Today on Oprah: The Katrina Stories No One is Telling

[PA Democrat]

I saw a promo for this on ABC this morning, with Oprah saying "This is America. Why are Americans living like this." There was footage of people living in tents 6 months after the hurricane.

I hope that this episode is as effective at waking Americans up as the original story she did in the immediate aftermath.

More info here:

http://www2.oprah.com/index.jhtml

[annabanana]

1. This is very very big..

There are millions of people who watch Oprah who haven't paid attention to a newscast in years... I have often wished she would dip her toes into political waters, but she was just way more "into" personal redemption issues.

This will get more info out faster to the politically numb than anything else could.

[acmejack]

2. Maybe I will watch my first episode of Oprah ever.

What network is she on?

[Tesla]

3. OPRAH FOR PRESIDENT!!!!!!

This is who needs to run, she is a great role model!!!!

Her against Condi.....Kiss her ass Oprah!!!!

Thanks, I'll watch it!!

[O.M.B.inOhio]

8. Oprah for Nader

Politics can take place in the polity as well as in the government. Ralph Nader was once a potent political force -- through Nader's Raiders, the PIRGs, etc. -- but he became a joke after helping Bush get elected. Oprah and others (sadly, this means Rush, Hannnity, etc. also) are strong political actors without running for office, and Oprah's show is a good place to bring about political awareness. (That said, I have imagined her running with the outside-the-beltway appeal that Perot and W went for, and it's a pleasant fantasy.)

[Fovea]

19. I'm sorry, was that 'Kiss' or 'Kick?'

big diff.

[Longhorn]

15. She's syndicated so it depends on what city you're in.

Check your local listings, probably around 3 or 4 p.m. :hi:

[jeffrey_X]

55. "I have often wished she would dip her toes into political waters"

I've wished the same as well and also wish she'd get into more social issues instead of interviewing John Travolta and Cameron Diaz.

But she knows who butters her bread and she's not going to risk the financial aspect to air her true perspective.

This is why I have so much respect for what Stern did about two years ago when he came out in full force against Bush. He didn't give a shit that half of his audience didn't agree, he just said fuck it.

Oprah will never ever do anything like this unfortunately.

[elehhhhna]

4. maybe she'll report the "good news". Like how them TENTS are

holding up in freezing gulf-coast weather.

[Devlzown]

5. She could spend a week down here.

I know a lot of people watch Oprah, but one 1 hour show? With commercial breaks? I'm happy to have any publicity, hell, we need all we can get, but 1 hour is barely an introduction.

[Pirate Smile]

16. Anderson Cooper is on her show and then she will be on his show

tonight.

[Vinca]

6. I'm not an Oprah fan, but she's got more power via the tube than

every Congressman and Senator lumped together. When the wrath of Oprah hits, something gets done. Kudos to her.

[bunkerbuster1]

7. Them nigras is steelin' our money on them debit cards!!!

They's gettin' tatooz and bigscreen TeeVeez!

</wingnut>

The red-state America take on Katrina in a nutshell. I doubt Oprah's going to change this 'tude all that much, but every little bit helps.

[Patiod]

9. Red State my ass

I had a friend tell me that recently, and she's a Dem in Dark-Blue Philadelphia. This is someone making probably $200,000 a year, and she's upset that someone might be buying beer with their aid money.

Of course, she has to read the Wall Street Journal for her job, and 100% of her co-workers (investment management) are hard-core Republicans, but still. That poison has infected way beyond just the red states.

Oh, and I told her that if I lost my house (which I still will have to make mortgage payment on) and lost my job and my friends and family were scattered to the four winds and some of my relatives were "missing", beer would probably be #1 on my "to-buy" list if I received any help.

[bunkerbuster1]

11. Fair point. Red state's a state of mind, really

not so much a locale. I should know, since I've known my share of NYC rednecks.

[Patiod]

18. Oh, I'm the first one to use that brush

And having traveled through bright-red Wyoming recently, home of the standing ovation in the state legislator for a 2-DUI jackass who shoots his friends, I can attest that rightwing nuts are overrepresented in certain areas of the country, and a convenient shorthand for these clueless areas are "Red States".

