Katrina/Tsunami Comparisons and Media Bias

Following Hurricane Katrina's assault on the US Gulf Coast, the news media rushed to bash President George W. Bush for the slow response of federal relief efforts. Forgotten was the malfeasance of New Orleans Mayor Nagin and the mayor's political enemy Governor Blanco. 'W' was pilloried for everything from broken levies to stranded residents to global warming. News propagandists from the major media outlets cited the superior effort afforded to victims of the December 26, 2004 tsunami that devastated parts of south/southeast Asia and eastern Africa. If only Bush the Younger had been more vigilant, homes, businesses, and lives would already be rebuilt and thriving.
The problem with all the hyperbole, however, is that relief efforts in the tsunami-affected areas are still ongoing at a painfully slow pace. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (www.ifrc.org) reports that more than eight months after the earthquake and tidal wave struck, tens of thousands of people are still living in tents, huts, and other temporary shelters, and hundreds of thousands still depend on outside assistance to obtain food and clean drinking water. With roads and airports still out of service in many locations, aid deliveries take days instead of hours, and many evacuees wonder when their lives will regain some sort of normalcy (sound familiar?). Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like the IFRC are working with the United Nations and local governments to provide aid and begin rebuilding, but all realize the recovery will be a herculean task that will last for years.
The American news media didn't report these facts about the tsunami because after a few days of newspots where TV reporters and print journalists got their Pulitzer Prize-submission pictures taken, they went home. What self-respecting network celebrity wants to hang out in Sri Lanka, the Maldives, or Indonesia when they can hang out with the beautiful people in New York or Los Angeles and write about Brad and Jennifer and Angolie? Besides, they have bigger fish to fry in the person of President Bush, a known eater of red meat (BBQ!) and worse yet, a Christian!
So many of the anti-American Left claim to be outraged at the supposed lies the Bush Administration told in preparing the United States for the Iraq liberation. Strange how lies perpetrated by their cohorts in the mainstream media don't bother them at all.