Received this e-mail today from U.S. Senate candidate Rick Weiland's (D. SD) campaign regarding the huge blizzard that hit South Dakota last weekend:
South Dakota Senate candidate Rick Weiland today blasted the national media for its "100% total and absolute failure to report on the blizzard disaster that decimated Western South Dakota last weekend."
“If that storm had happened in New York, where the big money owns the media, it would have been front page and lead story on every media outlet in the nation," Weiland said. "We just had our ‘Sandy’ out here in Western South Dakota and ranching families have been completely abandoned. The most important industry in half our state, ranching, saw its major asset, its herds, laid waste and there’s hardly been one peep out of the national networks," Weiland said.
"In a day and age when disaster assistance unfortunately depends as much on how much coverage a disaster receives as it does on how bad the disaster actually was, the abject failure of the national media to report on the catastrophic results of this blizzard is going to cost our ranchers a whole lot of money," Weiland predicted.
Weiland, who served for four years as Region 8 director of FEMA, said he has asked friends in the Administration to try to make sure Western South Dakota does not get short changed just because the national media decided our troubles should be made invisible, "but frankly, when there is no public sympathy for the victims of a disaster because the public does not even know one has occurred, that cannot help but hurt our chances for significant relief," Weiland said.
"When you add together lack of public attention outside South Dakota and the breathtakingly irresponsible shutdown of government going on in Washington, my fear is that Western South Dakota is in for another blizzard, a blizzard of neglect from their country that they absolutely do not deserve."
You can click here to learn more about Weiland's campaign:
http://www.rickweiland.com/