The Radicalization of the Press

By EAPrez

Imagine for a moment that you are watching people in despair dying before your very eyes for lack of clean drinking water. A mother shakes her baby saying he's not waking up as quickly as he normally does. Imagine these horrific scenes are not scenes from a movie but clips on the nightly news. Now imagine these images are not images from a third world country but images from the United States. Having trouble conjuring up those images? Then you were one of the few not glued to the television watching the horrific images coming out of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

While watching the coverage of the devastation of the powerful storm I was also unknowingly witnessing the unleashing of a much of more powerful force than the hurricane. A force that has effectively been held back for the past five years. A force the Bush Administration has not had to contend with --- until now.

The force of which I speak is the press. It was amazing to watch the press corps not only awaken from its long and lazy slumber - but to become radicalized right before my very eyes. Who would have predicted that while tramping around in the mud and sludge of failed government policies that the press would not only report the news but would get angry about the news they were reporting. Government officials who for too long have not had to worry about defending their actions and their policies suddenly found themselves face to face with a press corps who was not buying the talking points they were getting.

I watched Anderson Cooper letting Governor Landrieu have it for ‘playing political kiss ass’ during an interview in the midst of the crisis. I heard an angry Jack Cafferty on CNN calling the administrations response a disgrace. I saw Geraldo Rivera and Shepard Smith from Fox News put the brakes on Sean Hannity’s pathetic attempt to spin the governments lack of an adequate response in the administrations favor. I saw a crying Geraldo hold up a baby to demonstrate the inhumane conditions the citizens were being forced to endure. Spin that, Sean! I watched an angry Tim Russert ask the Director of Homeland Security if he should resign.

All of this has had an impact. The Bush Administration is drowning in criticism and they are gasping for air. This once arrogant administration who in the past has promoted or awarded medals to failures is now being forced to bow to public pressure. Responsibility has been acknowledged. The FEMA Horesman of the Apocolypse has resigned amongst widespread criticism. Today the President himself has accepted responsibility for the failures of the government in the face of this disaster. He will address the nation later this week. One can only hope that his address will be more inspiring than the remarks he made three days after the storm came ashore in which he ticked off a laundry list of numbers. No matter what he says, I hope the press continues to hold his feet to the fire.