I very rarely post here simply to vent my emotions. Sometimes I also post to wound, to show off, or to send the children of harmless TV presenters crying home from school. But after the last week I feel compelled to finally let free my inner urge to go the top of the bus and whisper hoarsely to a stranger “George Bush has got a hurricane in his bag, you know.” Why not? It would make me feel better, and everybody else seems to enjoy it. Especially the BBC.
Rob White tipped me off to this piece… From the editor’s desktop:
This week the upbeat messages were for this piece from Matt Wells, a freelance journalist who writes for us quite often. It picked up some 400,000 page impressions last weekend.
It was certainly strong stuff, but it struck the right note for many. One wrote: “I am so grateful to Matt Wells for writing his article ‘New Orleans crisis shames Americans’. It is true to a depth that I can’t begin to express.”
The place that opinion pieces have on the site is a tricky one. Readers respect us for our impartiality and balance, but does that mean we should never carry more strident views?
We won’t be foaming at the mouth and ranting just yet, because that would fox our audience, but as long as we properly signpost opinion pieces they have a place on this site.
The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that the piece originally went on the site with a straight headline. That was a mistake, and it was amended to make clear it was a “viewpoint”.
How generous of you to make that amendment, Mr Desktop. Wasn’t the bit about Foxing the audience cute?
I have emailed the author.
As is usual from the BBC, I expect no reply, not even an acknowledgement.
Radio 4 is now running a full half-hour “review” of radio coverage here and in the US of Katrina.
NEARLY EVERY ELEMENT OF IT is anti-Bush.
Lots of leftie stuff from NPR. Now isn’t that a surprise ?
People get PAID for this ridiculous bias. Not just the presenter – the whole programme staff, editors and suchlike.
I had a feeling about that ‘viewpoint’ correction- just another stealth edit to add to the collection.
Brilliant isn’t it though – ‘It is true to a depth that I can’t begin to express’? So, it’s poetic and defies rational explanation? That sounds about right to me.
Oh, by the way- nice of them to mention that he’s freelancing, since they didn’t do so at the time. Wells was, until recently, a mainstay of the Guardian and covered numerous pro-BBC and anti-Iraq war etc angles. Now it seems that freelancing for the Beeb is more lucrative.
From the article –
“as long as we properly signpost opinion pieces they have a place on this site.”
In that case, I look forward to the conservative opinion pieces.
I won’t hold my breath. The phrase “cold day in Hell,” springs to mind.
Nice turn of phrase from Mick Hume in the Times
With some of these TV reporters, you get the feeling that their ideal story would be to report “live” from just outside Dante’s seventh circle of Hell, while speculating on whether a government cover-up is hiding the existence of an eighth circle. Jon Snow, who heroically presented Channel 4 News from New Orleans in his wellies, tells us in his self-effacing way: “To be a hack caught up in this is tough.” Couldn’t somebody have airlifted them out of there sooner?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-1771534,00.html
Surely the issue isn’t the fact that Katrina coverage is anti-Bush. By any standards the federal performance was sh*t and I’ve yet to see any remotely non-partisan media suggesting otherwise. If Bush is at fault by definition coverage will be anti Bush.
The issues are that a) many would suggest that the state authorities were at least as culpable if not more so and b) the extent to which Americans care has been thoroughly exaggerated – head in the sand Democrats have their prejudices reinforced, head in the sand Republicans have others to blame.
Some snippets from today’s US press, mostly flatly contradicting WITH THE FACTS the BBC’s coverage of Katrina :
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/08/AR2005090801667.html
http://www.techcentralstation.com/090805I.html
Cockney
When have you heard any criticism by the BBC of people other than Bush over Katrina ? Why have the BBC made no criticism of the Mayor, for example – and even repeated his verbal attack on Bush today ?
John,
I’d draw a comparison with England’s fiasco on Wednesday night.
Those keen to hysterically demand Sven’s/Bush’s head miss the point that there are highly paid superstars/local politicians whose function is to deal with events at the business end and who have clearly utterly failed in this task.
Those who would completely absolve Sven/Bush beg the question – what do we pay these people for if it’s not to deal with disasters of this magnitude.
A specific question – I posted somewhere asking what the point of a Bush led equiry was given the obvious inherent bias. You responded that it was the task of a CEO to investigate such issues. Using this analogy should a CEO not take ultimate responsibility for almighty f*ck ups in his organisation irrespective of whether he has personally been involved – surely he ultimately oversees the crisis management structure??
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4229238.stm
Another so called ‘report’ with NO hint that the fault and lack of preparation that Colin Powell refers to is the fault of LOCAL authorities.
A poll by the Pew Research Centre a leftie centre says Bush should have done more…nothing in the poll about should the state etc have done more, just should BUSH not FEMA etc have done more….way to go for a result gauranteed to say what you want it to say..and the Beeb then attaches it to an article about Colin Powell…
stunning BBC impartiality as always…
Cockney
I had replied that Bush knew there would be other enquiries – but needed to run his own.
