Katrina news coverage

I've been watching a lot more of the cable news channels than I usually do, which is not at all, since Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.

CNN has a reputation of being the Democrats channel, and they did not disappoint. Miles O'Brien (is he related to Soledad O'Brien?) was one of the first to really hammer the federal response to the disaster. He also overplayed it, talking about almost nothing else for two days. They have also focused the most on the victims, although all three networks have covered that thoroughly.

I like Wolf Blitzer's Situation Room. I think it plays to his strengths as a reporter an interviewer. However, they have this older guy who sits in a cubbyhole soliciting e-mails on various topics from viewers on the subjects of the day. Then he comes back and reads them. Most of the opinions offered by viewers aren't unique and have no depth. It's a segment the show could do without.

Fox News is considered the Republican channel, and they also lived up to that. They've been among the leaders in discouraging people from playing "The Blame Game" (starring Chuck Woolery on GSN). Have you noticed that those who least like to play "The Blame Game" are usually those with the most to lose? But I digress.

One of the funniest things I've seen was on Fox's Hannity and Colmes the other night. They had on the congressman who represents New Orleans, purportedly to talk about how the levee system had been underfunded for over a generation and the impact that had on this disaster. The little, accountant-looking guy (Colmes, I think) started out on that line of questioning, but before long, the big, linebacker-looking guy (Hannity?) ambushed the congressman, berating him about why the city couldn't have been evacuated sooner since they had five days warning that a category 5 hurricane was coming and why didn't they have a local plan for this and so on.

The congressman didn't really have much to say. He's not the guy in charge of local disaster planning, so the questions weren't really appropriate for him. Also, nobody gets five days warning that a category 5 hurricane is coming. Weather forecasters rarely project five days out where a hurricane is going to go, and when they project even as few as three days out, the range of potential landfall locations is about 500 miles wide. Katrina wasn't a category 5 until the morning before it made landfall, and then was a strong 4 when it did hit.

MSNBC seems to play it straighter. I particularly like Keith Olbermann's Countdown show, where he takes five topics of the day and gives about 10 minutes to each. I always liked his style at ESPN, but he's different here. Less sarcastic, more newsy, but it's still effective. Olbermann doesn't usually editorialize, but he did offer one scathing editorial of the federal response, which I liked in style, even if I didn't entirely agree with it.

Even though the news coverage seems straighter, I find the other hosts harder to watch. Chris Matthews could use a change-up to go with his hardball. Rita Cosby has a hard time keeping her head still, which makes me a little dizzy, and Tucker Carlson looks like my old HS math teach with his goofy bowties.

All in all, the coverage has been pretty good, and it's been interesting to see the different perspectives. If you're going to watch though, I recommend flipping around.