Katrina Victims: Justice is Coming

The tragic Midwest Flooding has captured America’s attention (at least for now) largely because mainstream media has covered the story. The cable and broadcast networks have brought the flooding into our living rooms, while the print media have written a steady stream of articles about the cresting Mississippi River and the overtopping or failure of over 20 levees. For all the coverage, there has been scant rigorous analysis of how tens of thousands of Americans find themselves in the same boat as Hurricane Katrina victims.

Worse yet, the Army Corps of Engineers has been able to get away with a massive “spin” campaign. As I predicted, the federal agency responsible for preventing flooding is blaming everyone and everything other than itself for failing levees. The campaign of deception and deflection has been swallowed hook, line, and sinker by the networks and newspapers as they uncritically repeated such canards as “unexpectedly high water levels,” “we never expected this to happen,” “you cannot prevent this flooding” and even “a muskrat burrowed through the levee.”

Now we learn that the Army Corps has its own public relations firm to train the Generals and Colonels in how to lie to the American taxpayer. Corps press officer Kevin Quinn has boasted of the skillful message management of S&C Advertising & Public Relations.

“How these [PR] professionals can transform masters of techno-babble into credible spokespersons so quickly and smoothly is an amazing thing to behold,” Quinn gushed.

This cynical manipulation of present and future flood victims is outrageous. Our tax dollars are being hijacked to help an incompetent, arrogant, and lawless bureaucracy perpetuate itself and its engineering blunders. Please see if you are not as outraged as I am about this lie mongering by the Army Corps when you read the enlightening expose written by Georgianne Nienaber in The Huffington Post. Click here to read http://www.huffingtonpost.com/georgianne-nienaber/the-floods-army-corps-say_b_108701.html.

In fact, this is one of three postings by Nienaber on the Midwest flooding. She has written incisively about the parallels between the Midwest and New Orleans flooding. Click here to read http://www.huffingtonpost.com/georgianne-nienaber/the-floods-new-orleans-go_b_108269.html and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/georgianne-nienaber/the-floods-new-orleans-go_b_108269.html.

The Huffington Post has rendered a commendable public service by challenging the Corps PR machine. Let’s pray that the next time the Army Corps tries to blame God, nature, or furry creatures for its dereliction of duty, the mainstream media will be a lot more skeptical. Is it too much to think that CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who has continued to care about Katrina victims, would devote one of his segments to confronting the Army Corps on its contemptible conduct?