I'm glad that Rita wasn't as bad as expected but WTF?

[johnnie]

I'm checking out the news (CNN) and they seem disappointed. They have people in the field and talking about the damage. The one woman showed a gutter that fell off of a hotel and then a palm tree that was broken. One guy was standing in about 2 inches of water talking about the flooding.

Something tells me that they were really looking for some death and heavy destruction and now they seem bummed out. Unbelievable.

[merh]

1. They can come back to the MS Gulf Coast - our devastation

from Katrina is enough to last a life time - they are still finding bodies and the mounds of debris are still being cleared - the homes are still destroyed, our lives still mangled.

There are thousands of stories of heroism, thousands of stories about struggles with bureaucrats and red tape, thousands of stories despair and hope.

We can keep CNN and other networks entertained for years, if they just remain focused on what is important.

[jobycom]

4. Bingo. You're yesterday's news and last week's cause.

Now the efforts will be on cleaning up the newest catastrophe--Bush's falling numbers. If they focus on Houston, they can claim success and hope people forget about Mississippi.

[Hugin]

2. Their corporate overlords were anticipating a wind-fall (so-to-speak)

I had seen them greedily wringing their oil soaked hands long before
Rita was a twinkle in the Gulf's eye.

Fox News was sounding the klaxon over Galveston before there was even
a hurricane.

Never miss an opportunity to gouge seems to be the order of the day.

Anything... Anything... To get the Nation's attention away from their
failures at Katrina or the questions of Cindy Sheehan.

[tanyev]

3. "It's interesting when people die, they love dirty laundry"

[uncle ray]

5. give em some time

information was pretty slow after Katrina, plenty of clips of signs flapping in the wind early on while the city was flooding.

[barb162]

6. yeah, they can't get in the worst parts of the damaged areas yet

[GrumpyGreg]

7. Of course they're disappointed-as they were when Jet Blue landed

safely. Unbelievable.

[zanne]

8. I'm relieved, and tickled by CNN

75 mph winds? We get that in New Hampshire!

[WCGreen]

9. They are disappointed, I think, for a couple of reasons...

A hurricane is a show....

They don;t have to really dig for news....

Everything is right there in front of it...

It allows their field anchors to show us their strong resolve....

It also give a big easy scape goat.... Bush....

If you notice, all the stuff uncovered about ineptitude was done at the local level or by print reporters....

Cable news doesn't do any journalism at all....

they point, they shoot and look at ratings.....

[radwriter0555]

10. "The TERRORISTS er I mean the HURRICANE is coming, The er uh,

Terrorists, er I mean HURRICANE is er are coming!!"

[enigmatic]

11. They said that after Katrina, too

then the levees broke and the stories of people unable to get out of the city, plus the utter davastation og the gulf coast in Mississippi wasn't completely known.

Watch between Port Arthur, TX and Lake Charles, LA; that's where the brunt of Rita hit, not Houston and Galveston. We'll know how bad it was in the next 24-48 hours.

[ironflange]

12. At least Anderson Cooper got blown around nicely

That's always good for a chuckle.