Katrina response: an honest analysis

Jeff Goldstein thoroughly analyzes the media, Dem, and blogger response to the Katrina tragedy here in a must-read post:

Sure, some people will likely write this off as unreliable due to its odious taint of Bush spawn, but should they do so, they should be prepared to admit to themselves that they’re doing so simply to avoid hearing what they don’t wish to hearβ€”and that Florida’s familiarity with all of the challenges and problems we’ve seen over the last couple weeks in LA and MI makes Governor Bush’s assessment an informed one, and one that is corroborated by experts in hurricane disaster management.

But even as some idealogues resist, others, however slowly and grudgingly, might begin coming around a littleβ€”particularly as more and more facts come to light, and more and more rumors are dispelled or properly contextualized. Of course, a press that is more interested in piecing together the events than it is sensationalizing them will also go a long way toward understanding what went right and what went wrong.

In the mean time, though, blogs have been important portals for piecing together information in real timeβ€”vetting stories, finding and weeding out apocrypha, etc.β€”and blog commenters have been indispensable, bringing their various areas of expertise to bear on the unframed information that was being plucked from the white noise. The commenters here, in fact, have done everything from pore through plans and documents (both state and federal) to research various statutes and their applicability to the jurisdictional showdown in LAβ€”all of which has allowed us to keep informed and stay focused.

Read the whole thing. And this one, too.