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August 31, 2005
TT: A European perspective on Katrina
A reader from Norway writes:I just want you to know that I'm one of the many people who are deeply grateful for your list of Katrina blogs. CNN Europe was very good on the tsunami, but has been maddeningly lame on Katrina. The crucial test, which they failed ignominiously, was the unexpected levee breaches. After the hurricane had passed, they went into automatic day-after-the-hurricane mode, serving up the same brief, standard, "well, now it's time for the big clean-up" report every half-hour for hours. During the same hours, I was reading on Brendan Loy's weblog and other weblogs about the breach in the first levee and the rising waters in New Orleans. Literally hours went by before CNN Europe picked up on this story, and while Brendan Loy understood the significance of it immediately, CNN Europe reported on it in a perfunctory manner, apparently unable to switch gears quickly because this new development just didn't fit their script. Incredibly, long after Loy had begun reporting on the rising waters in New Orleans, CNN Europe was still broadcasting the same fatuous day-after-the-hurricane report (including an interview with a French Quarter merchant who was happy that his business had survived intact), the thrust of which was that N.O., thank goodness, had been spared the worst of the storm.
BBC World was even more hopeless. I've also read articles at the New York Times, Times-Picayune, and other MSM websites, some of them very good. But overall, the MSM coverage seems incredibly thin compared to the rich tapestry of information provided by the weblogs you've linked to (including readers' comments). It certainly is a new age in media, and nothing has proven this more surely than the Katrina story.
Another point. Weirdly, while the tsunami was a major topic of conversation here in Norway for days, nobody seems to be talking about the devastation in New Orleans. I brought it up yesterday while having drinks with a bunch of friends, and they seemed barely aware of the story and didn't seem to find it interesting or important. They were far more interested in discussing the upcoming Norwegian elections.
We'd be interested in hearing from other readers outside the United States on this topic....
Posted August 31, 2005 10:36 AM