Beautiful state, but I was happy to get back to work at my blue-city/blue-state office, where all but about 2 people think Bush is an idiot, not a "wonderful Christian". I was thinking maybe the lack of oxygen was what was the matter with these people, but they were just as stupid as sea-level.

[annabanana]

39. "just as stupid as sea-level"

ok - you just gave me my first, best laugh of the day!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. Yes, my Republican brother here in Minnesota is like that, too

When I told about my experiences at a relief center in Mississippi and talked about how one of the daily tasks was sending out work crews to clear people's lots so that they could qualify for FEMA trailers, he said, "If they're so poor, why did they have houses?"

:banghead:

[kath]

53. WTF?!?!?! Wow, your brother is seriously deranged.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

57. I know--he's been brainwashed by driving around

listening to talk radio during his workday as a salesman--and living in one of the most Republican suburbs of the Twin Cities, where indeed, one has to be fairly affluent to own a house.

Ironically, he's the only NON-religious member of the family. :shrug:

[sandnsea]

60. It's not just a poor problem anyway

Tell him about the couple in Bay St. Louis who had every kind of insurance available, but the homeowners didn't pay because they said it was flood damage, and the flood insurance only paid a small amount because it was really mostly wind damage; so they are stuck with a mortgage on a collapsed piled of wood. That's why the Mississippi AG is suing that insurance company, and I think a bunch of others who have done similar shit to these people. Story was just on CNN over the weekend.

I know you know this from being there, but damn, we've got to make people understand what's happening.

[Richard Steele]

10. I'm slightly more optomistic.

Oprah has alot of clout with her loyal viewers,
and they aren't all flaming liberals.

Some people out there,
who have ignored a thousand reports in the other media,
will sit up and take notice when they hear it from Oprah.

Good on her!

[Midlodemocrat]

12. I saw the promo yesterday. This is going to be a good thing.

She talks to one elderly lady who is using a bucket for a toilet since the hurricane.


Maybe the rest of this country will wake the fuck up.

[PA Democrat]

13. I agree. I know people who are faithful Oprah watchers, but

rarely read a newspaper, and are pretty clueless about what is happening politically in this country. If Oprah wakes a few thousand people out of their stupor, that's great.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

14. I hope that she also covers all of the people that were sent to the four

corners of the wind, almost to make it assured that they wouldn't return there.

[AnneD]

17. Of course..

This is nothing new here in Houston, and it has turned many here into DEM's. The preview I saw was with Anderson Cooper talking about the dead that STILL have not been recovered or accounted for. Should be a good one. Six months later you can drive from Beaumont to NOLA and not find a place to eat and few places to get gas. The people that went through Rita feel like bastard childern at a funeral. So little has been done for them. A fellow church member was telling me that one of her friends couldn't get a FEMA trailer because it was in a flood area :eyes:. This is Bush's legacy and the GOP's shame.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. Similar experience between NOLA and Gulfport

Three of us in the volunteer group were diverted to New Orleans because of fog in Gulfport, and we were given a ride to the relief center in Mississippi by the father of a fellow passenger.

We hadn't had dinner, but there were no restaurants or fast food places open along the highway.

[AnneD]

66. Dosen't it just make you

cry. I don't know how these folks get their strength. It is just demoralizing.

[merh]

20. the forgotten

:cry:
The forgotten -

Third world conditions on our shores and soldiers dying in illegal and immoral wars.
Can this be the reality for the citizens of this country, is this the heritage of the land of liberty?
Where is the outrage, can you not see, how easily this can happen to you?
I never thought it would happen to me.
Foresaken, forgotten and dispensible - the nobel future of we, the people of the United States of America.

:cry:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

23. I wouldn't have quite believed it if I hadn't seen it

It was no only poor people coming in, but well-dressed people who were desperate because the businesses they had once worked at had been destroyed.

Giving out aspirin and cought syrup in a wind-blown tent heated with space heaters on a 41 degree day, I sometimes I felt as if I was in the Peace Corps in Kazakhstan instead of in the U.S.

[merh]

24. It is so hard to get folks to realize just how things are for so many

here.

I am one of the lucky ones, I am stubborn and healthy and I will survive, even though, after these 5 months, I am exhausted and keep wondering when I can stop trying so hard.

