Howard Kurtz says “for once, I don’t think I can blame the media” for letting Hurricane Katrina slip from the public consciousness. He writes:
As I say, many journalists have remained on the case. But the disaster’s aftermath is hardly getting the kind of constant coverage that Tom DeLay’s indictment or Harriet Miers’ nomination or the Valerie Plame investigation commanded. The hurricane hit in late August, but hundreds of thousands are still suffering, and it’s entirely possible that much of the city will never be rebuilt and many of its residents will never come home. Isn’t that as important as anything else going on in this country right now?
Since you can’t blame the media, Howie, allow me. Once the mainstream news organizations lost their ability to use Hurricane Katrina as a cudgel to attack the Bush administration, they lost interest. Have dedicated reporters remained on the case, filing important stories about the recovery efforts? Yes. But the editors who put the national dailies and nightly newscasts together aren’t as interested in those stories as they are in Tom DeLay’s indictment, Harriet Miers’ nomination or the Valerie Plame investigation.