Katrina wreaks havoc on newsies
It was just part of the flotsam-and-jetsam-like coverage -- near nonstop by cablers, more intermittent by the networks -- of one of the worst natural disasters in American history. At times, there were eerie echoes of the Asian tsunami tragedy earlier this year; at other moments, of 9/11 almost four years ago.
The death toll from Hurricane Katrina will likely be in the low thousands when all is said and done, and financial newsies have reckoned the overall pricetag at $30 billion and upward -- the highest such toll on U.S. record. Needless to say, it will cost the media a pretty penny as well to cover what will likely be an ongoing story for weeks, even months. (Toward week's end some nets even dispatched security personnel to the scene as the situation turned dicey.)
A few raucous radio commentators called the general havoc God's vengeance on a society that has lost its moral compass. Their evidence: Two casinos moored along the Gulf Coast at Biloxi, Miss., were literally picked up and hurled by Hurricane Katrina against each other.
"It looks like Hiroshima is what it looks like," Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told local TV stations of the devastation.
Now that "weather" -- not good or bad weather, but just weather -- is an established entertainment genre, with a round-the-clock cable channel and myriad movies about Mother Nature's whims, covering real-life weather events has become de rigueur for news orgs of all stripes.
And indeed, a phalanx of news crews and reporters were dispatched across the entire southern Gulf Coast as Katrina strengthened in its post-Florida trajectory.
The most intrepid among the storm troopers vied with one another to outdo CNN reporter Cooper Anderson's performance two months ago in another hurricane, when parts of a building went careening by him during one particularly dramatic sequence.
Not that locals enduring the disaster noticed. Electricity, cell phones, laptops and radios began to fail as early as the night of Aug. 28. Things worsened quickly in New Orleans once two levees broke Aug. 29 and began to flood the entire city. Folks fell back on pre-media methods of communication -- the rumor mill and word of mouth.
Trying to supply factual information, news crews and reporters had to wrestle with intermittent power, video cell phones that cut out and cameras that didn't always work or even arrive at their destinations.
"We're in a communications bubble here," Fox News Jeff Goldblatt said at one point from water-logged Canal Street in downtown N.O.
(The Weather Channel deserves plaudits for its reliably straightforward coverage and indeed 51 million folks tuned in during the storm itself; local stations across the country did what they could, though why they resort to asking people in bars, and wherever else, how they feel about the disaster, is one of the most inane practices of journalism.)
The most dramatic shots were of Coast Guard helicopter rooftop rescues of hapless stranded individuals as well as the panoramas of a city swamped and silenced by the water that surrounds it. There were also eerie shots of looters, wading through waist-high water to make off with TV sets; one can only wonder when and where they will ever be plugged in.
Yes, there was still coverage of Aruba and Iraq last week, but once the levees broke in New Orleans, networks stepped up their coverage. High-profile anchors like Brian Williams at NBC and Steve Harrigan of Fox News were on the scene.
CBS' Harry Smith had to speak into a microphone and keep his cell phone glued to his ear to hear anchor Bob Schieffer back in New York. He flubbed his lines once, but no one cared.
Since hurricane coverage began on Aug. 28, Fox News averaged 2.56 million viewers in total day, CNN attracted 1.69 million and MSNBC 653,000 -- all more than double the previous week's tally.
Meanwhile, local news media endured their own set of problems.
The Times-Picayune daily paper reverted to a Web-only edition. Only local CBS affil WWL managed to stay on the air. Other stations also went electronic, proving once again that the flexible Internet is a godsend in such circumstances.
All the accoutrements of modern life -- cell phones, laptops, electricity, newspapers -- were dysfunctional through most of the week for the hapless who remained in the city.
As Fox News' Jeff Goldblatt reported from Canal Street on Aug. 31, policemen were reduced to commandeering a stolen squad car from looters -- that's how topsy-turvy life had become in the Big Easy.
