Thursday, September 22, 2005

"Stuck on Stupid" Kerfuffle

Let's just start with the quote.

CNN: press conference on Hurricane Rita. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin & Gen. Russel Honore.

Honore: And Mr. Mayor, let's go back, because I can see right now, we're setting this up as he said, he said, we said. All right? We are not going to go, by order of the mayor and the governor, and open the convention center for people to come in. There are buses there. Is that clear to you? Buses parked. There are 4,000 troops there. People come, they get on a bus, they get on a truck, they move on. Is that clear? Is that clear to the public?

Female reporter: Where do they move on...

Honore: That's not your business.

Male reporter: But General, that didn't work the first time...

Honore: Wait a minute. It didn't work the first time. This ain't the first time. Okay? If...we don't control Rita, you understand? So there are a lot of pieces of it that's going to be worked out. You got good public servants working through it. Let's get a little trust here, because you're starting to act like this is your problem. You are carrying the message, okay? What we're going to do is have the buses staged.

Male reporter: General, a little bit more about why that's happening this time, though, and did not have that last time...

Honore: You are stuck on stupid. I'm not going to answer that question. We are going to deal with Rita. This is public information that people are depending on the government to put out. This is the way we've got to do it. So please. I apologize to you, but let's talk about the future. Rita is happening. And right now, we need to get good, clean information out to the people that they can use. And we can have a conversation on the side about the past, in a couple of months.

Now I've seen several write ups of this, and they all crow that the "right" is getting there jollies out of this. Though I haven't run across any as of yet stating that. But it's early and I'll keep looking. I honestly think that there will be some giggling over this.

But for those links that popped up on a Google news search I got one calling the remark "false candor," another stating the general is just calling anyone stupid that asks a question, and how the statement was "not too brite."

I suppose they have some point, though it isn't the sharpest. I think those that read here know I pretty much deride the thought that generals have to be politicians. I much prefer a general who is a soldier. Meaning being honest and thrustworthy in this context. Personally I'd prefer more candor from our politicians as well. You can't get a politician to take a firm stand on the color of the sky on a clear day.

You have to see the video clip though. The exchange obviously got under the general's skin. The whole context of the conference was to get out information on what to do in NOLA if the hurricane came in there causing another mess. The reporters just couldn't let go of the blame game questions. I don't know if I'd have gone where the general did, but I would have probably been close to saying similar things.

And let's be honest, the questions were stupid.

UPDATE:
Found some of those perverted conservative types liking the comment. Ok wait, one of them is moderate. Oh, wait, they're also Libertarian.


1 comment:

Granted said...

Personally, I could have watched him walk off stage and pull a Patton on the ignorant reporter with great glee. I liked his great (albeit, short) lecture to the press on what their job is in a situation like this. I sincerely think that every reporter in every situation now believes that the working model is either Woodward & Bernstein or Mike Wallace. They need to learn that may, just maybe, sometimes the working model is recording what was said and making sure you got it right. Period. Full stop.