Russert gets tough -- on victims

Posted by Deanna Zandt at 7:55 AM on September 27, 2005.

Sunday's Meet the Press featured a return visit from Aaron Broussard, the president of Jefferson Parish that broke down on the show three weeks ago while recounting the abandonment of one of his employee's mother in a nursing home that was flooded. Russert, who we can't count on to go after people that need to be mercilessly questioned, decided it'd be a good idea to have Broussard back on and get him to tackle the question of who did the abandoning in the story he told.

Russert's behavior was downright despicable (Beliefnet has a transcript; scroll down to read it), but Broussard maintained his composure and laid out what the real problem is with post-disaster examination:

"Were we abandoned by the federal government? Absolutely we were. Were there more people that abandoned us? Make the list. The list can go on for miles. That's for history to document. That's what Congress does best, burn witches. Let Congress do their hearings. Let them find the witches. Let them burn them. The media burns witches better than anybody. Let the media go find the witches and burn them. But as I stood on the ground, sir, for day after day after day after day, nobody came here, sir. Nobody came."

Deanna Zandt is a contributing editor at AlterNet, and manages Start Making Sense.