On Monday morning I heard a report on NPR about the coming report (it was released on Wednesday, I think) detailing governement failures in the response to Katrina. They reported that it detailed “failures on all levels of government”. After the report there was commentary on the “political impact of the Katrina report”.
NPR takes a bit of flack from conservatives, mostly, acused of being liberalin their reportting. I don’t dobut that much of te NPR staff is more liberal than conservative, but their reporting is usually fairly ballanced. Every now and then, however, they let their biases show, and this was one of them. They report on failures at all levels, then their comentary on the fall out Katrina report talked only about the President’s problems. And they didn’t limit is just to Katrina, they talked about the leak investigation, the lobbying scandal and even Chney’s hunting accident under the guise of fall out from the Katrina report.
I’m not useually the ltter writing type, but I decided to call them on this. THey read letters on Morning Edition on Thursdays, but they didn’t think mine was worthy. Here’s waht I wrote:
I was disappointed in the commentary following the report this morning on the Katrina Report due out this week. The news story told how the report detailed failure at “all levels ” of government, but the commentary on the political fallout focused like a laser on the President. What of the failures at the state and local levels? If the failures were at all levels, why is the fallout only at the top? What is the fallout for the failures of Mayor Nagin or Governor Blanco?
I was then further disappointed when Cokie Roberts went into a litany of issues plaguing the president, the investigation into leaks, the lobbying controversy and even Mr. Cheney’s unfortunate hunting accident. What did all of this have to do with fallout from the Katrina report?
Many people, conservatives especially, like to paint NPR as a liberal organization. However, I find that your reporting is usually pretty even handed, but occasionally you let your colors show. This was one of those instances, where failures at “all levels” was turned into a focus on one. You can do better.
BTW – This post, in all its glory and creativity marks 400 posts here at salguod.net. Too bad I didn’t have anything more meaningful to say.
“I aint got nobody. Nobody cares for me, nobody loves me… I’m so sad and lonely, sad and lonely, sad and lonely. Won’t somebody take a chance on me cause I ain’t so bad.”
-From “memories of NPR and Just a Jigaloo”
I’ve stopped listening to NPR even though I enjoyed them before. I guess I found my dad listening to it and getting really wacky ideas from it.
I agree with your letter and questions as well. I do think Bush is walking a pretty thin line on some things but some of the press stuff is weird. Like who cares if Cheney shot his friend and doesn’t want to hold a general discussion on it? As long as it was an accident, like it appears, why worry about it. The press is trying to turn it into a scandal and “what are they hiding” thing. Some stuff like Katrina had multiple corrupt inexperienced people involved like Brown, the governor of LA and Mayor Nagen. I agree that, in some respects, if your the man then you need to take the blow like maybe he could have replaced Brown but you can’t choose the Governor and Mayor or who they and others employ.
Love NPR, but you’re right they do let their bias out on occasion. I still think that they’re more “fair and balanced” than their more conservative brethren.
RE: the shooting
It’s not just that he didn’t want to hold a discussion on it, it appears that he didn’t want it investigated at all. And accident or no when the VP shoots someone, it’s news. I’m not a conspiracy theorist and I don’t think there was some dark reason for the shooting. I’m sure it was an accident, but why keep the police away and why not brief the press immediately. He should have known that by keeping it under wraps it would make it worse.
I like NPR also, and listen regularly. When this accident happened, my heart and opinion of Dick Chaney came out. I’m not a particularly suspicious (you’ll say different after I confess my reaction), but the first thing I thought when I heard the news, is that Mr. Cheney is so smug that he is trying to commit murder, and see if he can get away with it. I don’t know what that says about me, but that’s where I am. In many of the interviews and TV appearances I’ve seen him in, he talk’s as if everybody else is so stupid that he can basically tell them anything and they will believe it. The Daily Show on Comedy Central does a very poignant job pointing out all the lies that VP Cheney has told publicly. I mean, they do clip to clip of him saying directly contradictory statements. I think that anybody who is so willing to publicly lie shouldn’t be trusted. I know that it is a hard statement, but I’m just being up front. So when he shoots someone, and doesn’t want it investigated, or to talk about it public ally (he’s the VP for crying out loud) I can only think, “Cover UP!”
I think that perhaps what I should have asked NPR was that perhaps the reason there is no fallout for Nagin and Blanco is that hey are not reporting it. Why no fall out for Mayor Nagin’s failure to follow the cities own evacuation and shelter plan? It called for the mobilization of city busses and the use of public schools, not the Superdome, as shelters. The buses stayed put and the schools were not used. Later, after his city’s buses were flooded, he whined to the feds to send buses. (Google search: nagin buses evacuation plan)
And Gov. Blanco, when offered the help of the national guard (which Nagin had been asking for), asked for 24 hours to think about it. The pres., by law, could not just send in federal troops without the consent of the governor. There’s good reason for this, to prevent the feds from taking over a state or city whenever they want. Bush offered, Blanco said “Can I get back to you?” (Google search: blanco bush national guard 24 hours)
Of course, this has been argued ad nauseum for months. It’s all old news. My point was not to point fingers away from Bush onto others, but to point out that NPR was giving the Governor and Mayor, folks who arguably had more direct responsibility for these folks, a pass. They failed their people too, miserably. Let’s call a spade a spade.
On Cheney, well, Paul I think you’re jumping to conclusions. Think about who he is. This is a guy who’d do his entire job form an undisclosed location if he could. He doesn’t trumpet his good news, why should we be surprised that he doesn’t his bad either? I think it would have been better if he had gone public right away, but not doing so fits right in with his style. It is not out of character at all. Looked at in that way, I think we can say that he wasn’t trying to cover up, it was just Chaney being Chaney, unfortunately. It seems a little silly that the media expects him to suddenly be this open and vulnerable guy.