Katrina: "Where Are The Broadcast Nets?," (ABC, NBC, CBS?)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/

"Where are the broadcast nets on Katrina? This seems much bigger than a 30-minute-a-day story," an e-mailer says.

Several other people have made similiar comments. Ed writes in with his observations: "The broadcast networks have grossly underreported this story. Anytime a major American city may have to be evacuated -- completely -- it's worth a 'special report,' it's worth wall-to-wall coverage. This, in the end, may have more of an economic and personal impact than the Roberts nomination, 9/11 and other stories, because it more personally affects more Americans. They should drop whatever they're doing and go with this, at least for a few hours, over the next few days."

Ed also wonders: "Would the big three networks be running wall-to-wall coverage if this storm had hit a mid-sized city with a major port on the east or west coasts? Like Baltimore? Or Portland, Ore.? Or elsewhere?"

<snip>

The blogger continues: "What the fuck?!?! People need to be informed about this situation. This is quite possibly the worst disaster to ever occur in the history of this country, maybe not in terms of loss of life, but easily in terms of economic impact...It's bad, people. Get Tommy Lee off the fucking television."

[kenny blankenship]

1. We just lost a major American city

it isn't just under an evacuation order. It's under water. The weak efforts to save the city are being rated a hopeless exercise now. The waters are rising and they're not going to be stopped. The city is going to be under the lake. Not a living human being in it. If it is ever raised from the water it won't be pumped dry for a long time. Not days or weeks but months from now. Then how long after that before people could begin to live there again? More months. After rebuilding with what money?

New Orleans is gone.
This is what the Governor means by "untenable" and heartbreaking.
What does it take to get George W. Bush's full attention?

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Well, I don't agree with the "they should drop everything else they're

doing." If we had to stop reporting about 9/11 investigation results, Rove implications with the Plame outing and Robertson's nomination everytime there was something like this happening, we'd have a different city in America being devasted every week, the Rovian way.

But I certainly believe that the major networks need to step it up. They are lagging behind. Many of the cable networks repeat the same shots every hour, so they shouldn't be preaching, but the broadcasts could do better.