I am sure many have been watching the news coverage of Katrina as it made landfall. CNN showed a "man on the scene" type approach, often with Anderson Cooper talking about random stuff, trying not to get knocked down and of course hammering whenever possible just how dangerous what he is doing. Now he of course thinks that makes him heroic, the rest of us know it just makes him stupid. So CNN is doing the "you are all going to die" approach to Katrina.
Fox News, as much as I hate to say it, trumped CNN this time. They took the "this is the facts and what is happening now" approach. Less man on the streets wasting our time, more informative, and more insightful. This is all just leading to landfall.
During and especially afterwards however, both news stations became doppelgangers, just talking about the same stuff over again with the same footage over and over again as really no one knew anything. Rescue operations where just beginning, the damage assessment just starting. The horror revealed, but not digested. Basically back to the business of worse case scenarios, crappy guesses, cheerleading and useless information.
However, every know and then, these stations remind them why we need them. TVNewswer has done an excellent job of showing the shining moments and the not so grand moments.
One moment that stands out however is a phone report from CNN's Jeanne Meserve during 8/29 Newsnight. It was a sad accounting of the some of the lives lost and why. Also what she experienced while down there trying to give her report and the emotionial cost. It was a rare moment of humanity in the news coverage. A shrinking of the distance between reporter and subjects. Sometimes you need objectivity...and sometimes you don't.
Click here for the mp3 audio.
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