“The First Amendment sank with the city.”

Bob Brigham of Operation Searchlight, is onsite at Katrina Ground Zero, and emails:

We are in Jefferson Parish, just outside of New Orleans. At the National Guard checkpoint, they are under orders to turn away all media. All of the reporters are turning they're TV trucks around.

Things are so bad, Bush is now censoring all reporting from NOLA. The First Amendment sank with the city.

Disgusting.

But then again, what else can we expect from a president who said, in response to a reporter who asked how he knows what the public is thinking if he doesn’t read or watch the news, “You’re assuming that you represent the public. I don’t accept that.” Of course he doesn’t. The press is supposed to be the propaganda arm of the government, according to these reprobates, so in the interest of minimizing the damage that could be done if the truth is reported, they’ve shut down the media. When stonewalling fails, just frustrate the question-askers until they don’t even bother to ask questions anymore—the tried and true media containment plan of the Bush administration.