Censoring reality

Americablog reports that the Bush administration and FEMA will clamp down on all coverage of the disaster in New Orleans. They don't want your teevee afflicted by all those nasty images of dead bodies, y'see. See here and here and here.

FEMA's policy of excluding media from recovery expeditions in New Orleans is "an invitation to chaos," according to Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a part of Columbia University's journalism school.

"This is about managing images and not public taste or human dignity," Rosenstiel said. He said FEMA's refusal to take journalists along on recovery missions meant that media workers would go on their own.

Of course, if the real objective is the mass murder of black people -- as some conspiracists allege -- then FEMA wouldn't want any cameras around, would they?

Also check out this important first-hand report: "Media apparently banned from NOLA":

We are in Jefferson Parish, just outside of New Orleans. At the National Guard checkpoint, they are under orders to turn away all media. All of the reporters are turning they’re[sic] TV trucks around...