Tuesday, June 29, 2010
A Tale of Two Disasters - WSJ.com
Here's a discussion of two disasters, two presidents, and the media coverage.
I think it's accurate...
I think it's accurate...
Paul H. Rubin writes in the Wall Street Journal:
"The final difference is in the press handling of the two issues.
Mr. Bush responded quickly to Katrina but was handicapped by regulations giving power to the states. Nonetheless, the federal response was well coordinated and helpful overall. But Mr. Bush was rapidly and widely blamed for the result of Katrina and for failures that actually occurred at other levels of government.
Now Mr. Obama has much more power than did Mr. Bush, but the federal response is ineffective and often stands in the way of those in the best position to know what to do. It is only in the last week or two that the mainstream press has voiced any criticism of Mr. Obama.
This is because the media's default position for Mr. Bush was 'Bush is wrong,' and it sought stories aimed at justifying this belief. For Mr. Obama the media's default is 'Obama is right,' and it takes a powerful set of facts to move it away from this assumption. As oil continues to gush from the unplugged well, this set of facts has unfortunately come to the fore."
