WOW! Brian William's special on Katrina....speaking candidly about

[Dover]

racism, class, and the complete (and intentional) impotence of the Bush administration's handling, the media as witness and its effects on them, changing their attitudes toward their own complacency toward Bushco etc..

The most straight talk I've heard for some time from a media voice. Hope they keep it up.

Still on at NBC.

[niyad]

1. I wonder how long he gets to keep his job??

[Catchawave]

2. Didn't he ride it out in the Superdome that night ?

Good for him for speaking out !

[Sydnie]

5. Yes he did

They are showing his report on KO tonight! :woohoo:

[Dover]

6. Yes.........he said it changed his life and outlook forever.

He got a little taste of what it's like to be treated like a second class citizen too.
Complained about how roughly people were treated by "Homeland Security" people, the men in line to get into the dome were patted down, the excuse given was that they were taking away matches and lighters due to the hazard in the dome. But then they handed out military food rations with matches in them!!!!! Aye!!!!

Because most t.v. reporters don't have much experience of being treated that way, and being without basic life necessities, it's not surprising that this caused an upwelling of anger in the media.
But I wonder if they realize just how oppressed they are? How much freedom do they really have to report truth in our current corporate-owned media?

[PinkyisBlue]

23. I applaud Brian Williams for speaking out, but..........

isn't this the job of an investigative reporter? It seems like, in the past, there used to be a whole lot more investigating going on.

I, too, wonder how much freedom these news reporters have to report the truth in the MSM. Will he be allowed to continue reporting events the way he sees them? Will he be allowed to investigate things? I'm sure the Bush team is not happy that journalists were allowed to experience what actually happened in New Orleans; this makes it harder for the public to believe the White House spin.

[bklyncowgirl]

35. Thank God the reporters were there.

The mainstream media by and large did itself proud during Katrina with special props to Brian Williams and of course Anderson Cooper.

Somehow the Bush team slipped up in their control of the news (wasn't Rove in the hospital or something?) and Americans were able to get a glimpse of reality and it was not pretty.

[Sydnie]

3. Sounds like the interview he did on TDS right after it happened

He was saying similar things then too. Now, if they all would just start talking about ALL the issues this admin has treated like this, we might be able to turn it around.

[Fridays Child]

4. One of the most shocking revelations from Greg Palast's piece on...

...Democracy Now!, today, is how residents of some of the projects that were NEVER flooded have been locked out of their apartments, since last year. Apparently, those in charge have wanted to close New Orleans' public housing down for some time, and Katrina gave them the excuse they needed.

[merh]

25. They are shutting down some of the existing public housing on the

MS Gulf Coast, the units that survived the storm.

This is a terrible time to demolish public housing

With thousands of South Mississippians still displaced by Hurricane Katrina, now is a terrible time for a government agency to toss as many as 400 families out of public housing.

Yet that is just what the Mississippi Regional Housing Authority VIII intends to do, by selling the L.C. Jones property in Gulfport and transferring the W.M. Ladnier property in Gulfport and Charles Warner in Pascagoula to the nonprofit South Mississippi Housing and Development Corporation.

The housing authority has told its tenants that it can no longer maintain the properties as public housing because of a lack of insurance proceeds and funding from HUD. But rather than ask HUD for more funding, the authority has asked HUD for permission to proceed with the sale and transfers.

The Jones property may or may not be redeveloped as affordable housing. The Ladnier and Warner properties will be, but in stages.

(snip)

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/editorial/15292390.htm

Can you imagine, a shortage of housing and they intend to do away with these public housing units.

Grants are available to home owners, not renters, those who could not afford houses, the poor and the struggling are just out of luck.

It's not just happening in Louisiana. But heck, we are a red state, nothing to see here folks, move along.....

:(

[sandnsea]

32. Trent Lott says

y'all are doing pretty good because you work together and don't whine like those.. other folks. It's been all over the cable news today, Haley Barbour's done an incredible job and Mississippi is recovering nicely because of it. Aren't you lucky you don't have the burden of a corrupt government like Louisiana, tsk tsk tsk.

So that's the story and if it takes hold, don't be surprised if you stay a red state for a long time to come, and don't get any help for poor folks either.

I'd have never thought they could destroy so much in so little time and most folks still don't know that any of it is even happening, and they won't as long as the Trent Lott's of this country keep getting on the air and saying it's all peaches and cream.

[doctorj]

7. Psychiatrist on call

In New Orleans, WDSU has psychiatrists available while viewing this special. Yes, things are still that rough.

[Dover]

8. So glad someone is thinking about things like that. Post Traumatic Stress

can be very difficult to get over. Particularly if one feels helpless and hopeless.

[Swamp Rat]

13. I can't watch ANY of it.

Thank you WDSU! :applause:

[AnnieBW]

9. I was in tears

During that first segment. Hubby and I agree that this needs to be shown every year - especially around election day.

[durrrty libby]

11. This special sure put a buzz kill on W's anniversary

propaganda.

He's been giving feel good speeches all day
from the gulf coast.


:think:

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

10. K & R!!! I'm very surprised by the commentary by Williams.

He's made a couple of not so oblique remarks about the legacy of gwb,

And...he recommends the media immediately start to focus on race, class, environment and petroleum, among many issues.

I'm kind of in shock, actually. MKJ

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

12. Wow, he just showed his interview on AF1 with gwb 3 mos after Katrina

That did not make gwb look good.

gwb: "I reject that! You can call me anything but don't call me a racist!"

