Thursday, September 08, 2005
Scotty Didn't Blog Today
From today's press briefing with White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan (link):
Q: "Scott, there are a couple of issues that are developing that are of concern to journalists now in Louisiana and Mississippi. One of them is FEMA refusing to take reporters and photographers when they're going to recover the bodies, ostensibly because they don't want pictures of them on the news. But this also is at the same time as reporters are discovering that access is being barred to them to places by the military -- to places where they previously went. Brian Williams' own blog reports an instance of a police officer turning a gun on a reporter."
MR. McCLELLAN: "Sorry, I haven't blogged today, so I haven't seen some of those reports."
Hysterical. Even a major network news anchor can be mocked if he blogs.
But Scotty was just being a smartass, he knew full well how much of the press was "characterizing" the apparent lockdown:
Mr. McCLELLAN: "Your first statement that you made, I think you need to look further into that, because I don't think that's an accurate characterization. I saw some reports to that effect, and my understanding is that it was not an accurate characterization. Certainly, I think we all want to keep in mind the sensitivities that will arise when we begin a more -- or a larger undertaking of recovering bodies that will be found. As I said, it's going to be an ugly situation when those flood waters ultimately recede and we go in and start recovering larger numbers of bodies, of people who have lost their lives. Those are people who had families and friends, and we hope everybody will show the dignity -- proper dignity and respect. But in terms of the characterization that you made, I don't think that's accurate."
Brian Williams' blog has been pretty impressive during the last week.
Here's an excerpt from one of the posts cited in today's press briefing (link):
"At that same fire scene, a police officer from out of town raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media... obvious members of the media... armed only with notepads. Her actions (apparently because she thought reporters were encroaching on the scene) were over the top and she was told. There are automatic weapons and shotguns everywhere you look. It's a stance that perhaps would have been appropriate during the open lawlessness that has long since ended on most of these streets. Someone else points out on television as I post this: the fact that the National Guard now bars entry (by journalists) to the very places where people last week were barred from LEAVING (The Convention Center and Superdome) is a kind of perverse and perfectly backward postscript to this awful chapter in American history."
Damn.
Many bloggers dream about putting the MSM out of business, but that sharp, yet scary paragraph is better than most of the shrillish attacks that I've seen at the major left-leaning blogs the last 10 days.
My advice would be a little less shouting and cursing, and more digging. Then maybe something written on a blog will actually reach someone outside of the Internet.
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