Thursday, September 01, 2005

From Bad to Worse - N.O. Hits Bottom


Every day this week, like many others, I've asked myself, "Can it get worse?" Painfully, the answer continues to be "yes." The Times-Pic headlines that the city has bottomed out.... but things may get worse yet.

Even from a distance, it appears that New Orleans has ceased to exist as a city. It's hard to know which pictures are worse: the absolute collapse of law and order, corpses unnumbered, or the refugees literally begging for a promised, yet still undelivered rescue.

Tonight, Ted Koppel paddled the backside of FEMA director Michael Brown for the federal government's inability to take control of relief efforts in New Orleans. Aside from Nightline, I am most impressed with NBC's coverage: Broadcasting live from New Orleans, thanks to the Bloom-mobile, Nightly News and Dateline on Wednesday were superb. So was tonight's hour-long Nightly News (at least the half-hour that KSL allowed me to see) which reported the growing anger at the inability of authorities to answer the question: "Where is the help?" Martin Savage's reporting has been especially (and disturbingly) good. NBC's blog, the Daily Nightly is worth looking at for its added detail. Earlier today it was reported that NBC saw fit to send a private security detail to protect its journalists in New Orleans. By the time Nightly News went on the air the situation in New Orleans had apparently deteriorated enough that Brian Williams and crew picked up and left, broadcasting instead from Metairie, just outside of New Orleans.

I wish it didn't take a story like this to knock Natalee Holloway out of the headlines.

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The opinions stated here are my own and in no way reflect those of Brigham Young University, its students, faculty, or sponsoring institution.