Katrina in the French News
Well, that was interesting. On Thursday, the top story on the 8 o'clock news on France 2 was, naturally, the aftermath of Katrina. The focus was on New Orleans, partly because of France's historical connection to that city. Their American correspondent on the scene reported this was a terrible disaster but the human spirit will overcome, blah, blah, etc. On Friday, the tone had changed completely. The newsreader did the usual introductory roundup of the headlines and her first headline was that people in New Orleans had been abandoned like pestiférés, plague victims, and left to their lot.
The newspapers had already been talking about this for a couple of days and the easily-annoyed left-wing paper Libération went into full rant mode today.
But a good day or two before them, it was the bloggers who were covering the issue of the poor being left behind. Now, I don't think blogs are the Second Coming when it comes to news gathering, but occasionally it's frustrating to see how long it takes for stories like this to filter through to the insular mainstream media here.
P.S. Mike wrote a very funny post about the Dutch response to Katrina that I'd linked to in the sidebar. So I thought I'd mention the Dutch are offering the Americans materials and experts relating to flooding, dike breaks, pumps for drinking water, etc. The US haven't made any formal requests yet, but on Friday it was announced the frigate Hr. Ms. Van Amstel carrying emergency supplies was shortly due to leave the Antilles for the disaster-struck region.
The newspapers had already been talking about this for a couple of days and the easily-annoyed left-wing paper Libération went into full rant mode today.
But a good day or two before them, it was the bloggers who were covering the issue of the poor being left behind. Now, I don't think blogs are the Second Coming when it comes to news gathering, but occasionally it's frustrating to see how long it takes for stories like this to filter through to the insular mainstream media here.
P.S. Mike wrote a very funny post about the Dutch response to Katrina that I'd linked to in the sidebar. So I thought I'd mention the Dutch are offering the Americans materials and experts relating to flooding, dike breaks, pumps for drinking water, etc. The US haven't made any formal requests yet, but on Friday it was announced the frigate Hr. Ms. Van Amstel carrying emergency supplies was shortly due to leave the Antilles for the disaster-struck region.