Let's review the blame game with regards to the historic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Naturally, AM talker turned-emergency response expert Rush Limbaugh accused the president of bungling the clean up and now facing his own Hurricane Katrina-like crisis of confidence. Of course, Fox News, serving its role as the Opposition Party, trumpeted the allegation. (From Fox Nation: "Heckuva job? Obama scrambling after week-old spill.") And yes, there was something deeply ironic about right-wing, government critics lamenting that the government didn't do more, when the same haters have been screaming for sixteen months that the government already does too much.
You likely know all that. But here's what you didn't know -- it was mostly the mainstream media that concocted the absurd "Obama's Katrina" claim in the first place, and then helped actively push it. Journalists did it by pointing to mostly faceless, imaginary "critics" of the Obama administration in order to float the phony storyline.
Reporters and pundits last week couldn't find independent experts on disaster or emergency response who criticized the government's actions in the Gulf of Mexico. Reporters and pundits couldn't even find Republican members of Congress to blast Obama and his team. So instead, the press just decided to do that on its own and pretend it was news.
So here's my admission: I got it wrong last week when I wrote that the "Obama's Katrina" narrative was a perfect example of how conservative, GOP Noise Machine elements shape the mainstream media's take on the news.
I got it wrong because after going back and looking at more of the coverage of the politics of the oil spill, it's now clear that in this disturbing case it was the Beltway press that hatched the bogus "Obama's Katrina" meme, and then served up on a platter to the appreciative Noise Machine, which happily amplified it. In this instance, the sloppy misinformation campaign was concocted not by feral, Obama Derangement Syndrome bloggers, but by corporate journalists working from some of the biggest names in the news business: New York Times, the AP, ABC and CBS.
Journalists had virtually no factual foundation upon which to build the "Obama's Katrina" story. But that didn't seem to stop many.
Read the full Media Matters column here.
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I saw the "Obama's Katrina" headline in the NYT more than a week ago.
It is said 91% of talk radio is conservative.
I would not be surprised if the print media were not that far behind.
In fact, in some ways you can blame the GOP noise machine for what is happening to the MSM. For example, watch for the "Gray Lady," the NYT, to continue to go more sensationalist and opinionated to counter what Murdoch is doing at the WSJ.
Why? Because our main stream media literally are not what they claim to be: People who try to find the truth of a story and report back to the american public. Instead they are (90% of them anyway) propagandists who spin in favor of the GOP and military-industrial complex all the time.
At least 1,836 people lost their lives in Katrina and in the subsequent floods, making it the deadliest U.S. hurricane since 1928. Nearly five years later, thousands of displaced residents in Mississippi and Louisiana are still living in trailers.
Several shootings were between police and New Orleans residents, including a fatal incident at Danziger Bridge.
Deaths from thirst, exhaustion and violence days after the storm had passed, fueled the criticism, as did the dilemma of the evacuees at facilities such as the Louisiana Superdome.
Let's try to keep Katrina comparisons aside. This is not Obama's Katrina.
In respect to those who lost their lives.
Ever wonder why Bush put Karl Rove, a politcal operative, in charge of Katrina operations?
Yes, there were complexities to the response in the Gulf, and the "lessons learned" will fill books in just a few months. That said, it is not Katrina.
Yes, there were glitches in the No Fly policy, but the one failure to function flawlessly is now headlines again and again and again, skimming over the reality of formidable, creative and exhauistive forensic work done in hours that led to the arrest in the first place.
And, of course, everythgint is "XXXXXgate". Sara Palin's email hacking was a "watergate moment" as she describes it, hyperinflating what was, clearly, illegal action into something that topples presidents.
I used to be a news junkie, but am now much more selective..... Even reading the headlines is way too activating for my ole tired amyglada.....
Refocus your finger pointing and whose responsibility this really is and who should have ACTED on this quickly.
Apparently the Macundo find is the biggest in the US and is high pressure, we are trying to tame a tiger by its tail. And btw, your tax dollars are already being wasted by the military ensuring you get oil.
Really, the oil spill is Sarah Palin's Katrina. "Drill, baby, drill" has got to come up every time she runs for office in the future.
it is not a perfect world, and while I don't celebrate errors and mistakes, they are NOT always the basis to create a basis of presumption of failure.
Of course, that would take time away from their perpetual as&kissing of the wealthy and powerful.
Where are you getting the idea that the media is "right wing"? That isn't even close to the truth.
"and coming up next...Is the oil spill going to become Obama's Katrina??? Stay tuned."
Every 10 minutes all day Monday. I was sick to my stomach. Even msnbc (which thankgod for Keith, Rachel and Ed) is totally Right Wing during the day. It's as if they all get their GOP/WallStreet Talking Points of the Day on their blackberries in the AM and work all their segments around it. On Monday I was so looking forward to accolades of the WH Correspondents Dinner and the AWESOME commencement speech at U of Michigan...but NO they chose to blame the President for the Gulf and NYC. It's all corporate!
Another case in point is their not so subtle cheerleading for the invasion of Iraq. A large segment of the mainstream corporate media did the bidding of the White house in swaying support for the war among the public.
No wonder the term "free press" has so little relevancy today with only a few exceptions.
Thank you MM.