Media Hysteria Redeaux

What a difference a few days makes.

After spending the morning ignoring the news, I dragged through the various internet news sites, caught a few reruns of the “talking head” shows, and watched my daily dose of FOX News this evening. Was I the only one that noticed that there is a noticeable change in the tone of the reporting coming out of New Orleans?

I predicted the phenomena on Saturday, and it is really accelerating now. The reality of the situation in the disaster area doesn’t come close to matching the hysterical predictions made by most of the media and most of the so called officials in the heat of the initial search and recovery effort.

“THERE MAY BE AS MANY AS TEN THOUSAND DEAD IN THE CITY” screamed the New Orleans Mayor Nagen. The media’s panties and boxers crawled up their tight asses and their eyebrows spun around wildly as the breathlessly reported from the interstate bridges with the water logged darkened city in the background.

Yet today the Associated Press is reporting:

“Authorities raised Louisiana's death toll to 197 on Sunday, and recovery of corpses continued. Teams pulled an unspecified number of bodies from Memorial Medical Center, a 317-bed hospital in uptown New Orleans that closed more than a week ago after being surrounded by floodwaters.”

Mayor Nagen was last week demanding a mandatory evacuation for an indefinite term—possibly as long as six months—of the entire city. The state’s Governoress Balco was contradicting the honorable Mayor with virtually every word uttered in every hastily scheduled news conference.

The AP continues…

“Numerous residents were able to visit their homes for the first time, however briefly, as floodwaters receded and work crews cleared trees, debris and downed telephone poles from major streets…

The Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport reopened for cargo traffic Sunday, and limited passenger service was expected to resume Tuesday, airport Director Roy Williams said.

Williams said he expects about 30 departures and arrivals of passenger planes a day - far below the usual 174 - at the airport, where a week ago terminals became triage units and more than two dozen people died.

Starting Monday, owners of businesses in the central commercial district will be able to get temporary passes into the city so they can retrieve vital records or equipment needed to make payroll or otherwise run their companies, said state police spokesman Johnny Brown.”

Trash collection began over the weekend; a service unimaginable in the apocalyptic first days after Katrina's fury battered the Gulf Coast and broke holes in two levees, flooding most of New Orleans…

Mayor C. Ray Nagen was asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" whether New Orleans could stage Mardi Gras in February 2006. "I haven't even thought that far out yet," he said.
But he added, "It's not out of the realm of possibilities. ... It would be a huge boost if we could make it happen."

I say that Nagen and his ilk could do everyone a favor and just stay the hell out of the way from here on out. The city of New Orleans doesn’t put on the Mardi Gras celebration, the merchants and visitors are responsible for the success or failure of the event and all the city does is write parking tickets and collect parade permit fees.

At least the Mayor has learned to avoid making ill-informed predictions:

“Nagen declined to say when the city might be drained of floodwaters.

"But I always knew that once we got the pumps up, some of our significant pumps going, that we could accelerate the draining process," he said. "The big one is pumping station six, which is our most powerful pump, and I am understanding that's just about ready to go."

The city's main wastewater treatment facility will be running by Monday, said Sgt. John Zeller, an engineer with the California National Guard.

"We're making progress," Zeller said. "This building was underwater yesterday."
As of Sunday evening, the city was slowly being drained by 67 pumps. The Sewerage and Water Board reported that aerial scans of New Orleans revealed it was about 50 percent flooded, down from a height of 80 percent.”

The airport’s operating, trash is being collected, power is back on, and half the water has been pumped out in only two weeks—so much for being a disaster of Biblical proportions. Bad—yes, but not anywhere near the level of death and destruction caused by the Christmas Tsunami.

Do you suppose that you will hear any of the media and their self proclaimed experts apologizing for the inaccuracy of their earlier reporting and predictions? Is it possible that they will admit that much of the hysteria and public outcry was fueled by the media’s own exaggerations? You don’t suppose that their real intention—to bash the Bush White House—will ever come to light.

No, neither do I.

Like every other over hyped media pseudo non-event, watch the story slowly but surely slide off of the front page into history as the Supreme Court hearings and next missing blond chick story grabs the attention of the unwashed masses.