Open Thread: Hurricane Katrina Five Years Later

August 29th, 2010 10:21 AM

Five year ago today, Hurricane Katrina slammed Louisiana and Mississippi forever changing America.

In the midst of unthinkable devastation, the media coverage of this natural disaster was disgraceful.

Despite almost immoral bungling by New Orleans' mayor and Louisiana's governor, as well as decades of corruption that left this city's levee system in a state of shameful disrepair, President George W. Bush was made the culprit for the damage, the suffering, and the loss.

Katrina largely signaled the end of the Bush presidency just eight months into his second term, and America's press were largely to blame.

How do you see this disaster five years later and how the media handled it? Was it an ominous precursor to the absolutely abysmal job so-called journalists did in covering the 2008 presidential election? What have we learned from this event about the power of the press, and what can be done about it?