'they are so black': reporters finally get it

this is a column from jack shafer about the problematic response to katrina and the thousands still stranded in new orleans. it's worth reading because what these reporters are seeing (not their opinions, not their media talking points) - what they're seeing is the face of the massive underclass in our country - black, poor, desperate, dying, stranded.

wolf blitzer, moved out of his jc penny dummy-like stupor riffs in response to the pictures:

You simply get chills every time you see these poor individuals, as Jack Cafferty just pointed out, so tragically, so many of these people, almost all of them that we see, are so poor and they are so black, and this is going to raise lots of questions for people who are watching this story unfold.

you can use his words as a metaphor or you can take it for what it is - reality.

[via alternet - which has a great series of stories on the storm, the coverage, and the response]