FEMA officials' attempt to curb reporting of storm's grim aftermath ...

[preciousdove]

unjustified and self-serving
Sept. 12, 2005, 12:23AM

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/3349129

WHEN the going gets tough, one of the Bush administration's favorite tactics is to attempt to limit coverage of the bad news. Cognizant of the power of words and pictures, officials have put roving reporters and grim pictures high on their hit lists, whether in Iraq or Louisiana....

In the days following Katrina's assault on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, top FEMA and Homeland Security Department officials professed not to know important developments thoroughly reported in the press and shown on television news broadcasts. Instead of trying to manage the news, FEMA and Homeland Security officials should have been reading and watching it.

Now journalists are performing a difficult and essential role in conveying to the American people the avoidable horrors of Katrina and its aftermath. Instead of obstructing their efforts, FEMA's top officials should instead focus on their own failure to save the people whose dignity in death they now profess to defend.