Friday, August 25, 2006
Racist Tell-Tale Mindset?
Howling Latina absolutely loves self-directed polls; and in the latest AOL permutation, readers were asked to vote whether or not comments by Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans regarding post-9/11 rebuilding were fair or not.
First the comments during a "60 minutes" interview with context, then the survey and results.
As a correspondent during a taped show was "point[ing] out flood-damaged cars still on the streets of New Orleans' devastated Ninth Ward, Nagin replied, 'You guys in New York can't get a hole in the ground fixed, and it's five years later. So let's be fair.'"
Video of his comments is here.
The AOL survey asks readers: "What do you think about Nagin's comment about post-9/11 rebuilding? It's unfair. It's fair. Not sure"
Out of 42,960, 53 percent said it was unfair; 41 percent said it was fair and 6 percent said they weren't sure.
Now why would Nagin's comments be considered unfair? Since when is speaking the truth unjust?
If anything, the government response to 9/11 when balanced with response to Katrina cries out for any fair-minded correspondent to point out the huge financial disparity by the federal government between the two cities -- not words of accusation from some idiotic news hen.
The question should be rephrased to ask, "Do you think it was fair for the reporter to blame the city of New Orleans because some remnants of Katrina are still visible?
And yes, HL thinks that if Hagin were white and the city had been Houston, the lippy correspondent would have never asked the question in the first place.
// posted by Howling Latina @ 12:44 PM 
