Nikki Finke has a blistering column lauding the heroes and assaulting the hacks from the last week or two of Katrina coverage. Her final question -- whether the media can sustain its new assertiveness -- seems to have been answered today, with the answer being No.
Sam Rosenfeld's been all over it, so I'll send you over to his posts on the subject. Suffice to say that the media, having attracted great plaudits for fighting the bullies at the bar, seems to have started swinging indiscriminately in the hopes of hitting another evildoer. We were praying that the pulsing anger Cooper and Smith and Rivera evinced would be coupled with a willingness to say exactly who is to blame. Unfortunately, it seems to have dissipated into a mere voice inflection, a tone in which you ask questions rather than an emotion that drives you to find answers. We'd hoped the press corps was changing, but it turned out the difference was merely decibel.
That's why watching Kyra Phillips get laid out by Nancy Pelosi didn't give me the normal voyeuristic thrill -- it's just regrettable. That the copper dye has sunk deep enough to leave Phillips unable to comprehend basic facts about the timeline, simple truths about the legislative process, or the stunning revelation that their may be a gap between Bush's words and Louisiana's reality is nothing to cheer over -- it's pathetic. Our press still can't wrap their minds around the destruction, still can't see that not only does this transcend the he-said/she-said template, but it proves how inadequate it is under all circumstance.
The head of FEMA is a horse-trainer.
The head of FEMA was the college roommate of a Bush buddy.
That's why he's the head of FEMA.
You can be fair and fucking balanced as you want. Not comprehending all that's wrong with that chain of events requires much more than bias, it requires a willful attempt to mentally retard yourself.
