Feingold asks TV networks to give airtime to unite hurricane survivors

Here's an idea from Sen. Russ Feingold: Maybe the TV networks could do actually provide a public service, in an organized way, to try to help hurricane victims find their loved ones.

We've seen people on camera with Larry King or reporters on the scene, asking their families to contact them. But is is very haphazard, hit and miss.

If the networks would take a two-hour time out from finger-pointing, spin, politics, and punditry -- or from "reality" programming-- it could do some real good.

From Feingold:

Washington, D.C. --In a letter to the five major news networks (ABC,CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC), US Senator Russ Feingold today asked each of them to provide airtime to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina who are spread out across the country in relief staging areas.

“Like all Americans, my thoughts are with those struggling to cope with the terrible effects of Hurricane Katrina. The devastation brought by the storm is absolutely heart-wrenching and beyond description,” Feingold's letter read. “As your news coverage has shown, one of the many struggles that the survivors of Hurricane Katrina face today is their separation from family and loved ones.”

In the letter, Feingold said that while there have been many success stories of families being brought back together by the news media and others after being displaced by the hurricane, many survivors “still carry the heavy burden of not knowing the whereabouts of loved ones, especially children.”

While there have been efforts by reporters, through the internet, to connect Hurricane survivors “the effort to bring families back together might be well served by having the news networks dedicate a substantial block of air-time... so that those survivors who are in search of loved ones could both let their voice be heard and tune in to a particular network at a specific time to connect with family members through telephone hotlines at the various staging areas.”

“Using the power of our television airwaves could go a long way in helping to bring families back together after this tragedy. It would also ease the enormous anxiety and pain many must feel not knowing the condition of their loved ones,” Feingold said, “This could do a great deal to restore hope to those who have lost so much in this national tragedy.”