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September 04, 2005

Staged presidential photo-ops in New Orleans?

Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana sent out the following press release yesterday:

But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast - black and white, rich and poor, young annd old - deserve far better from their national governmeent. (via AMERICAblog. [Via Middle Earth Journal, via Running Scared] )

Another blog, Iconoclast reports that German ZDF television news crews witnessed other staged photo-ops for president Bush's visit to New Orleans. Apparently the source is a Dutch news viewer who watched the ZDF coverage and then emailed his observations to a blogger at War and Peace

ZDF News reported that the president's visit was a completely staged event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time. The people in the area were once again left to fend for themselves, said ZDF.

Posted by Kevin at September 4, 2005 10:11 AM