@weberm: "<url>
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In Hurricane's Aftermath, Winfrey Calls for Apology
By EDWARD WYATT
In the first of two shows devoted to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, 
Oprah Winfrey said yesterday that the nation owed an apology to the 
people who died in the streets of New Orleans and elsewhere, and to the 
survivors whose misery was compounded by a relief effort whose inadequacy 
"makes me so mad."
Ms. Winfrey, of course, was far from the only celebrity who gained access 
to restricted sites in New Orleans, or whose ministrations to survivors 
at the Astrodome in Houston were captured by a phalanx of reporters and 
cameras. 
But unlike the politicians, musicians and movie stars who toured relief 
facilities and the news networks whose reporters were bound to let 
officials defend their relief efforts, Ms. Winfrey was able to turn her 
own cameras on the suffering, to have a celebrity physician tour medical 
facilities and diagnose injuries, to orchestrate family reunions and to 
feature aid efforts headed by celebrities like Jamie Foxx and Faith Hill.
"I was sitting at home feeling frustrated and useless, like so many other 
people, so I came down to personally assess how I could best be of 
service," Ms. Winfrey said yesterday in a statement relayed by a 
spokeswoman. 
What she found, she said, surprised her: "Nothing I saw on television 
prepared me for what I experienced on the ground," she said on the show. 
While she stopped short of overt criticism of the relief efforts, she 
said later: "This makes me so mad. This should not have happened." And 
after hearing descriptions of people dying unattended in the streets, she 
said, "I think we all - this country owes these people an apology."
Yesterday's installment of Ms. Winfrey's one-hour syndicated television 
show featured her at the Astrodome, where she also took her 
characteristic optimism to survivors, vowing that "I'll get the country 
to pray" for them and telling one mother of seven, "I believe you can 
come up out of that storm and you can have a better life."
"Yes, ma'am," the woman responded.
With the recent departure of the network news anchors Dan Rather, Tom 
Brokaw and Peter Jennings, Ms. Winfrey's has been perhaps the most 
familiar television face to greet survivors and to try to explain to 
viewers what happened.
Tuesday's show featured tape of Ms. Winfrey's visit to New Orleans on 
Sunday, when she was escorted inside the Superdome to see the conditions 
after the evacuation of the stadium earlier in the weekend. She 
interviewed New Orleans's mayor, C. Ray Nagin, who described "hundreds of 
armed gang members running the show" inside the stadium, and the city's 
police superintendent, P. Edwin Compass III, who told of rapes inside the 
Superdome and an attempt by gang members to take him hostage as he toured 
the building.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, a heart surgeon and a regular contributor to Ms. Winfrey's 
show, toured medical facilities at New Orleans International Airport and 
described the removal of critically ill patients to a makeshift morgue 
"just so they can pass away in peace."
Mr. Foxx and the actor Mathew McConaughey participated in relief efforts 
in Texas and Louisiana, and Ms. Hill fulfilled one survivor's request at 
a shelter in Gulfport, Miss., that she sing "Amazing Grace." 
Ms. Winfrey did not make a specific appeal for contributions. But her 
Angel Network organization donated $1 million to America's Second 
Harvest, a food bank, and on her Web site, <url> she lists 
organizations where donations can be made. Wednesday's show is to include 
Ms. Winfrey in Mississippi and other celebrities involved with relief 
efforts, among them Chris Rock, Julia Roberts and Lisa Marie Presley."
    @none: "On Thu, 08 Sep 2005 05:06:29 -0500, <email_address> (Ubiquitous)
wrote:
<quote>
Let them sell the TV sets they looted to buy food and water instead of
crack.
-Rich"
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