Remember? Well, Williams spliced this exchange into the images of NOLA.

Again, let me second your "wow" MKJ

[young_at_heart]

14. Thank you Brian for telling the truth

We're all so sick of the lies and incompetence.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

15. Here's a link to the first 30 minutes, although his replay of his

interview with gwb on AF1 isn't included. However, he makes a couple of pointed references to gwb in his narrative.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14518359/

MKJ

[M0rpheus]

26. Here's the section with the bush interview.

At least in the transcript.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14555847/

[Stardust]

29. Thank you for the link. Long ago, I lost the ability to cry, but

the Katrina images and narratives broke through the wall. No matter how awful things may become in my life, it will never, ever be as bad as it was for those poor souls. Sadly, circumstances have not improved for many. Oftentimes, I'm ashamed to be an American.

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. Brian Williams...

Is that the usually conservative guy who looks like his eye brow and lower lip are snagged by invisible fishhooks on a tight line?

...I have no idea why I said that...

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

18. LOL, it's OK.

I'm sure this thread is a little surreal for anyone just checking in. MKJ

[theophilus]

19. Now, THAT sounds more like Brit Hume......ol' hound dog. He is

a Foxian total waste of skin.

[The Backlash Cometh]

20. Yeah, I was thinking of Brit Hume.

I can't really watch him for too long, not because of what he says, but because I'm always looking for the strings. It's like the Puppet Master forgot to cut him loose.

[Stardust]

30. I think you mean Stephen Colbert.

[The Backlash Cometh]

33. Don't mess with my man!

The description would fit only if he's trying to do a parody of Brit Hume.

[Auntie Bush]

17. Sorry I missed that! When was it on and will it be repeated?

:shrug: Inquiring minds want to know.

[fooj]

21. I am really stunned...

To think...Williams is actually doing his job! Right on!

[blonndee]

22. I remember Brian Williams reacting to Katrina right after it happened

and was impressed by what seemed to be the genuine shock and despair he felt over the entire fiasco. He made several public appearances in which he expressed similar thoughts. I'm glad to hear that he hasn't backed down from his experience now that it's about a year later.

[susanna]

24. I liked his straightforwardness on race/class for a brief moment...

...but then, lo and behold, he turned around and basically said he was afraid to broadcast and people agreed to "watch his back" and "warn the folks in the street not to 'smash and grab'" at his little motorcade. That lit my fuse, I can tell you that. He is basically perpetrating the stereotype of big cities, IMHO. Like a few guys standing on a street corner were gonna take him down. Whatever.

He all but admitted he had it better than most folks in the city, but then went into "hunker down" mode because he's a gigantic scaredy cat (as my gma would say). Funny thing is, I used to listen to that guy, but he's off my list. What a tool.

[RamboLiberal]

27. What is little known is that Williams was incredibly sick at the time

Viewers didn't know it at the time, and most still don't.

But NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams -- whose on-the-scene coverage of Hurricane Katrina helped earn NBC a Peabody Award -- fell "terribly ill" in the days following the storm.

On Tuesday, Aug. 30, "we did a broadcast from the I-10 overpass," Williams recalls. "I thought I could stand up, and I got very weak. They started pumping me with fluids and made me sit down on an equipment box for the broadcast."

In an interview with TVNewser last week, Williams was clearly uncomfortable discussing the illness.

"The only problem I have with it being public... is that I am the last person people should be thinking about," he says. "I was surrounded by such depravity, watching people try to survive with such great quiet dignity, that I have a real problem with any attention ."

<snip>

...author Douglas Brinkley caught wind of Williams' condition and described it in his book, The Great Deluge. Williams "fell terribly ill from dysentery on Tuesday," Brinkley wrote. "He possibly contracted the disease by ingesting water containing bacteria, while doing a Today show appearance. He was standing next to flood water, sipping distilled Kentwood Water, when he noticed a trickle of brown on the side of the plastic bottle. A few drops of the sewage water had accidentally gotten into his mouth."

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/

Sorry I missed his special tonight.

[AlCzervik]

28. i watched it based on your thread, my 12 year old watched it with me

it was a very good piece and of course it makes you so angry and then sad and then you have to have hope, my daughter was horrified and she's seen plenty of coverage but seeing condensed like that really hit her "How can that be America mom"

[renate]

31. Dang! I'm sorry I missed it

I thought it was tomorrow night. Rats.

I've read here that he was a Republican, but I think I remember reading in Vanity Fair that he was one of the attendees at a Democratic fundraiser in 2006. After reading people's comments about him since then, I assumed I was remembering wrong, but maybe not.

[malaise]

34. When the history of Bush's Presidency

is written, Katrina will be the moment when journalists' and reporters' blinkers were torn off their faces. They had no choice -the truth was staring at them and it was fugging ugly.

Brian Williams special was candid and forthright.

[SeanQ]

36. I watched it last night with with my wife (DVR), who is from

Metairie. It was ... it was very moving. He did an incredible job, and props to NBC for airing it! My mother-in-law, who is still living in Metairie, says Katrina has become a very important, and personal, issue with Mr. William, and that he has done a number of stories trying to keep the ongoing problems in New Orleans and elsewhere in the aftermath of Katrina in the national dialog. She is very impressed by him and grateful for the work he is trying to do.