When it came to incompetence in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Jonah Goldberg notes that the malperformance of the federal government was dwarfed by that of the media:

...virtually all of the gripping stories from Katrina were untrue. All of those stories about, in Paula Zahn’s words, “bands of rapists, going block to block”? Not true. The tales of snipers firing on medevac helicopters? Bogus. The yarns, peddled on Oprah by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and the New Orleans police chief, that “little babies” were getting raped in the Superdome and that the bodies of the murdered were piling up? Completely false. The stories about poor blacks dying in comparatively huge numbers because American society “left them behind”? Nah-ah. While most outlets limited themselves to taking Nagin’s estimate of 10,000 dead at face value, Editor and Publisher—the watchdog of the media—ran the headline, “Mortuary Director Tells Local Paper 40,000 Could Be Lost in Hurricane.”

The total ended up being about fifteen hundred, for all of Louisiana, not just New Orleans. And it's hard to argue with this:

None of this is to say that the federal government and the Bush administration didn’t make mistakes. But, if we’re looking for poster children for arrogant incompetence in response to Katrina, there are better candidates than George W. Bush.

The media lied, people died!

Except for the teensy little fact that we don't pay the media to RESPOND TO EMERGENCIES.

What a ridiculous article.

Except for the teensy little fact that we don't pay the media to RESPOND TO EMERGENCIES.
What a ridiculous article.

Ahem, the point of the article is that the government responded better than in any previous catastrophe. Better, as in best effort in history. And yet the media, through bias, narrative needs, or sheer laziness, gave the impression that the various agencies and military units where failing. We do pay the media to get the story somewhat close to the truth, or at least make a good faith effort to report the facts.

Tob

"Better, as in best effort in history."

Yeah, everybody recognizes what a great response the government made to Katrina. Sure.

Yeah, everybody recognizez what as great response the goverment made to Katrina. Sure.

Clearly, not everyone, witness your bootless prattle, just those that kept up with the unfolding story. People that swallowed the media's narrative of the moment (which included me) but have never revisited the event are still fooled. That is the point of the article. The media has never, forthrightly, retracted it lurid and sensational (not to mention, rascist) reporting.

Tob

OK Ken,
Give us an example of a better response to a disaster that wiped out hundreds, maybe thousands, of square miles of infrastructure(comm, roads, living space)in the same amount of time. Make sure you include local officials who impede the progress of responders. Could the reponse have been better? Sure. Do you have any idea what you are talking about? No.
I live in Texas and that is as close to that mess as I want to get. We had evacuees here and I know from those who were there what happened in several areas of N.O.