On the Road and Connecting the Dots with Disaster Tour '05

 
image via the wonderful Agitprop.

Dot: From Billmon, who outlined the election year FEMA response to the hurricanes in always-crucial Florida, we see that Team BushCo views FEMA as a way to curry favor among swing state voters instead of as a way to save lives and property. 

Dot: We now know that  the crew repairing the 17th St. levee was a sham, set up for a Disaster Tour photo-op and talking point, and was dutifully reported by the corporate media according as "good progress."

Dot: We know that there was another sham relief effort set up in Biloxi, this time an open air food distribution center.   From a Dutch reader of Laura Rozen:

There was a striking dicrepancy between the CNN International report on the Bush visit to the New Orleans disaster zone, yesterday, and reports of the same event by German TV.

ZDF News reported that the president's visit was a completely staged event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time.

The people in the area were once again left to fend for themselves, said ZDF.

Dot: We have this partial transcript of the way our corporate media reported the same visit to Biloxi.  Inspirational CNN video of him hugging and otherwise consoling two survivors included at the link.  This is what he told them to do:

Bush to women: "There's a Salvation Army center that I want to, that I'll tell you where it is, and they'll get you some help. I'm sorry.... They'll help you.....

Woman 1: "I came here looking for clothes..."

Bush: "They'll get you some clothes, at the Salvation Army center..."

Woman 1: "We don't have anything..."

Bush: "I understand.... Do you know where the center is, that I'm talking to you about?"

Guy with shades: "There's no center there, sir, it's a truck."

Bush: "There's trucks?"

Guy: "There's a school, a school about two miles away....."

Bush: "But isn't there a Salvation center down there?"

Guy: "No that's wiped out...."

Bush: "A temporary center? "

Guy: "No sir they've got a truck there, for food."

Bush: "That's what I'm saying, for food and water."

Bush turns to the sister who's been saying how she needs clothes.

Bush to sister: "You need food and water."

Is BushCo sending them to the faux site?  Is it already starting to be dismantled?  Does he even know if  what he's looking at is real or a stage set?

Dot:  There was more phoney relief in Biloxi.   Laura Rozen has links to more foreign coverage of the Biloxi visit, with video of the same two survivors BushCo spoke to, from two separate German television stations.   Here is what they said but what was not reported by our corporate media: (emph mine)

German TV channel "ZDF" video (in German):
http://www.heute.de/ZDFmediathek/inhalt/23/0,4070,2370903-5,00.html

It´s the video called "Verzweiflung in der Anarchie" ("Desperation in Anarchy"). Bush visit coverage in Biloxi starts around 3:15.

A short summary of her comments are also mentioned in this ZDF article:
http://www.heute.de/ZDFheute/inhalt/23/0,3672,2370967,00.html

starting with: "Raeumarbeiten nur für Bush?"

[My translation:] "Clean-up operation only for Bush?
Where the US President visited the disaster area, aid units cleaned up the area. But only there. Reporting from Biloxi, ZDF correspondent Claudia Rueggeberg cited desperate inhabitants [of Biloxi telling her] Bush should have transported aid materials inside his limousines instead of a bunch of body guards and media correspondents.

[Now citing Claudia Rueggeberg directly from the video:]
Along his [Bush] travel route aid units removed debris and recovered corpses. Then Bush left and along with him, all aid troops left too. The situation in Biloxi remains unchanged, nothing has arrived, everything is still needed."

(I don´t know if aid units is the right term. The German word "Hilfstruppen" could be literally translated as "aid troops" or "recovery or support troops/units". It means here units trying to help after a disaster.)

-------

German TV channel "ARD" video (in German):
http://www.tagesschau.de/video/0,1315,OID4700936_RESreal256_PLYinternal_NAV_BAB,00.html
with a good translation here:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/9/3/22494/85287/77#77:

On the last state of things here's Christine Adelhardt live from Biloxi

2 minutes ago the President drove past in his convoi. But what has happened in Biloxi all day long is truly unbelievable. Suddenly recovery units appeared, suddenly bulldozers were there, those hadn't been seen here all the days before, and this in an area, in which it really wouldn't be necessary to do a big clean up, because far and wide nobody lives here anymore, the people are more inland in the city. The President travels with a press baggage [big crew]. This press baggage got very beautiful pictures which are supposed to say, that the President was here and help is on the way, too. The extent of the natural disaster shocked me, but the extent of the staging is shocking me at least the same way. With that back to Hamburg.

Dot:  Kathy F. points out at What do I Know that FEMA Deputy Director, Patrick Rhode, was a top advance man for the BushCo campaign.   A dKos diary comment  has the same info. 

Dot:  Team BushCo is already refusing to allow news photographers into some events, preferring to release photos taken by staffers instead.

Conclusion:  This is important because our corporate media is reporting these stunts as if they were news, which means that people are going to make important decisions based on that information.  These gimmicks are no different (expect probably worse) than the "prepackaged news stories" that this administration is infamous for sending out to push their agenda. I really don't know why Karen Ryan isn't travelling with BushCo now, narrating his pre-packaged Disaster Tour for the corporate media, saving them the trouble and expense of having their own people on the scene.

A diarist at dKos (lost found the link) looked at the most honest coverage of the aftermath of the storm and made the prediction that the biggest lesson this administration will learn from this disaster is that they must keep the news media out of the next disaster area.   It's the same lesson they learned best after Vietnam.  So, during the next disaster, look for quick action to lock down the area and a policy to embed a few journalists with whatever official PR response teams are sent to view the damage and hug the pre-screened survivors. 

I remember that the notorious Ms. Ryan was very uspet that because of  all the bad publicity thrown her way, she wouldn't be able to get another job.  She shouldn't worry.   There may be a cabinet position opening up for her in the near future.

Comments

[Stephanie]

Sorry about the double post, my twitchy, over-caffeinated fingers hit the post button before I was done. Would you be able to delete the first one?

What I meant to say was:

Bush has always looked like a sociopath to me, a person who would say or do absolutely anything to get what he wanted. He's like a TV preacher with better hair. How could anyone have ever believed a word he said? It's all so obviously turd-frosting.

Then I think about my great-granny watching Jimmy Swaggart in the parlour of her old farm house, nodding and smiling and saying "Praise Jesus!" under her breath, and I want to cry.