Media blamed for New Orleans debacle

Hollywood meets the news; Drama + Hype = Ratings

Dan Rather was taken to task by Mark Steyn of the Chicago Sun-Times over his comments on the 'Larry King Live'' show about the Katrina news coverage. Personally I like Dan, but ever since Rathergate he does seem to be in a habit of putting his foot in it:

"They took us there to the hurricane," he told Larry. "They put the facts in front of us and, very important, they sucked up their guts and talked truth to power."

According to Steyn, the media got it all wrong:

"Er, no. The facts they put in front of us were wrong, and they didn't talk truth to power. They talked to goofs in power, like New Orleans' Mayor Nagin and Police Chief Compass, and uncritically fell for every nutso yarn they were peddled. The media swallowed more bilge than if they'd been lying down with their mouths open as the levee collapsed. Ten thousand dead! Widespread rape and murder! A 7-year-old gang-raped and then throat-slashed! It was great stuff -- and none of it happened. No gang-raped 7-year-olds. None."

Dan Rather:

"That frickin' Superdome," he raged. "Five days watching dead bodies, watching hooligans killing people, raping people."

Stein:

"But nobody got killed by a hooligan in the Superdome. The problem wasn't rape and murder, but the rather more prosaic lack of bathroom facilities. As Ben Stein put it, it was the media that rioted. They grabbed every lurid rumor and took it for a wild joyride across prime time. There was a real story in there -- big hurricane, people dead -- but it wasn't enough, and certainly not for damaging President Bush."

Stein:

"How appropriate that it should be Dan Rather, always late to yesterday's conventional wisdom, to bless the media's fraudulent coverage of Katrina."

He makes a good point doesn't he? CNN is the worst. It's a good thing we have bloggers to keep them in line.

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