I pray Oprah's show awakens an apathetic nation.

Thanks for volunteering to help, Lydia Leftcoast. Thanks for caring so much. :hug:

[midnight]

26. It is so hard to believe that this tragedy was ignored.

Please give us strength to overcome the predicament this administration has us waking up to every day.

[merh]

27. Amen!

Welcome to DU, midnight. :hi:

[FreedRadical]

25. Anderson Cooper work is some of the best journalism

on the human condition that I have seen in years. As a black man and truth seeker, I feel he, through his work, has the capacity to view my life experience and that of people color with compassion. Given his background and family, his work recently in Africa and on the aftermath of Catrina, I would like to say thank you. Your work shines a light on human suffering and challenges American apathy. VARY GOOD ON YOU

[newyawker99]

31. Hi FreedRadical!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[ninkasi]

35. Welcome to DU...

We need everybody with a voice to speak out against what is happening to our fellow Americans. The whole Gulf Coast area was betrayed, and still lies in ruins, while Bush and a Republican dominated Congress showers millionaires with more tax cuts. The whole situation is immoral, and should convince anybody who thinks the Republican party is the one which is the "moral" party otherwise.

I watched the tragedy in New Orleans unfold on TV day after day, I watched people beg for help, and die, and be abandoned like so much garbage, while Bush ate cake and pretended to play guitar. I watched my fellow citizens, my fellow human beings, be ignored by those in power. And people think the Republican Party will keep America safe? Ask the people of New Orleans how safe they were kept. Ask the other residents of the Gulf Coast how well their government treated them.

[in_cog_ni_to]

28. Shit man. I cried my way through that entire show.

:cry::cry: I'm so ashamed. I have to DO SOMETHING. I HAVE to go there and help. I must.:cry: I have some thinking to do. My summer may be spent on the Gulf.

[merh]

29. Did you see it?

It doesn't air here until 3:00 pm

:hug:

[in_cog_ni_to]

33. Yes. I saw it. It airs here, Chicago area, at 9:00 AM and 11:00 PM

every day. I saw it. :cry: It's one of the saddest things I've ever seen.

[merh]

46. I just watched the program.

:cry:

[in_cog_ni_to]

47. I know. I know.

:hug: It's so damn sad.:cry:

[rqstnnlitnmnt]

32. me too

wow, just...i mean the response to katrina is fucking despicable and criminal and we all know that.

i don't watch the news, so i haven't seen much of what it's like today. i've read it about it sure, but i haven't seen the kids swatting away mosquitos in the tent cities or the squalor those women in gulfport mississippi have been forced to live in.

and then the shot of all the trailers in arkansas -- i mean those pics just came out in the papers recently and oprah was all over it.

think of how many people are going to see this today who haven't been following this as closely as we have.

[in_cog_ni_to]

34. 11,000 trailors just sitting there sinking in the freakin' mud!@#$%$#@!

I'm so upset. I cry every time I think about it. It's outrageous! That poor little lady livng in that apartment building and using a bucket for a toilet just BROKE MY HEART.:cry:

[Javaman]

30. Good for Oprah, but it's a sad statement when talk show hosts...

do the job of reporters. And comedy show hosts do a better job of getting the news out.

Well, if mr & mrs. fatass Americans get their news this way, fine. At least it's getting out there.

[mnhtnbb]

36. Thanks for the alert via this post

I haven't had the tube on at all today and rarely watch Oprah (although I think she does some wonderful things). I won't miss this show.

[faithnotgreed]

37. kick for some vital truth - thank you oprah

[Nutmegger]

38. How bad does it have to be for Oprah to cover it?

It has got to be rough down there; more people need to focus on that instead of Iran and the "mushroom cloud".

Thanks OP and thanks to Oprah.

[AnneD]

40. Here in Houston...

we are so blessed. I hear stories every day from my Katrina parents and have to deal with my Katrina kids (they are all so traumatized). Some are getting a bad rap here, but for the most part, we are trying to do the best we can. Maybe Oprah will do to Bush what Walter Cronkite did for Johnson and the VN war. I am praying for a light bulb moment. They need to be scream about those missing and un accounted for. They are in the rubble, I just know it. We need a fuller accounting than we have now. And nothing should be done to houses without homeowner approval until parents can get there in May (school is out).

