Well Fed Media Pigs Call It "Looting"
Steven Black
Scores of articles and news reports have described the survival efforts of those stranded in New Orleans as "looting". Calls have gone out to have the National Guard drop its efforts to save lives and focus more energy on "stopping" those savage people carrying diapers, packages of dried noodles, and first aide kits from trying to survive. Under martial law, such efforts would amount to "assassinate first, drag the body away later" tactics. That our media considers the survival of the defenseless during an unprecedented disaster less important than propagandizing about the rights of private property owners who have fled for their own survival is stark evidence of the depravity of our times. The cries and moans of Fox News personnel over those "stolen" diapers far exceeds their voiced concern over the lives of the brown and black people sloshing their way through a growing lake of rancid floating bodies.
Personally, I'd like to see Bill O'Reilly sloshing his way through the chemical stew, dragging himself passed the decaying bodies, telling his own children, "Sorry, even though my wallet if full of cash, I can't feed you today because the owners of the store have fled and no one is there to accept my payment for food. You'll just have to die, my children."
Anyone who would not steal food to save their family or themselves when no other option is available is a criminal. Anyone who would not smash the windows of a pharmacy when that was the only way to obtain life save medicine during a disaster is unworthy of life. Any society that worships the property rights of a diaper owner over the well being of a diaperless child can eat shit.
An inglorious peace is better than a dishonorable war.
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Comments
some reasons for the racist focus
31 Aug 2005
2. the media reflects the owner-classes, so their primary concern is property
3. the media reflects the owner-classes, so they have contempt for the superfluous people.
4. racism is an inherent characteristic of this settler nation. thus, blacks are identified as looters & whites as survivalists.
5. this is the south, remember. they don't think too clearly to begin w/.
6. the media is also a gatekeeper. they have a vested interest in protecting power, like the president. broadcasting sensational reporting like this deflect attention from questions on why the flooding is so bad & why they aren't able, or don't think it's necessary, to get the people out of there. people start focusing discussions on looting and just how wild black people are, or what they'd do if they were in that situation, which results in the "occupied mind" of the viewer, and buys time for taking the heat of the real criminals
7. the media is a business that sells audiences to advertisers. sensationalism generates ratings, which creates profits.
one more
01 Sep 2005
shows the divide in the city
01 Sep 2005
In addition, floodplain housing is much cheaper, and therefore the poor will be flooded first.
By the way, what the fuck is up with the rescue operations? We can't blame this all on a goddamn sniper that popped up. I heard they've just brought in sandbags and barrier materials today. It's fucking thursday! People are starving, dying and suffering. It's just that they are not in a priveleged enough position to generate enough action, I guess.
and it isn't only the disenfranchised of New Orleans that are getting ignored. There are also all sorts of rural areas that were hit even harder that are getting little to no mention.
(Specific sidestories in the papers are telling as well. I was reading this one "heroic" framed story about a white kid who was able to escape by dropping $3,500 on a limo. Another, maybe on monday, after talking about all of the deaths, made sure to reassure the readers that the historic French Quarter was unharmed, back then, at least. Whew!)
this is not negligence, this is deliberate
01 Sep 2005
here's a couple blogs to sample
atrios.blogspot.com/
americablog.org/
also, from sid blumenthal's excoriating piece today:
In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a terrorist attack on New York City.
evil
01 Sep 2005