Powerline guys have picked up the Jack Kelly column I posted Saturday. Succumbing to the sickening self-aggrandizement of the blogosphere, I note that I officially started saying there was less to Katrina than met the eye on September 9, so I take credit for starting the counter-revolution --by synchronicity if nothing else. Now not only Kelly, but Hugh Hewitt has joined the fray (scroll down to yesterday's posts for link), and ninme noticed. Do four blogs and a columnist make a bandwagon?
You know when I started to sniff something? On the Wednesday after the levees broke. I happened to see Shepard Smith and later a Geraldo report on FOX that night. Smith was alarmist, and Geraldo, reporting from the NO Convention Center, was walking among the crowds of hungry, uninformed people actually stirring up panic. I imagine he thought he was nobly directing aid to the needy, but where a calm head was required, even the FOX reporters were utterly lacking. At the time I held my fire because --c'mon, it was Geraldo-- but it made me realize the press wasn't investigating, it was just passing along rumors and stories from panicky people.
And then there are the two cardinal rules of war reporting. 1) The first two reports are always wrong. 2) The reporter on the scene has some facts, but no perspective.
