Thursday, September 08, 2005
Operation Freedom Muzzle.
Reports from the press corps indicate the White House and its public relation crisis management team are barring journalists with their tell-all video and cameras from certain areas of New Orleans.
It started when FEMA gave new marching orders: no pictures of the dead; something about respecting the departed. You know, same as dead soldiers flying into Dover Air Force Base.
Yet as one canny blogger on Ameriblog remarked, then “why was the media invited to film the goings on of the Rehnquist death?"
Was the chief justice recently dissed without the public taking notice...?
Brian Williams of NBC reports from New Orleans “[T]he city has now reached a near-saturation level of military and law enforcement. In the areas we visited, the red berets of the 82nd Airborne are visible on just about every block. National Guard soldiers are ubiquitous.”
Their mission: Round up the foot-draggers and keep the media from reporting real news.
When the news crew tried to “take pictures of the National Guard (a unit from Oklahoma) taking up positions outside a Brooks Brothers on the edge of the Quarter,” Williams informs, “the sergeant ordered us to the other side of the boulevard.”
Sadly, the scene deteriorated even further, as journalists were treated equal to earlier thugs who’d ransacked the streets.“
At that same fire scene," Williams continues, "a police officer from out of town raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media... obvious members of the media... armed only with notepads.”
Editor and Publisher reports FEMA refused journalists access on rescue mission boats: no room at the inn this go-around. So much for the grand vision of embedded journalists; only when it suits their Rovian/Machevellian purposes.
Reporters are justifiably upset. E & P quotes Larry Siems of Reuters. "It's impossible for me to imagine how you report a story whose subject is death without allowing the public to see images of the subject of the story."
As a Cuban-American who left behind her island country during the 1960s, Bush's latest political contrivance looks strikingly familiar; and should to anyone who has ever lived under Communist rule.
The state controls the media, at any cost, including aiming rifles at persons who might dislodge state-approved disinformation.
Williams notes “the fact that the National Guard now bars entry (by journalists) to the very places where people last week were barred from LEAVING (The Convention Center and Superdome) is a kind of perverse and perfectly backward postscript to this awful chapter in American history.”
Unfortunately, this is not a mere chapter, but the sad continuing saga of how Republicans govern.
Reports from the press corps indicate the White House and its public relation crisis management team are barring journalists with their tell-all video and cameras from certain areas of New Orleans.
It started when FEMA gave new marching orders: no pictures of the dead; something about respecting the departed. You know, same as dead soldiers flying into Dover Air Force Base.
Yet as one canny blogger on Ameriblog remarked, then “why was the media invited to film the goings on of the Rehnquist death?"
Was the chief justice recently dissed without the public taking notice...?
Brian Williams of NBC reports from New Orleans “[T]he city has now reached a near-saturation level of military and law enforcement. In the areas we visited, the red berets of the 82nd Airborne are visible on just about every block. National Guard soldiers are ubiquitous.”
Their mission: Round up the foot-draggers and keep the media from reporting real news.
When the news crew tried to “take pictures of the National Guard (a unit from Oklahoma) taking up positions outside a Brooks Brothers on the edge of the Quarter,” Williams informs, “the sergeant ordered us to the other side of the boulevard.”
Sadly, the scene deteriorated even further, as journalists were treated equal to earlier thugs who’d ransacked the streets.“
At that same fire scene," Williams continues, "a police officer from out of town raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media... obvious members of the media... armed only with notepads.”
Editor and Publisher reports FEMA refused journalists access on rescue mission boats: no room at the inn this go-around. So much for the grand vision of embedded journalists; only when it suits their Rovian/Machevellian purposes.
Reporters are justifiably upset. E & P quotes Larry Siems of Reuters. "It's impossible for me to imagine how you report a story whose subject is death without allowing the public to see images of the subject of the story."
As a Cuban-American who left behind her island country during the 1960s, Bush's latest political contrivance looks strikingly familiar; and should to anyone who has ever lived under Communist rule.
The state controls the media, at any cost, including aiming rifles at persons who might dislodge state-approved disinformation.
Williams notes “the fact that the National Guard now bars entry (by journalists) to the very places where people last week were barred from LEAVING (The Convention Center and Superdome) is a kind of perverse and perfectly backward postscript to this awful chapter in American history.”
Unfortunately, this is not a mere chapter, but the sad continuing saga of how Republicans govern.
// posted by Howling Latina @ 2:01 PM 
Comments:
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Great Blo; keep at it.
Tell the truth!
The truth shall set us free; and maybe even save our country from sure ruin.
Tell the truth!
The truth shall set us free; and maybe even save our country from sure ruin.
Great blog; keep it up.
Tell the truth.
The truth shall set us free, and maybe even save our country from sure ruin.
IMPEACH BUSH, and the rest of his gang of thugs.
Hope to see everyone in D.C. the weekend of the 24th
Post a Comment
Tell the truth.
The truth shall set us free, and maybe even save our country from sure ruin.
IMPEACH BUSH, and the rest of his gang of thugs.
Hope to see everyone in D.C. the weekend of the 24th
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