terra non firma

the gloves are off

the weekend in palm springs was great - thanks to jess for arranging and happy 31st. I think I may have offset the cost of my room at the parker through the theft of toiletries - hermes soap, molton brown bath gel, peter thomas roth sunscreen. I was able (barely) to restrain myself from stealing the jonathan adler vases and pillows, and the first editions of Fear of Flying and Valley of the Dolls (sense a pattern here?).

the main (only?) topic of conversation this weekend? katrina of course, and since our little group consisted of 1 new orleansian, 2 media grad students and pretty much everyone else working in media in one capacity or another - analysis of the media's coverage. everything from NBC's ridiculous attempts to censor kanye west, to the nytimes' all-katrina op-eds. finally, finally - the media is doing its job. the gloves are off. and we're not the only ones who noticed this - read slate's excellent coverage of the media's excellent coverage of katrina (how's that for meta?) and the systemic failures of the bush administration in preventing the levee breaches and then responding to the city's needs. how's this for an opening salvo:

A former deputy chief of FEMA told Knight Ridder Newspapers yesterday (Sept. 1) that there "are two kinds of levees—the ones that breached and the ones that will be breached." A similar aphorism applies to broadcasters: They come in two varieties, the ones that have gone stark, raving mad on air and the ones who will.

I hope it continues past this tragedy. I doubt it will, given the past 5 years of incessant media pandering to the bush administration. but I will applaud it while it lasts. please anderson, and joe and jack - stay angry.

posted by marissa @ 8:29 PM