![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/gerryrivers.jpg\")
Readers who share a conspiratorial bent with the
\n Dowbrigade may have noticed a sea change in the New Orleans coverage
\n on Saturday. This occurred following one of the most disturbing exchanges
\n we have ever seen on live television, as FOX News’ Geraldo Rivera and
\n Shepard
\n Smith, a few blocks apart outside the ad hoc refugee gathering point
\n at the New Orleans Convention center, simultaneously decomposed on camera.<\/p>\n
Maybe it was the strain of three straight days and nights of disaster
\n coverage and lack of sleep. Maybe it was the incredible scenes of pathos and tragedy
\n which broke down the journalistic reserve of even these battle-hardened
\n correspondants. Maybe it was frustration with their inability to grab
\n their customary control of the situation. But Geraldo was hysterical,
\n tears streaming down his cheeks as he held a bewildered brown baby up
\n to the camera. Shep seemed to be losing his grip as we watched, blubbering
\n almost incoherently into the microphone about the inhumanity of the forces
\n of order. Most unprofessional….<\/p>\n
SMITH: They won’t let them walk out of the convention
\n center. .. they’ve locked
\n them
\n in
\n there.
\n The
\n government
\n said, "You
\n go here, and you’ll get help," or, "You go in that Superdome
\n and you’ll get help."<\/p>\n
And they didn’t get help. They got locked in there. And they watched
\n people being killed around them. And they watched people starving. And
\n they watched elderly
\npeople not get any medicine
\n…<\/p>\n
And they’ve set up a checkpoint. And anyone who walks up out of that city now
\nis turned around. You are not allowed to go to Gretna, Louisiana, from New Orleans,
\nLouisiana. Over there, there’s hope. Over there, there’s electricity. Over there,
\nthere is food and water. But you cannot go from there to there. The government
\nwill not allow you to do it. It’s a fact.<\/p>\n
HANNITY: All right, Shep, I want to get some perspective here, because earlier
\ntoday…<\/p>\n
SMITH: That is perspective! That is all the perspective you need!<\/p>\n
Starting to panic, in-studio host Sean Hannity switches to Geraldo, and things
\ngo from bad to worse:<\/p>\n
RIVERA (holding aloft a baby): Sean, I want everyone in the world to see, six
\ndays after Katrina swept through this city, five days after the levee collapsed,
\nthis baby-this baby-how old is this baby?<\/p>\n
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ten months old<\/p>\n
RIVERA: Look in the face of the baby. This is it. This is it. No sugar coating,
\nno political spin, no Republicans or Democrats. People suffering.<\/p>\n
Let them go. Let them out of here. Let them go. Let them walk over this damn
\ninterstate, and let them out of here.<\/p>\n
HANNITY: All right. Thanks, Geraldo. Appreciate it. We appreciate and from New
\nOrleans tonight.<\/p>\n
[here is a link And then, the next morning, miraculously, providentially, Is it so paranoid to imagine an apocolyptic pre-dawn The Prima Donnas are still on the air, but toned way Readers who share a conspiratorial bent with the Dowbrigade may have noticed a sea change in the New Orleans coverage on Saturday. This occurred following one of the most disturbing exchanges we have ever seen on live television, as FOX … Continue reading
\n to the video<\/a> for those who suspect us of exaggeration]<\/p>\n
\n coincidentally, the tenor of the coverage changed. There were stories
\n of hope and heroism. The cavalry was arriving. Stories of
\n recsued kids, old people and pets started outnumbering graphic depictions
\n of destruction, lawlessness and death. The healing had begun.<\/p>\n
\n phone call to Rupert Murdock from someone at the White House, perhaps
\n even
\n Prince
\n of Darkness Darth Cheney himself, yanking the chain around the necks
\n of those pretty boy talking heads?<\/p>\n
\n down, almost contrite, back pulling their weight as team players, looking
\n on
\n the positive
\n side. After all, what good is it to have a free press if you can’t freely
\n manipulte it once in a while?<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"