According to Media Matters for America, the media has ignored and largely misrepresented Nancy Pelosi’s accusations against FEMA and the Bush administration broadcast on the September 7 CBS Evening News:
PELOSI: When I said to the president that he should fire Michael Brown, he said, “Why would I do that?” I said, “Because of all that went wrong, with all that didn’t go right last week.” And he said, “What didn’t go right?” Oblivious, in denial, dangerous.
Pelosi (D-CA) pegged Michael Brown of FEMA, formerly a judge in horse shows as incompetent in the Sept. 6San Francisco Chronicle.
Nicholas D. Kristoff writes in the Sept. 6 International Herald-Tribune:
“It’s not just that funds may have gone to Iraq rather than to the levees in New Orleans; it’s also that money went to tax cuts for the wealthiest rather than vaccinations for children.”
Roger Cohen writes “You can count the American image as a major casualty of Hurricane Katrina” in the International Herald-Tribune.
Julia Gronnevet discovers how the world is reporting Hurricane Katrina in the American Prospect.
Mark Steyn levels anti-Americanism in the fact of mother nature in his September 7 editorial in the Washington Times, “Sniping and Griping.”
Harold Meyerson labels the administration with the Rumsfeldism “Stuff Happens” Rumsfeldism
Jim Hoagland helps define anti-Bushism as being separate from anti-Americanism in the Sept. 7 Washington Post. “Katrina could yet hold a political silver lining if the disaster reminds both Bush and his harshest critics that America’s role in the world is not defined just by the personalities and policies of the current occupants of the White House.”
Murdoch’s New York Post blasts FEMA in two places today.
Finally, the Polls:
Zogby today came out with a poll insinuating that the public would rather have Jimmy Carter in office right now. The bottom line is Bush gets 41% approval rating.
According to Gallup, 42% thought Bush’s response was terrible, yet 35% thought that it was good or great.
In CNN/USA Today‘s poll, 56% of the respondents felt New Orleans was devastated beyond repair (though 63% think it should be rebuilt), and nearly all thought it was the worst natural disaster to occur in the United States in their lifetime.