Like a lot of you, I've long mocked the following spectacle: A hurricane hits and some poor (though probably well-compensated) reporter is set out to report live from the affected area. He's standing out there in the wind and the rain in his Eddie Bauer slicker, nearly getting swept off his feet and implying that he and his camera crew are braving death just to show us…well, to show us what it looks like to be too dumb to come in out of the rain, I guess. Makes you want to yell at the screen, "Okay, we get it. Hurricane-force winds can knock you over. Now, go back inside the Marriott and get something to eat!"
But I gotta tell ya: One of the reasons we know how bad it is down in the Gulf Coast — one of the reasons even George W. Bush may be finally figuring it out — is that there are some courageous reporters out there now, on the ground or in helicopters not far above the ground. While government officials are explaining how hard it is to get to some of the hardest-hit spots, some journalists and photographers are there. I've been especially taken by the on-scene reporting of Anderson Cooper over on CNN. Last night on Larry King Live, Larry asked him if he was angry and he replied…
I wouldn't say I'm angry, you know. I think I'm tired of hearing the politicians say that, you know, they understand the frustration of people down here. To me, you know, it's not frustration. It's not that people are frustrated. It's that people are dying. I mean there are people dying. They're drowning to death and they drown in their living rooms and their bodies are rotting where they drowned and there are corpses in the street being eaten by rats and this is the United States of America. It's not a question of me being angry. People down here are frustrated and angry and it goes beyond just frustration. It's, you know, there are a lot of people who listen to you on satellite radio who are down here who are able to, you know, get some radio and they're — you know they come up to me and they tell me if I hear them one more time, you know, congratulating each other and thanking each other for all their efforts, the politicians, you know. They would like them to come down here and roll up their sleeves and get in the tent and help out with some people because there's a lot of need here and there's not much help. I mean there are a lot of hardworking people here from FEMA and the national government and God bless them but I got to tell you there is a great need here, Larry, and it is shocking to see firsthand.
Don't you sense a connection between that kind of reporting and this morning's statement by Bush that relief efforts are "not acceptable?" Whatever's going to be done will surely fall into the category of Too Little/Too Late, but I'll bet you they'd be doing even less if Americans weren't getting outraged at the shoddy planning and the tepid disaster response. That outrage is made possible by aggressive reporting and by the fact that, unlike Iraq, no one's afraid of being accused of being unpatriotic and of not "supporting our troops" if they show us bad news.
