It's got to be hard for Today and its MSM cohorts. In the wake of President Bush's inspired speech, with its ambitious agenda for rebuilding the gulf coast, attention is turning toward the future and away from the 'good old days.' You know: that period right after Katrina hit when the liberal media were in their glory, reveling in the halting governmental response, focusing almost entirely on the shortcomings of the Bush administration.
Gripped by nostalgia for that glorious recent past, and being the good recyclers that liberals are, the Today show took a walk down memory lane this morning, re-running some of the most inflammatory footage from the hurricane's immediate aftermath.
NBC reporter Mark Mullen, live in New Orleans, introduced file footage of a black woman at the notorious Convention Center, holding a baby as she screamed at the camera "get us out of here, we want to get out of here."
Mullen pointedly reminded us that "the Convention Center will be remembered as the symbol of government failure, as thousands of evacuees languished and in some cases died waiting for help."
To make its point, Today then ran footage of a partially-covered dead body in a chaise lounge.
A minute later came a clip of a group of what appeared to be a young black family, baby in tow, pushing a shopping cart as they waded through thigh-deep water.
Finally, to drive home the message of just how deeply the government's failure has undermined the bonds of our society, Today found a woman who stood outside her home and proclaimed "I don't feel I'm an American anymore."
Let's have some sympathy for the MSM. It's hard for them to let go to these images of misery, death and destruction that could be laid at the feet of the Bush administration. Expect to see them for months to come whenever an imaginative producer can find a fig leaf of cover.
<>
Finkelstein has degrees from Cornell University and Harvard Law
School.He lives in Ithaca, NY where he hosts "Right Angle," a local
political talk show. Finkelstein specializes in exposing liberal bias
at NBC's Today Show.
