Reply #40: MS Gov. Hayley Barbour = "looks like Hiroshima"

[southlandshari]

That one is ridiculous, I agree, but not a concoction of the MSM.

Maybe I'm just a big sap, and naive, and too willing to find some way to believe that there is still good in most of us mere mortals (even those who work for the MSM).....

But honestly - I think a hell of lot of the "sensational" claims they are making right now are accurate. Or understatements. Not hyperbole. Every now and then, things really ARE what they seem. As loathe as I am to trust anything the MSM reports - though I keep on watching and reading waiting for some sign of life - this time, I think those on the ground are doing their best to call it as they see it.

Despite all the corporate garbage, the intentional bias, the misuse of language, the pre-planned talking points that I have no doubt are rampant in cable and network news arenas these days - in spite of all that, the reporters on the ground are human. And there is just something about the kind of overwhelming suffering and flat out heart-breaking reality they are seeing that I've got to believe touches many, if not most of them.

The gulf coast of Mississippi DOES resemble a war zone in terms of physical devastation. In fact, I doubt one of our nation's insidious Daisy Cutter bombs could wreak more havoc on an area than has this hurricane. New Orleans and surrounding areas are still flooding, the waters are still rising. People have no food, no potable water, conditions are rapidly deteriorating - and many more people will die, I'm afraid, because of the horrible public health problems that are coming than died in the actual storm. And the victims will, of course, come largely from the poorest part of the population of this obscenely wealthy nation.

I went to journalism school decades ago because I believed that reporters were one of the last bastions of truth-telling in this world. I have been so bitterly disappointed and angry over the past several years that I'm disgusted I wasted those education dollars on such a meaningless degree.

But today, I'm cutting these reporters some slack. They aren't embedded with any government agency or troop platoon. There is no centcom in New Orleans or Biloxi. There are no press releases or carefully scripted tours of the areas. These folks are out there with the rest of the lost, wounded, scared and overwhelmed men, women and children who have no fucking clue what they are going to do in the next hour, much less the rest of their lives.

Sorry. Rant off.