Tuesday, September 20, 2005
TRUTH SPOKEN TO POWER
Dan Rather wishes he could have joined the post-Katrina Bush assault:
Rather praised the coverage of Hurricane Katrina by the new generation of TV journalists and acknowledged that he would have liked to have reported from the Gulf Coast. “Covering hurricanes is something I know something about,” he said.
“It’s been one of television news’ finest moments,” Rather said of the Katrina coverage. He likened it to the coverage of President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.
“They were willing to speak truth to power,” Rather said of the coverage.
That phrase has never sounded emptier than when spoken by Dupeweasel Dan. Actually, US ABC News network recently had truth spoken to it:
Reporter Dean Reynolds found a dozen people—all African-Americans—who’d been evacuated from the flooded streets of New Orleans, sat with them outside the Houston Astrodome and interviewed them as soon as the president’s speech ended.
Reynolds’ first question was to a woman named Connie London: “You heard the president say you are not alone . . . Do you believe him?”
“Yes,” she said, “because here in Texas they’ve been truly good to us.”
“Did you harbor any anger toward the president because of the slow federal response?”
“No, none whatsoever,” London replied, “because I feel our city and state government should have been there before the federal government was called in. They should have been on their jobs.”
“And they weren’t?” Reynolds asked.
“No, no, no, no, Lord, they weren’t,” she stated. “They had RTA buses, Greyhound buses, school buses that were just sitting there going under water when they could have been evacuating people.”
Reynolds asked a woman named Mary if she gleaned hope from the president’s words.
“Yes,” she replied.
“Why?” he asked.
“Because I really believe what he said.”
He turned to Brenda Marshall and asked, “What did you think of what the president said tonight?”
“I think the speech was wonderful.”
“Was there anything you found hard to believe? You know, that’s nice rhetoric but the proof is in the pudding?”
“No, I didn’t,” she answered, with an apologetic shrug.
“Well ... good,” Reynolds fumbled. “Very little skepticism here.”
More on that broadcast here.