Andrea Tantaros makes a great point here. During Katrina, a disaster that occurred during Bush’s watch, celebrities were falling all over themselves to get on camera to “help” the victims.
No so with Obama’s oil spill:
In case anyone is questioning it, celebrities are terribly concerned about the Gulf of Mexico. Actor Sean Penn has said he “cares about New Orleans.” Actor Brad Pitt has spent days in the region assisting with relief efforts. And Jamie Foxx has raised more than half a million dollars to help those living in the area put their lives back together.
Oh, wait: That was in 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – when George W. Bush was President.
Back then we saw A-listers come out in droves to shout about the man in charge, draw attention to the need for assistance and help marshal resources in the relief effort.
Angelina Jolie, who has often mentioned her love of New Orleans in interviews, sent letters to members of Congress and the White House. Penn visited the wreckage on a tugboat, with a shotgun (photographer in tow). John Travolta personally flew supplies to the area on his private jet, while dozens of more famous faces donated to and participated in a nationally aired telethon.
Now that the gulf faces a crisis that’s poised to be potentially worse down the road for the region, Hollywood celebrities are not only absent from the area – they are practically silent. Unlike after the earthquake in Haiti in January, there hasn’t been an overwhelming response of donations, large-scale fund-raisers, contribution-driven Web sites and hotlines or public service announcements encouraging Americans to do all they can to help out the fishermen or the oil-drenched ducks.
Not because celebrities don’t want the media attention, but because their guy, Barack Obama, is in the middle of the mess.
On Sunday, at the MTV Movie Awards, which are famous for their red-carpet political talk, you never would have known that the country was being hit by arguably the largest environmental disaster in its history – because any mention would have reminded viewers that the horror movie is still happening and Obama is still playing the role of supporting actor.
At a benefit concert in 2005, Kanye West proclaimed that Bush doesn’t care about black people.
If that logic is correct, I guess Obama doesn’t care about pelicans. Or fishermen.
Unbelievable hypocrisy. If this had occurred during Bush’s watch we would see all those lefty A-list stars on every nightly newscast for weeks on end.
But not so with Obama in office. As Andrea notes, some C-listers have tried to do some small scale stuff but not so with those A-listers that loved to hate Bush.
Remember when they screeched and wailed about the response time from President Bush? Not a peep from them this time on Obama’s embarrassing display of unconcern towards this disaster AND the response time.
Regular folks are concerned about the reponse:
…and more people give the federal government’s response a negative rating than did the response to Hurricane Katrina.
A month and a half after the spill began, 69 percent in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll rate the federal response negatively. That compares with a 62 negative rating for the response to Katrina two weeks after the August 2005 hurricane.
But no condemnation from Hollywood.
Shocker!
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