September 11, 2005 -- The network that brought you Walter Cronkite -- the man who invented modern journalism by lying about the Vietnam war so as to demoralize support at home.  A photojournalist by the name of John Mincey, who later founded a studio in Portland, once told me that the film he shot in the hot LZ's of Vietnam covered stories quite different from the network narration he heard attached to that footage delivered by the Cronkites of the day.  Wins became losses at the networks in New York City.

This is the network that brought you Dan Rather and 60 Minutes, who used fabricated military records two months before the last presidential election in an attempt to defeat George W. Bush.  

And, now, we have this morning's (CBS Sunday Morning)  report on the effects of Hurricane Katrina. I checked in late, and missed  a few minutes of their lead story, but am surprised that not once did I hear the name of the mayor of New Orleans or the governor of Louisiana.

In natural disasters, locals call the shots

Here's what you need to know about all this fuss, folks.  If your house catches fire, the first responder is your local fire department, not the president of the United States.  If criminals try to take away your property, the first responder is your local police department.   Senator Mary Landrieu, of the legendary line of Landrieu liars (Louisiana politics are openly famous for graft and corruption), said on Face the Nation that all these first reponders, from the local to the state levels, did a superb job, and that the ball was dropped at the federal level. 

That is a lie.  The Red Cross and other organizations which coordinate with FEMA (the much-maligned Federal Emergency Management Agency) were waiting with stockpiles of supplies quite close by, days before the storm hit the beaches.  They couldn't get in because of dithering by state and local officials in Louisiana.  (Did you notice the four hurricanes that hit Florida last year?  Funny that the same FEMA delivered the goods, there, with three more storms to battle.  How could that be?) 

Simply look up when Louisiana's Democrat governor officially asked for (gave permission for the introduction of) national guard troops. Simply glance at the video of the hundreds of New Orleans school busses immersed in flood waters and ask yourself if the man who should have ordered their use for evacuation would be the president of this nation or the mayor of that city. Landrieu the Lamebrain said (on FOX) if you can believe it, that the mayor couldn't have ordered the use of busses that were under water.  When the FOX interviewer suggested that the evacuation order was issued before they were under water, Landrieu went into spin overdrive.  Watching her begin to lose it was a pleasant experience for those of us who have developed a deep-seated contempt for that type of politician.

Hell, simply look at the video of the police standing there and watching looters steal the contents of stores selling television sets, and see if you can justify blaming that on George Bush or the head of FEMA instead of the officials of that city.

Do you know who first determines that a given locale in America is a "disaster area?"  Here's a hint.  The concept is connected to the separation of powers, or responsibilities, of the state and federal levels of government.  You really should know how this works before laying blame.  You'd think a federal senator would know it.

Who elected whatsername?

Just in case you would like to lay some blame in this case, yourself,  I have two targets for you;.  First blame the voters of New Orleans and Louisiana for putting idiots like Senator Landrieu, Governor Whatsername and New Orleans Mayor Whatsizname in charge of their governmental affairs. I mean, let's "go down to the lebby" here. In the case of New Orleans, the earthen dams which protected the sub-sea level city from the waters were high enough to hold back the storm surge waters of only a category Three hurricane because while Congress has since the Civil War sent enough money down there to make them higher, the Democrats of that city had better things to do with the cash.  Politically speaking the damned Landrieus have mooned New Orleans for a very long time.

Second, blame CBS and the other liberal American media organizations for failing to ever report anything accurately, without the taint of their political bias shaping the message. 

They feed you crap on a daily basis.  They could take a break today, one would think.  Today of all days you shouldn't have to read or tune into a storm of baloney -- particularly if the story is about an American disaster of some kind.  Anyway, from the local Oregon newspapers to the national news desks, it is obvious that excluding FOX, conservative talk radio, the Washington Times and a few other sources, there isn't an actual journalist left in this nation. CBS sure as hell doesn't have one on staff.

I think they were wiped out in the universities. The last thing you get in most J-schools these days is training on how to factually report a story.

(LL)

© 2005 Oregon Magazine