And if you bothered to check, you wouuld find that federal level; agencies actually achieved a lot, right from the beginning. The Coastgard saved 1200 lives in the first couple of days. UUSS Battan was onsite almost immediately. FEMA actaally mobiled a whole lot of help all along the Gulf Coast, very qickly.
Bush and the FEMA head and the Homeland Secrity head had some awful PR ppearances, they appeared flatfooted. But the real culprits, the constittional responsibiity for the killing cock-ups, were with the Mayor and the Governor. The “First Responders”. It was constitutionally forbidden for Bush and federal agencies to try to take control of the local resources.
Bt you seem to be in denial of these facts. Why not just look at the photos ? Who left those elderly people to die in the nursing home ? Who didn’t mobilise the evacuation ? Who didn’t send in their own National Guard in strength ?
OT – Sorry, this is a very interesting thread and I don’t want to disrupt it, but there’s nowhere else to post this bit of lunacy. Quoted from (the innocent) Dhimmiwatch: “From BBC News, with thanks to Vikrant:
“The all-women vice squad opposes liquor and prostitution Eight veiled women gather outside a shop selling alcohol on the ground floor of a hotel in Srinagar, in Indian-administered Kashmir and start ransacking it.”
“Indian-administered Kashmir”???? Kashmir is part of India! That’s like saying “British-administered Northamptonshire.”
Sometimes the Beeb refers to it as “the disputed territory of Kashmir”. In other words, “our idols the Muslims want it and we are on their side but we can’t be too obvious about it.”
I hope they start calling it the disputed TV-Tax.
It’s MY money and I’M keeping it in MY wallet.
Mr Reynolds
This is the sort of stuff the BBC is avoiding.
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/005403.php
further descriptions of what Marty Evans, the head of the American Red Cross has been saying :
http://www.radioblogger.com/#000970
The BBC likes to gibve the impression that FEMA has been sitting on its hnds.
FEMA’s job is not to be in control of the local situation that is the job of the Governors nd mayors of the ffected states and cities. FEMA’s job is to coordinte federal-level backup for the local resources.
Which they have been doing from Day 1, indeed before day 1.
http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/katrina.htm
Ro Read – “the disputed TV tax”! V good!
Cockney
As so often happens you miss the point. Your analogy is misplaced; first, Ericksson is the full time, day to day manager of England, Bush is not the full time, day to day Governor of Louisiana nor is the the full time, day to day Mayor of New Orleans. Even if your players/loccal politicians analogy were correct, well the players have taken responsibility for Wednesday’s fiasco.
We don’t need any analogies with Katrina, we have a glaring comparison with Mississippi next door. It took the brunt of Katrina, the devastation is greater there and the last time I looked it wasn’t noted for it’s hordes of idol, SUV-driving rich.
So what IS the difference between Democratic Louisiana and Republican Mississippi? Why did Democratic Louisiana fare much worse in its relief efforts than Republican Mississippi? Why is there no end of reporters and journalists on our TVs telling of Bush’s failure of Democratic Louisiana, whilst mention of Republican Mississippi there comes none? What CAN the difference be?
Long comment – been hacking at the poll the BBC are getting excited about…
“I think there have been a lot of failures at a lot of levels — local, state and federal. There was more than enough warning over time about the dangers to New Orleans. Not enough was done. I don’t think advantage was taken of the time that was available to us, and I just don’t know why,” Powell told ABC News’ Barbara Walters in an exclusive interview airing Friday night at 10 p.m. on “20/20.”
Powell doesn’t think race was a factor in the slow delivery of relief to the hurricane victims as some have suggested. “I don’t think it’s racism, I think it’s economic,” he told Walters.
“When you look at those who weren’t able to get out, it should have been a blinding flash of the obvious to everybody that when you order a mandatory evacuation, you can’t expect everybody to evacuate on their own. (Oops those buses that the Mayor let get flooded…) These are people who don’t have credit cards; only one in 10 families at that economic level in New Orleans have a car. So it wasn’t a racial thing — but poverty disproportionately affects African-Americans in this country.
Meanwhile the so called poll by the Pew Research centre that the Beeb are screaming about had some results and questions that for some strange reason the Beeb never mentioned….:
How would you rate the job state and local governments in Louisiana and Mississippi have been doing responding to Hurricane Katrina? [READ]
9 Excellent
32 Good
29 Only fair
22 Poor
8 Don’t know/Refused
So by adding Mississippi the Good for state government help Louisiana to get a better grade. Had the question been about Louisiana ONLY would the good/excellent figure have been as high as 9+32 =41%?
Thinking about the people who stayed in New Orleans during the storm and became stranded by the flooding, do you think
29 Most stayed behind because they wanted to
OR
62 Most stayed behind because they didn’t have a way to leave the city
9 Don’t know/Refused
In your view, did this disaster show that racial inequality remains a major problem in this country, or don’t you think this was a particularly important lesson of the disaster?
38 Showed that racial inequality remains a major problem
50 Not a particularly important lesson of the disaster
12 Don’t know/Refused
Why the change from Racial inequality is a problem to not a lesson of the disaster depending on the answer YES or NO?
