Hurricane Katrina: The Media Sees an Opportunity...

...to engage in yet another tedious round of Bush-bashing. Good timing, this hurricane, for the media, as they Cindy Sheehan story was losing its legs due to her psycho-racist rants. Let's take this AP report as an example of how the media is trying to paint this natural disaster http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050904/ts_nm/katrina_dc :

Under fire for its slow response to the flooding, the Bush administration tried to save face on Sunday...
- "save face"??? Why, did Bush order up a level 2 hurricane to raise oil prices, but got a level 5 instead?

We have been abandoned by our own country," Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish just south of New Orleans, told NBC's Meet the Press....
"For God sakes, shut up and send somebody," a tearful and anguished Broussard said of promises not kept by Washington, adding that "bureaucracy has committed murder" in New Orleans...
-which bureaucracy, AP? Bush's? How? I can give you a dozen examples, however, of murderous negligence by local Democrats here: http://jerseynut.blogspot.com/2005/09/katrinas-devastation-whos-responsible.html

After a nightmare confluence of natural disaster and political ineptitude that al Qaeda-linked Web sites called evidence of the "wrath of God" striking America...
-What the hell does al-Qaeda have to do with anything? Or are you just trying to report on fascist gloating at American deaths? Methinks your stringers are spending too much time in terrorist chatrooms; it is distorting their reporting...and whose "political ineptitude", by the way? Ray Nagin? Governer Blanco? No, not a word here about their criminal malfeasence...

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld toured a medical facility at New Orleans' international airport on Sunday. He spoke and shook hands with military and rescue officials but walked right by a dozen refugees lying on stretchers just feet away from him, most of them extremely sick or handicapped...
-well, what the hell was he supposed to do, wake up the dead and dying for a photo-op? The AP is sick, demented...

Amazing, despite this vicious left wing propoganda, Americans have a pretty good view of what is going on here..from an ABC poll:

Federal government adequately prepared?
31% Yes
67% No
State/local government adequately prepared?
24% Yes
75% No
Blame Bush?
44% Yes
55% No

That last stat is amazing, and speaks well to America's ability to gauge the accuracy of the information they are receiving. And on Bush's response to the crisis, broken down by party:

All
46% Approve
47% Disapprove
Democrats
17% Approve
71% Disapprove
Independents
44% Approve
48% Disapprove
Republicans
74% Approve
22% Disapprove

So the nation's assignment of blame appears, unfortunately, to be split upon party lines.
Interesting, though, that the media coverage has been almost universally critical of the Bush Administration and has been falling all over itself to convolute the facts to lay blame at his feet.
In fact, the "Blame Bush" to "Blame{Whomever}" coverage of this horrific event probably falls out at about 71% to 17%. Not scientific, but still....

Remember this, the next time the media claims they are impartial...

Link to ABC poll results here: http://abcnews.go.com/US/HurricaneKatrina/story?id=1094262&page=1

UPDATE 1230A: Let's bring this post full-circle. See "Cindy's Lament" here http://www.sacredcowburgers.com/fresh/showpics.cgi?cindys_lament
[hattip: "Fatass The Conquerer"(?) http://fatasstheconqueror.blogspot.com/ ]