by st4 » Wed Oct 12, 2005 8:46 am
This really ticked me off when I saw it air yesterday. There's not one mention of <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=8281">witnesses hearing explosions</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->, i.e., ear witness, Joe Edwards and <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.phpbbserver.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=3825&mforum=jackblood">his statements to ABC News about the 9th ward levee being blown</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->, no mention of <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://xymphora.blogspot.com/2005/09/argy-bargy.html">the barge in the breach of the 9th ward levee</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->, no mention of reports that <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.blackelectorate.com/print_article.asp?ID=1471">Mayor Ray Nagin told Louis Farrakhan that there was a 25-foot crater next to one of the levee breaches</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->, and on and on. At one point the reporter even has the audacity to say <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>"there's no evidence to support any of these theories". </em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> Bastards! On the bright side, CNN's Daryn Kagan immediately interviews Spike Lee after the Katrina hit piece and asked him if he <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>"believed the idea that this flooding took place on purpose?"</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> And Lee answered <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>"have you heard of the Tuskeegee experiment? I don't put anything past the United States government." </em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Transcript</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>CNN LIVE TODAY</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong><br>Four Days Before Vote on New Constitution, Insurgents Ramping Up Attacks; Conspiracy Theories in New Orleans; Interview with Spike Lee<br><br>Aired October 11, 2005 - 11:30 ET<br><br>THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br><br>[SNIP]<br><br>DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Believe it or not, some victims of Hurricane Katrina think man is more to blame than nature. After flooding there destroyed countless homes and lives, coming up, the whispers floating around New Orleans.<br><br>Also, Spike Lee stops by for a visit. We'll talk about his new biography and a lot more. We're back after a quick break.<br><br>(COMMERCIAL BREAK)<br><br>KAGAN: Urban legends sometimes evolve in the aftermath of disasters like Hurricane Katrina. And a conspiracy theory about the flooding in a New Orleans neighborhood is proving hard for some to dismiss,<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong> despite a lack of evidence.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>Details now from national correspondent Gary Tuchman.<br><br>(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)<br><br>GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Lower Ninth Ward is no longer underwater, but nobody's under the illusion things are getting back to normal. The absence of water makes the complete destruction of this New Orleans neighborhood more evident. The people who lived here aren't even allowed to visit.<br><br>ISAAC RAY, HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUEE: We need other people to help us. We just can't do it by ourselves, we don't have the resources. Help.<br><br>TUCHMAN: Isaac Ray is in a shelter in Baton Rouge, still packed with people who lost their homes in the Lower Ninth Ward. They all know levee failure caused the flooding of their neighborhood, but the angering frustration they feel has made the atmosphere ripe for talk of conspiracies.<br><br>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel that that levee didn't break by itself.<br><br>TUCHMAN (on camera): What do you think happened?<br><br>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe they let the water in. That's what I believe. To keep everybody out the Ninth Ward.<br><br>TUCHMAN (voice-over): Flooding the Ninth Ward in order to protect other neighborhoods? It's an extremely common belief among many in this shelter. The fact that other neighborhoods were flooded doesn't diminish the array of vehement conspiracy theories about the levee break.<br><br>TUCHMAN (on camera): Why would they want the levee to break?<br><br>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Poor black people. That's all. Just poor black people they want to get rid of.<br><br>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think they blew it up. I think they bombed it up, I think they blew it up with explosives.<br><br>TUCHMAN (voice-over): And while <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>there's no evidence to support any of these theories</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, they go on.<br><br>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sabotage.<br><br>TUCHMAN (on camera): Sabotage by who?<br><br>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our enemies.<br><br>TUCHMAN: Which enemies are those?<br><br>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The ones who bombed New York.