Do you think the severity of Hurricane Katrina is the result of global climate change, or is Hurricane Katrina just the kind of severe weather event that happens from time to time?
25 Result of global climate change
66 Just happens from time to time
9 Don’t know/Refused
Were you, personally, surprised by incidents of violence and looting in New Orleans during the disaster, or didn’t this surprise you?
44 Surprised
55 Not surprised
1 Don’t know/Refused
Do you think the people who committed violent acts in New Orleans were
27 Mostly ordinary people who became desperate during an emergency
OR
57 Mostly criminals trying to take advantage of the situation
9 Both/Depends
7 Don’t know/Refused
Has the government’s response to this disaster affected your confidence in the government’s ability to handle a major terrorist attack, or not? [IF YES: Has it made you more confident or less confident?]
7 Yes, more confident
42 Yes, less confident
46 No
5 Don’t know/Refused (VOL.)
Note the additional question if they say YES…yet still more people remain confident if it is a TERRORIST attack. Now the only type of terrorist attack that might come near to Katrina’s level of damage is a nuclear bomb and the majority are still confident!
Most of the people stranded in New Orleans following the hurricane were African-American. Do you think the government’s response to the situation would have been faster if most of the victims had been white, or don’t you think this would have made any difference?
26 Yes, would have been faster
68 No, wouldn’t have made any difference
6 Don’t know/Refused
This poll was OVERSAMPLED by 103 African Americans so even when there are more African Amercians being asked than a poll with a balance two thirds say the government response was NOT affected by race
The poll questions are at: http://people-press.org/reports/print.php3?PageID=994
Other points – note how they keep saying only government thus lumping state and federal together unless they need a bad result for federal when they then actually say federal or the President. There was no question asked about Governor Blanco or Mayor Nagin yet there was a question specifically asked about President Bush.
And you wonder why the Beeb LOVED this poll…..! The questions about global warming did not fit the Beeb view so no mention of them also no mention of the way the questions were slanted towards either bashing Bush or helping give the impression that state government did better than they really did. All these politicians gibbering about race have been proved wrong as well yet nothing on the Beeb about that either.
Cockney –
I was down there. You are being lied to, and now you’re parroting it.
Off Topic:
There is an interview with Kofi Annan on the BBC website. The interview is conducted by Lyse Doucet. Not an entirely surprising line of questioning by a BBC “reporter”.
http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?x=135&y=11&q=annan&scope=newsukfs_av&tab=news_av
Let us start with the crisis in the US state of Louisiana. Has the aftermath of this crisis shocked you?
As you say, you offered it early on, but they accepted it only recently.
They have been criticised for being too slow to respond. Did that exacerbate the crisis?
Kofi Annan, in a few days time, what has been described as the largest ever gathering of world leaders will start in New York. You have described it as nothing less than “a mandate and a vision to change the world”. Are you angry that the US is now trying to highjack it?
So you worked on it for about a year. A team has been working on it for about 6 months. Weeks ago 750 amendments come from the US ambassador John Bolten.
Is there a risk of failure?
Can you fight poverty if, as the United States demands you remove the target for countries to give 0.7% of their national product?
When John Bolten came to the UN you told me he had to operate in a spirit of give and take. He didn’t take your advice, did he?
Do you suspect that those critics you mention may be behind the timing of the next independent report for the oil for food program coming this week?
Are you braced for devastating criticism on Wednesday when the Bolton report is published?
For you, this comes at a time when you need the strongest hand possible. Critical summit beginning on reform and for your critics the oil for food is the single of human incompetence, efficiency and corruption [sic].
And sadly for you there is a personal dimension for you. The leaks suggest that you will be personally cleared of any wrong doing, but your son Kojo will again be in the spot light for trading on his father’s name.
I wonder if Dave T noticed how many FLOODED CARS were sitting there on the streets unused, as well as the 400+ public busses, as well as the 500 school busses.
If real resentment emerges from the US toward all europeans as a result of what their leftists are handling these matters, I wouldn’t be surprised. Especially with the endless hate filled complaints, parrotting over and over of Castro’s help, and poor Afghans helping, the “US off of it’s perch” meme (which never existed anyway) – tfeh!
If horror befell them, they are unlikely to show that resentment back – but I would not be surprised if they did. It’s a good thing most Americans don’t really care what nags like the talking heads of the beeb think.
Joe N.
The BBC don’t notice ANYTHING that doesn’t fit the leftist meme.
OT I notice that “genuinely heroic” Mayor Moron’s wild-eyed predictions of 10,000 dead in NOLA are proving to be grossly inflated now that the waters are receding(as I suspected). Why isn’t the Beeb criticizing his panicky predictions of impending doom? Didn’t Nagin’s hysterical reaction of shrieking “the sky is falling” at every opportunity only add fuel to the general chaos and breakdown in law and order?
PS as a Yank the only thing I’m ashamed of about Katrina is that the thieving Democratic government down there has been allowed to get away with its dirty tricks and general incompetence nearly since Jefferson bought the place from Napoleon two hundred years ago — and now people are dead because of it.
No wonder Mary Landrieu doesn’t want Bush sticking his nose into local politics.