Katrina Response -- Media Bias Evident in Assigning Blame, Says Observer
by Chad Groening and Fred Jackson
September 12, 2005
(AgapePress) - A conservative talk-show host and former GOP political consultant believes that, for the most part, the news media has given the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana a pass for failures in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. At the same time, the conservative pundit is not giving President Bush a pass. Michael Graham is the host of Michael Graham Unleashed! on Right Talk Radio. He believes the news media is "obsessed" with bashing the president, to the point where it is ignoring what Graham believes is the failure of the mayor of New Orleans.
"Their mayor failed their city," Graham says bluntly. "Try to imagine how differently things could have been in New Orleans if Rudy Giuliani [former mayor of New York City] had been the mayor instead of Roy Nagin. Lives would have been saved, property would have been saved, the future of New Orleans would be brighter."
Graham says Mayor Nagin is not the only politico at fault. He says Governor Kathleen Blanco also should shoulder some of the blame -- but the public, he says, will be hard-pressed to find such news reports. He says the press is at fault in this regard.
"The press is more concerned about bashing Bush than they are in telling the truth, particularly when the bad actors in this case are Democrats in Louisiana," he contends. "The media really hates saying bad things about Democrats -- so that's why we've seen President Bush shamefully linked to these deaths that, quite frankly, he could do very little to stop."
And while it is unfortunate, says Graham, that the media will not cover the local angle -- "They're so obsessed with bashing Bush," he says -- the conservative talk-show host is not giving the administration a complete pass.
"Bush had failings," he admits, "but that doesn't change the fact that the press coverage should be on the first line of defense: the city and the [state] government. Those are the people who always confront natural disasters like this."
FEMA, he adds, is only a "coordinating organization." And the president, he says, should have done more. "He should have made FEMA do more -- but he still is very distant from the problems; and the mayor [Roy Nagin] and the governor [Kathleen Blanco] are much more responsible."
Meanwhile, Governor Blanco is making it clear that President Bush was not responsible for any lags in response to the hurricane. She declared over the weekend that "help in those critical moments was slow in coming, not through any fault of the president."
That is a very different stance from many Democrats in Washington, such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, who have been publicly holding President Bush solely responsible for the response problems.
Chad Groening is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online. Fred Jackson is news director of AFR News. Both are regular contributors to AgapePress.