I have a great idea...instead of calling these places Tent or Trailer City let's call them Bushville, Chertoville, Brownietown, etc. Shame these folks. Give the * jerk a legacy he deserves.

[PA Democrat]

41. Watching now.

According to Oprah, there are STILL more than 2,000 people missing.

Lisa Ling said she observed NO cleanup in process, and there are still refrigerators with rotting food strewn all over. The soil is contaminated with e-coli. People are being evicted from hotels and some are living in bug-infested tent cities.

A former school teacher on welfare now says she feels forgotten and is shocked that this is going on in the richest country in the world. She mentioned the money spent on war.

[alphafemale]

43. Those 2000 still missing can probably be presumed dead at this point.

:cry:

Oprah seemed to be barely holding it together through much of that program.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

58. Either in the debris or washed out to sea

:cry:

[qanda]

42. This is about the saddest thing I have ever seen

Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable.

[malaise]

44. Any video available

I missed it.

[qanda]

49. Depending on where you live

Oprah is often repeated in the middle of the night. But, hopefully someone grabbed the video for those who will miss it.

[malaise]

54. Thanks n/t

[merh]

62. Wish there was video available.

The show was good, I hope it woke up the apathic nation.

[PA Democrat]

45. The shots of the thousands of empty FEMA trailers just sitting

unoccupied is sickening.

Anderson Cooper interviewed 2 brothers who went back into the 9th Ward to recover their mom's body. They were with her when she died and despite telling authorities the location of where their mom's body could be found, they were told she couldn't be found. Their mom's body was clearly visible. How many more are under the debris that is still uncleared?

[in_cog_ni_to]

48. THOUSANDS of people are still missing.

No doubt they are under all that debris.:(

[PA Democrat]

51. Remember the media attention to the dead and missing from 9-11?

The media has just completely IGNORED the missing from Katrina and you never hear any updated totals of the dead even though they continue to find bodies. But we still hear about the missing blond, Natalee Holloway.

Why doesn't the media interview the heartbroken families who have loved ones still missing from Hurricane Katrina? Doesn't it make you crazy?

[in_cog_ni_to]

59. It makes me crazy and ROYALLY ticks me off!

:grr: They are ignored because most are poor and black. That's a fact.:cry:

[Lifelong Protester]

61. This is a hell of a good point...

and I mean no disrespect to the families of those lost on 9/11, but man, the gov't. couldn't rest until that mess was all cleaned up and bodies (or body parts) found and identified. It is sickening to think that in our country you might be the only way a deceased relative would be found and finally laid to rest.

No WAR-MONGERING BENEFITS or photo ops to wave the flag in looking for Katrina/Wilma/ Rita victims. Just plain sick.

[RazzleDazzle]

50. It was excellent. So -- where are the Oprah bashers?

[PA Democrat]

52. Oprah is doing more to bring this story to the attention of Americans than

the main stream media, with the exception of Anderson Cooper.

[DemExpat]

56. Oprah is excellent - a good and powerful lady!

I'll look for this show here - usually a few days later than in the US.

:kick:

DemEx

[calmblueocean]

63. Saw it. Came away wondering...

...why hasn't Bush -- okay, this is a rhetorical question and I already know the answer to this, but -- why hasn't Bush mobilized a Gulf Coast WPA-like program where the government actually steps in with training and jobs to help these people rebuild the areas most devastated? Right after Katrina hit, you heard the residents of the Gulf Coast were victimized twice: first by nature, and then by Bush's lackadaisical immediate response. Now we're watching them being victimized a *third* time, as Bush's long term response proves just as aimless and inadequate as his short term response.

A WPA-like program is the only way some economically depressed areas hit by Katrina will *ever* be rebuilt!
I don't understand why more people aren't clamoring for this. Why is there no leadership on this front? I don't even hear folks on DU talking about it.

[SeattleGirl]

64. I just watched Oprah's show, as well as a one-hour show on CNN

just before that. I never stopped being angry about the lack of response by this Administration, but my blood is boiling again. I am beyond words. :grr: :cry:

[emmajane67]

65. More on NOLA

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4700590.stm