By the last count, nearly 1000 people died in and around New Orleans during and after the Katrina hurricane. Your pictures of the dead are graphic. But what do these pictures prove except to document – in photography – what this statistics already shows?
People who die in a catastrophe, whether a hurricane, in a tidal wave or in a highway pile-up make a gruesome sight. But these images create an emotional reaction, they don’t change the facts.
The facts appear to be at this point that no seven-year-old was raped and her throat cut at the Superdome; neither were there mass rapes or mass killings. It does not appear that rescue helicopters were shot at by snipers. The body count was one-tenth of the estimated broadcast by the MSM.
The MSM follow up, such as it is, goes along the line of “it now appears that the death toll was not as great as initially feared, and some of the rumors originally reported were apparently exaggerations.”
This is followed by no analysis of why this is the case; no soul searching about why this happened. Is this the way the MSM would treat an analogous situation if some other agency of organization spread the most hyperbolic stories that turned out to be false? I doubt it.
The real problem is that the MSM has lost so much credibility that your question is going to be a common one: “even though they lied the first time, this time they are telling the truth?”
For a free society to work it needs a free press; one that gets basic facts out. This function the MSM is in the process of destroying, It’s a shame.
moneyrunner wrote:
"People who die in a catastrophe, whether a hurricane, in a tidal wave or in a highway pile-up make a gruesome sight. But these images create an emotional reaction, they don’t change the facts.
The facts appear to be at this point that no seven-year-old was raped and her throat cut at the Superdome; neither were there mass rapes or mass killings. It does not appear that rescue helicopters were shot
at by snipers. The body count was one-tenth of the estimated broadcast by the MSM.
The MSM follow up, such as it is, goes along the line of “it now appears that the death toll was not as great as initially feared, and some of the rumors originally reported were apparently exaggerations.”
The fact is, as the images show, that some guy had a pair of scissors stuck in the back of his neck, fell, and bled out where he lay, in front of hundreds or even thousands of people camped out at the convention center, and nobody there lifted a finger to help or save him.
The fact is that 500 civilians with boats showed up for water rescue, were shot at, and turned around and went home.
The fact is that helicopters trying to evacuate patients at Tulane University were shot at, to the point at least one marine was diverted from search and rescue and placed by helicopter onto a nearby roof to suppress sniper fire so the helicopters can do their jobs.
The fact is that shortly after the storm, Blanco and Nagin began screaming that Bush was at fault, and exaggerating an already bad situation to make their point.
The fact is that very shortly thereafter, the MSM picked up this standard and ran with it, right up until Bush promised a quarter trillion bucks for the state and local government to loot, and then they stopped.
The fact is that the Times Picayune, who led the charge that Bush was at fault, reversed it's story as soon as the money was promised, with a story that SOME of the "news" out of New Orleans MAY have been exaggerated.
The fact is that the MSM began there, and escalated the position to one where ALL the news out of New Orleans was false, that NONE of it ever happened, and now have progressed to the thrid and final standard state of proceedure, they are reporting this as if it were established fact.
The fact is that a great many freepers who were angry over the blame Bush treatment in the original stories of the chaos have now seized the MSM's new position with unmitigated glee, and are busily cutting and pasting stories from the very worst offenders of the MSM, the LA Times, The New York Times, the Times Picayune, which are swallowed whole by other freepers, also angry at the original Bush treatment, who then help the mainstream media propagate YET ANOTHER LIE.
The fact is that when the stories of the extreme corruption and graft that exacerbated this tradgedy to begin with, are brought out and levelled, these same freepers have accomplished at least half of the defense work for the scumbags who didn't do their jobs and spent the money on everything EXCEPT what it was legislated for, because "nobody died, nobody lied, none of it EVER HAPPENED."
Instead of charges of negligent homicide, contributory negligence, and malicious negligence that they deserve, these people will be slapped on the wrist, allowed to remain in office, gleefully spend the relief money on one quarter trillion dollars worth of personal benefit, and New Orleans will rise again, not as a new city bought and paid for, but as a thin veneer of shiny chrome over a foundation further worsened by at least an order of magnitude, superficially sanded out and glossed over, with the exact same problems (only worse) waiting to bite us yet again, only harder next time.
What you have seen, twice now, even has a name.
It's called the New Orleans Razzle Dazzle, or just the Razzle for those who live there, it is a scam at least 50 years old, a scam in which victims are reported to cheerfully get fleeced of all they have and clamor for more, and you, and every freeper supporting this thread, is falling for it, hook, line and sinker.
Why?
Because you want to.
You want to believe that Bush wasn't at fault, that the stories were all exaggeration, that the media lied to you, you want it so bad that when the EXACT SAME LIARS tell you EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR, you believe them unconditionally and WHIP OUT YOUR WALLETS.
That's how scam artists work, by telling you what you want to hear, then walking away with your money and car keys, laughing at your embrace, positive beyond a doubt that as soon as you find something else worth having, the exact same trick will take it away from you again.
You know what?
They're right.