“Shanna, they bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say, let ’em crash!”
That’s actually a line from an actor appearing on a mock “Point/Counterpart” television news spoof in Airplane!, that benchmark comedy movie. But quotes just as inane about hurricane Katrina and its aftermath are being heard every day on real TV news shows, as John Hawkins notes.
(…At least, I think it’s the real TV news. Malcolm Muggeridge noted in the early sixties how hard it was to tell the difference between satire and reality, a trend that–as the quotes John has compiled illustrates–has only accelerated since.)
Update: This remark is late to the competition, but something tells me the judges will allow its entry…
Another Update: Betsy Newmark has some thoughts on John’s assemblidge of quotes and concludes, “The media is happily driving a wedge between the races and they should be truly ashamed”. They’re not: the key word in that sentence is “happily”; Michael Graham’s Redneck Nation foreshadowed exactly what the media’s tone would be covering Katrina.
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