BuzzFlash Reviews

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

You have read about the Bushevik Katrina disaster for more than a year now, but you'll see it in a new light after watching Greg Palast's December 6, 2006, release of "Big Easy to Big Empty." (A shorter version originally had limited airing on "Democracy Now" and "Link TV.")

In a half-hour documentary and and a half-hour interview with Amy Goodman, Palast, in his usual bold style and fedora (don't forget the fedora), reveals new factual details about the Bush Administration complicity in the deaths of Katrina victims. You'll be convinced by the end of watching "Big Easy to Big Empty" (and make sure to view the interview with Goodman) that what we are dealing with here is criminal negligence.

Palast operates free of corporate oversight, but he's no loose cannon. This is a guy who grew up in California's San Fernando Valley and was educated in crunching numbers and data at the University of Chicago. He knows how to find the needle in the haystack -- and he usually does.

Yet, eventhough he grounds his reporting in facts (Palast was THE reporter who exposed the ChoicePoint felon purge in Florida that took away tens of thousands of votes from Al Gore through legally implemented voter suppression), Palast is able to move from the specific expose to the context of what is happening in the news.

In "Big Easy to Big Empty" Palast covers so much ground so audaciously, compassionately and succinctly that he makes the mainsteam media reporters look like chatty Kathy dolls.

BuzzFlash has gotten to know Greg over the years, and the guy is tireless. He doesn't shrink from confronting corruption; he thrives on it.

But his focus is never narrow and isolated. As he rapidly moves along, he's connecting the dots, allowing you to see events through a new prism.

You'll be shocked, angry, and calling for the guilty to be held accountable after seeing "Big Easy to Big Empty" and Greg's interview with Amy Goodman.

You'll also be thankful that Greg Palast hasn't stopped sleuthing around -- a muckraker in a time of corporate stenographers -- and wish that we had a thousand of him.

For now though, we have Palast. Be glad, he's in our corner of the ring.

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS