The Mediacrats: Stuck on Stupid

Flight to New Orleans for camera crew and talent: $3,790.
Hotel and meals in New Orleans for camera crew and talent: $1,893.
Getting ripped a new bodily orifice by General Honore while on camera: priceless.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005 at 10:21 PM 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...

MediaGab: Honore press conference.