<br><br>TUCHMAN: Al Qaeda?<br><br>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know his name.<br><br>TUCHMAN (voice-over): And the theories are shared by some who don't live anywhere near the Ninth Ward.<br><br>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that there are probably people in power who are not above doing that.<br><br>TUCHMAN: The conspiracy talks saddens New Orleans political leaders and experts, who nevertheless see how past racial relations in this city foster such thinking.<br><br>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's a combination of, historically, certain groups of people not feeling like they've had a voice in determining their fates.<br><br>TUCHMAN: The conspiracy issue was taken up in the October 3rd "New Yorker," in an article written by magazine editor David Remnick.<br><br>DAVID REMNICK, EDITOR, "THE NEW YORKER": Any natural disaster I've been involved in, as a reporter, whether it's an earthquake, you know, Armenia, the chernobyl nuclear accident and other situations, always have attached to it some sense that not everything was by chance or by act of God.<br><br>TUCHMAN (on camera): The mayor of New Orleans is an African- American, but that fact doesn't get in the way of the conspiracy theorists, who say things like the mayor didn't know about the plot or didn't care about it or was powerless to stop it. All accusations that would never fly in a court of law, but are very prevalent in this court of public opinion.<br><br>(voice-over): The Lower Ninth Ward was destroyed August 29th, and with it, the trust of many of its residents.<br><br>Gary Tuchman, CNN, New Orleans.<br><br>(END VIDEOTAPE)<br><br>KAGAN: And now our visit with Spike Lee. His movies are as pointed as hi name. Twenty years -- yes it's been 20 years -- after his breakout film "She's Got to Have It," life -- Lee's life fills the pages of a new authorized biography. It's called "Spike Lee: That's My Story and I'm Sticking To It." It was written by London-based journalist Kaleem Aftab.<br><br>Producer, director and Knicks fan, Spike Lee joining me from New York City. Spike, good morning. Good to have you here with us.<br><br>SPIKE LEE, MOVIEMAKER: Glad to be here. How you doing?<br><br>KAGAN: I'm doing good. Let me just ask you one hurricane- related story. Because in your work, you've never shied away, of course, of racial, of social issues. Do you think there's a movie to be made about that story of what's happened along the Gulf Coast?<br><br>LEE: Yes, I'm about to do a documentary for HBO. It's called "When the Levee Broke." And we hope to -- I mean, like your great story you just had. You know, there's a great film, "Chinatown." Remember the film "Chinatown" with Jack Nicholson...<br><br>KAGAN: Yes, I do, yes.<br><br>LEE: ... and John Houston? Where they flooded...<br><br>KAGAN: The L.A. basin.<br><br>LEE: The thing -- the L.A. Basin. So the -- it's the same thing in "Chinatown." I know Robert Towne wrote the screenplay, but <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>I believe that, you know, it's not too far-fetched to think that, look, we got a bunch of poor black people here. We got to save these other neighborhoods. What we got to do, dump this in this ward, boom. I believe it.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>KAGAN: Well, let me just ask. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>So you believe the idea that this flooding took place on purpose?</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>LEE: Hey, <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>I don't put anything -- have you heard of the Tuskeegee experiment? I don't put anything past the United States government.<br></strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br>KAGAN: And so and HBO's going to have you do a documentary and you're going to try to prove that?<br><br>LEE: Well, no, no, no, no, no.<br><br>KAGAN: Just look at the idea?<br><br>LEE: I'm doing a documentary about New Orleans. It's called "When the Levee Broke."<br><br>KAGAN: "When the Levee Broke." OK.<br><br>LEE: But it's not -- that's not the sole thing. Wait a minute. Let's get it...<br><br>KAGAN: OK. Let's just be clear about that.<br><br>LEE: Yes, let's be very clear.<br><br>KAGAN: Well, I just have to check with you. Because you -- like you said, that's your story and you're sticking to it.<br><br>LEE: Yes. And I think that it's a shame what happened and I don't care how many times Mr. Bush goes to the Gulf or spends a night in a hotel, there's still a lot of grief. And, you know, I don't find it too far-fetched that they try to displace all the black people out of New Orleans.<br><br>KAGAN: And then in this documentary, are you going to look not just at the federal government, but at the leaders that have been running New Orleans and the state government, as well?<br><br>LEE: Look, I'm not -- we're -- I'm going to do what a good documentary filmmaker does, go and tell a story. So we're not -- we don't have an agenda. But I think there's a definite story there and it's -- I think it all fits in part with American history...<br><br>[SNIP]<br><br>Entire transcript:<br>http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0510/11/lt.02.html<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <p></p><i></i>