UK News on NOLA - Can UK Members Confirm Source Integrity?

[BenW]

I've been seeing the below story floating around. Can any of our UK members confirm if this is a mainstream news source, and not a "National Enquirer" type of rag? It's a bit (okay, A LOT) farfetched -- Sean Penn rescuing people as they're drowning, and cops asking for free peeks to rescue women?

If this is a legitimate news source, it's kinda scary re: the bad intel they're both getting and buying into.

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http://www.thisislondon.com/til/jsp/modules/Article/print.jsp?itemId=20274160

This is
LONDON
06/09/05 - News section

Penn accuses Bush amid rescue chaos

The US government was accused of "criminal negligence" as hopes of finding survivors faded and the death toll from Hurricane Katrina continued to rise.

Holidaymakers returning to the UK spoke of the scale of the misery while one said leering police officers demanded young women flash their breasts in return for help.

Oscar-winning Hollywood actor Sean Penn, who has been assisting rescue efforts in New Orleans, said the US government did not "seem to be inclined to help".

"We were pulling drowning people out of the water, it's the ultimate distress and human suffering ... dead bodies," he told GMTV.

Penn said he had spent nine hours on Monday searching the water for people and during all that time he saw just three boats carrying US officials.

"There are people that are dying right now and I mean babies and old people and everybody in between - they're dying. There are people dying and (the US government are) not putting the boats in the water, I think that's criminal negligence. I don't think anybody ever anticipated the criminal negligence of the Bush administration in this situation."

The US authorities were also castigated by British bus driver Ged Scott, from Wallasey, Merseyside, who was on holiday in the New Orleans area.

He stayed in the Ramada Hotel during and after the devastation with his wife, Sandra, and seven-year-old son Ronan. At one stage, Mr Scott, 36, had to wade through filthy water to barricade the hotel doors against looters.

He told the Liverpool Daily Post: "I couldn't describe how bad the authorities were. Just little things like taking photographs of us, as we are standing on the roof waving for help, for their own little snapshot albums.

"At one point, there were a load of girls on the roof of the hotel saying 'Can you help us?' and the policemen said 'Show us what you've got' and made signs for them to lift their T-shirts. When the girls refused, they said 'Fine' and motored off down the road in their boat."

 

[boofus]

Sean Penn went in a little fishing boat with an entourage of about 9 people including reporters and cameramen to the muck of New Orleans. They forgot to put the drainage plug in the rear and it started to capsize. He tried to bail it out with a cup.

Then they floated around and waved at people on rooftops because the boat was already full of his groupies and they really couldn't rescue anyone.

How in the hell does that story get turned into that garbage up top?

 

[Lo.Com.Denom]

I've never heard of "This Is London" before, but seeing as I don't live there (and try to avoid the place as much as possible), that isn't surprising. The media here - even in the mainstream - is pretty screwed-up, so I wouldn't be astounded if "This Is London" turned out to be legitimate.
Left-wing or right-wing - it all depends what flavour you like your B.S. in the morning.

 

[Iain]

Go to www.thisislondon.co.uk - banner there says it is 'from the Evening Standard'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_London_Evening_Standard

 

[Mk VII]

the Evening Standard is London's sole newspaper, having driven the Evening News out of business in the 1980s. I seldom buy it, now that the Bristow and Modesty Blaise strips have gone from it.

 

[GT]

ahh Modesty Blaise.. now that brings back memories!

G (originally from GB)

 

[BenW]

Thanks for the info. Sad that they didn't do any fact checking on that article. Did they by some chance get an influx of reporters from the New York Times?

All in all though, I shouldn't be surprised at seeing stories like this in the foreign press given some of the nutzo pseudo-information our media is spouting out.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

I seldom buy it, now that the Bristow and Modesty Blaise strips have gone from it.

Modesty Blaise ... everything that Lara Croft wishes she could be. I haven't seen a Modesty Blaise comic strip in probably 20 years. I wish they'd make some feature films about her, but of course jollywood would muck it up.

I wonder who would be suitable to play Modesty ...

 

[Mk VII]

they did make a couple of dismal films...http://www.imdb.com/find?q=modesty blaise;s=all

 

[tiberius]

The MSM here is even more sensationalistic than in America. They will do ANYTHING for the story....and they do it at taxpayers expense.

There is one BBC reporter in NOLA who "bravely" rescued a black family ... with camera crew and all...made Geraldo look like an amatuer

Watching the BBC coverage, I'd swear that they have been taken over by Aljazeera. They had a special last night where they kept asking "where was Bush" and showing the guitar playing pictures and such....for half an hour! They are really relishing the idea of a vulnerable America....the media, NOT the people.

The real stories we are hearing from those retruning are what one would expect from what was effectively a war zone. Travellers just are generally not well prepared to deal with disaster so they had a particularly hard time and were vulnerable to looters and thugs who took advantage of their foreigness and took exception to there race.

 

[The Viking]

Penn said he had spent nine hours on Monday searching the water for people and during all that time he saw just three boats carrying US officials.

Either because:
A) He was too busy looking good for the cameras, or:
B) He was too busy trying to save his own sorry behind, or:
C) He didn't want to see them. (I feel mistreated, therefore I am.)
"I don't see anyone besides me trying to rescue people, thus there are none but me here."

 

[CAS700850]

Bashing America/Bush is good international press. Having Americans bash America/Bush is even better. But having an American Celebrity bash America/Bush is pure tabloid gold.

ON teh NOLA rumors front, I heard from a cop who heard from a cop who heard from a cop (you know how it goes) that NBC had outbid some rescue teams for rental of boats so Katie Couric could float around while doing her Today show gig. If true, disgusting. If not, just another example of how the rumors explode out of tragedy.

 

[iapetus]

tiberius
Senior Member



Join Date: May 2003
Location: UK
Posts: 1,120 The MSM here is even more sensationalistic than in America. They will do ANYTHING for the story....and they do it at taxpayers expense.

There is one BBC reporter in NOLA who "bravely" rescued a black family ... with camera crew and all...made Geraldo look like an amatuer

Watching the BBC coverage, I'd swear that they have been taken over by Aljazeera. They had a special last night where they kept asking "where was Bush" and showing the guitar playing pictures and such....for half an hour! They are really relishing the idea of a vulnerable America....the media, NOT the people.

The real stories we are hearing from those retruning are what one would expect from what was effectively a war zone. Travellers just are generally not well prepared to deal with disaster so they had a particularly hard time and were vulnerable to looters and thugs who took advantage of their foreigness and took exception to there race.

I heard quite an amusing piece on the BBC radio news on Sunday.

They had sent some reporters to find and interview a NO resident that had been photographed standing guard over his home/business with a shotgun. (Or a "big shotgun" as the reporter called it).

It was clear from the reporter's attitude that he had been expecting the man to be some knuckle-dragging red-neck neanderthal, and seemed rather taken aback, and not quite sure how to cope, when it turned out that the man was well-spoken, college-educated, tolerent, caring, etc.