scant attention in newspapers or on television.

New Orleans is only a few hours from US media hubs in New York and Los Angeles. Consider how bad news might become exaggerated when it’s being delivered from, say, Iraq.

UPDATE. More good news:

House Republicans on Wednesday will launch a rapid-fire assault against environmental protections on the pretext of helping the U.S. oil and gas industry recover from hurricane damage, environmental groups charge ...

The resources panel, led by Richard Pombo of California, wants to lift a ban on Florida offshore drilling, promote oil shale and sell a dozen national parks for energy development.

Posted by Tim B. on 09/28/2005 at 10:02 AM
  1. I’m all for drilling our country like a rotten tooth filled with swiss cheese(tm), but I don’t want to “sell a dozen national parks”.

    Simply force the oil companies to keep a near-zero impact/footprint/profile and keep the overwhelming majority of the park as a park.

    I don’t see why anyone else would have a different desire, honestly, (other than enviroonbats)

    Even stick the stupid pumps underground.  That’s right, (dammit), we put a man on the moon, (several!)  I want oil, I want parks, and I don’t feel unreasonable for demanding both.

    Posted by zeppenwolf on 2005 09 28 at 11:23 AM • permalink

  2. Hot damn! Gonna build me a 7,000 sf mansion in Yellowstone National Park, made from sequoia wood trucked in from California, and shoot bison from my front porch! Hoooooo doggies!

    Posted by paco on 2005 09 28 at 11:24 AM • permalink

  3. Beside all the hour upon hour of Katrina and Ruth coverage in the u.s., the 26 seconds devoted to the typhoon which hit Vietnam (causing widespread destruction, flooding and homelessness )seemed sadly lacking.
    At least sbs for special people scraped through their ethnic obligations with the airing of that 26 seconds.
    Abc to my knowledge was far too busy competing with sbs to smear the Americans with racism allegations and war mongering type charges.
    stereotyping.

    Posted by crash on 2005 09 28 at 11:29 AM • permalink

  4. But Bush said it! It can’t possibly be true!

    Posted by tongueboy on 2005 09 28 at 12:11 PM • permalink

  5. I doubt the “sell a dozen national parks” thing is accurate. More likely “sell rights to controlled exploitation in parts of a dozen national parks or forests or preserves”.

    Indeed, scrolling to the end, I see “He also wants to sell 15 national parks for energy or commercial development, including the Mary McLeod Bethune House in Washington, D.C. ” ... that’s a “National Historic Site”, not a “National Park”. You’d think that an American newswriter might know there’s a difference between the two, but evidently this isn’t the case. At least when there’s a Republican President to be tarred.

    Posted by Sigivald on 2005 09 28 at 03:55 PM • permalink

  6. Considering the housing market in DC and the neighborhood (Thomas Circle), the Mary McLeod Bethune House could clear a few million at least.

    Posted by Blue on 2005 09 28 at 05:36 PM • permalink

  7. The MSM completely fucking up a story?

    I’m shocked. Shocked.

    Used to be that a BA in Communications meant something.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2005 09 28 at 09:26 PM • permalink

  8. Louisiana dysfunctional?

    Who told him?

    Posted by duh on 2005 09 28 at 09:47 PM • permalink

  9. The resources panel, led by Richard Pombo of California, wants to lift a ban on Florida offshore drilling, promote oil shale and sell a dozen national parks for energy development

    We should be doing similar things here.  There’s no sane reason why we shouldn’t be exploring (then drilling) the Great Barrier Reef for oil. Offshore oil drilling is as safe as houses.

    Posted by walterplinge on 2005 09 28 at 10:41 PM • permalink

  10. I propose a new Federal initiative to put a honkin’ wind turbine in every Gaia worshipper’s backyard…Of course we’d have to epoxy anti-endangered bird whistles onto the blades.

    It could be called the “Walk Your Talk Environmental Shame (WYTE Shame)” act.

    To fund the program, the IRS could insert a Carbon Mitigation Tax Increase checkbox on the 1040.

    Of course Hillary and McCain would be the natural go-to co-sponsors to ramrod this progressive bi-partisan, Mother Nature saving legislation through the fascist Earth-haters and their corporate lackeys. Alas, if only we had a few more SCOTUS justices…

    McHillary ‘08

    Posted by monkeyfan on 2005 09 30 at 05:10 PM • permalink

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