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Its amazing the difference in media attitude in their coverage of Katrina versus Iraq. Its as if over night they all grew a backbone. But why?

My first thought was simply that because its happening here, and not "over there," and to Americans, not foreigners, we cover it differently. The idea that our news media and our culture is incredibly American-centric is about as uncontroversial as you can get. Most days if you watched the news you could forgiven for thinking that the rest of the world didn't even exist. And yes, that's certainly playing a role here. But I think there's something bigger going on here, and its these two reports among others that convince me of that.

In Iraq the government can control access to information. They can limit where reporters go and what they see. And moreover, where they can't limit access, the situation on the ground is often so dangerous that most reporters can't get out to cover it. But here at home media access simply cannot be limited. The disaster is happening in front of our eyes. And when the administration and other politicans try to spin, the result is excahnages like this.