In the middle of a slow holiday news cycle it took the liberals at Think Progress until the publication of Johnny-come-lately stories in the NY Times and CNN to acknowledge the Kingston sludge disaster. Not exactly cutting edge or tuned into the Tennessee social network, are they? And what if big media had not responded after 48 hours? Would it have remained invisible at the Center for American Progress?
UPDATE: In fairness to Think Progress, I should say that Brad Johnson at the Wonk Room did say something about Kingston and post a video in a piece about how the coal industry is attempting to launch a "Blogger brigade" to counter netroots anti-clean-coal activists last Tuesday. Someone there was on top of this. Bygones.
As much as I respect TP, and as much as I love my fellow Libs around the country, the bottom line is that the lower IQ'd of our political movement still blame "The South" for all their woes.
ReplyDeleteWhy is anyone's guess.
We simply don't find the outrage that you get when something disastrous happens in NY or California. With the obvious exception of New Orleans.
And for some (very few), that only mattered because it was a way to chide Bush.
It's ok, we can look after ourselves.
You have a point, but I don't want to believe that the fool whose Huffington Post comment Mike linked to is really representative of the left.
ReplyDeleteThe schadenfreude over this disaster, telling Tennessee citizens that they should expect no federal aid after a federal agency's poor practices led to this catastrophe because a rich senator who won his seat by a close margin has it in for the UAW, is grotesque, and of a piece with some of the reactions of the high-handed left, who see the country in red and blue.
I don't truly believe there are many people who think that way.