You know what's great? On cnn.com when there is 'breaking news' it gets put in a red box at the top of the page in big, bold letters. What was today's breaking news? George Bush is coming home early (two days, mind you) from his vacation to respond to Hurricane Katrina!!!!! This is breaking news? The hurricane, and the people devastated by it - that's important stuff. But is an early end to vacation breaking news?
Sorry, I know it's not a big thing, but sometimes it's just that little thing that crosses you over the line...
4 comments:
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I dunno. I've seen a lot of left-of-center blogs criticize Bush for not being there in the aftermath of the hurricane. It seems like he can't win no matter what he does.
Here's another perspective. Shortly after the tsunami, some senior US government officials visited the stricken areas. Hundreds of airlifted flights were delayed for security reasons -- all so these Americans could have a looksey at the disaster site.
Maybe the most useful thing that Bush can do is stay out of the way.
I agree with you, Beth. I don't feel like he needs to be there in person, necessarily - I think John may have a valid point in his second paragraph - but I certainly don't think that the fact that he cut his vacation short by 2 days should be considered "Breaking News."
After all, it's not like he was doing anything special by heading back to Washington. It was the right thing to do to drop everything in order to start dealing with this tragedy (even though he did stop back in Texas for another night before returning). I think it would've been more appropriate to feature his movements if he decided to finish out his vacation.
I could say, as a political jab, that maybe it's breaking news because he isn't really known for doing the right thing so it was, in fact, out of the ordinary and worthy of such a prominant display...but I won't.
john, jason, thanks for the comments - john, i do agree, bush will be criticized no matter what. i can't argue with that. i guess it was more that it was considered 'breaking news' that struck me as so - weird. oh well.
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