The media's telltale timidity early on was there for all to see. For instance, the day after the city was washed away, USA Today reported that experts had been warning about the possibility of a catastrophic flood in the region for years and that Louisiana legislators had been begging for funds to secure the city's levee system. But the cold facts were that the Bush White House, stretched thin by the war in Iraq, drastically cut back funding for New Orleans' flood prevention efforts. Yet here's the generic, kid-gloved way USA Today, the nation's most-read newspaper, chose to inform readers about the levee funding:

"Every year, the [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers] spends tens of millions of dollars repairing and upgrading flood walls, levees and pump stations, setting priorities for which jobs it tackles. But Congress hasn't given the Corps the money it says it needs to make the upgrades needed to protect New Orleans from the most serious storms" (emphasis added).

The Associated Press played the same game. Republicans control the House, the Senate, the White House and all funding appropriations, but somehow, according to AP, it was mostly unnamed "political leaders," "politicians" and "government leaders" who failed Katrina's victims.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer interviewed former Louisiana Sen. John Breaux and pressed him about the issue of the levee funding. Blitzer wanted to know specifically who was responsible for not getting the job done: "Who resisted? Was it the Clinton administration?" (Emphasis added.) Blitzer never bothered to ask about the Bush administration's role in neglecting the levees.

Last week, while the federal relief efforts unraveled, MSNBC's Chris Matthews cheered, "Last night, we showed you the full force of a superpower government going to the rescue." His report would have been more impressive (not to mention more accurate) if a superpower government had actually gone to the rescue at the time.

And here's how the Washington Post, in a Sept. 1 editorial that should live in infamy, described the administration's disaster relief: "So far, the federal government's immediate response to the destruction of one of the nation's most historic cities does seem commensurate with the scale of the disaster."

Three days later David Broder, the dean of the D.C. press corps, also came to Bush's aid, suggesting that the turmoil in New Orleans represented "an advantageous setting" for the president and that his handling of the situation would open "new opportunities for him to regain his standing with the public."

It's important to note for the record that it was the conservative editors at the New Hampshire Union Leader who quickly underscored the White House's deadly slow response to Katrina. In a biting editorial published Aug. 31, days before the mainstream press got up enough courage to criticize the federal relief efforts, the paper noted, "As the extent of Hurricane Katrina's devastation became clearer on Tuesday ... President Bush carried on with his plans to speak in San Diego, as if nothing important had happened the day before. A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease."

The paper concluded: "The cool, confident, intuitive leadership Bush exhibited in his first term, particularly in the months immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, has vanished. In its place is a diffident detachment unsuitable for the leader of a nation facing war, natural disaster and economic uncertainty. Wherever the old George W. Bush went, we sure wish we had him back."

It was the type of stinging, accurate broadside the national press was just not willing to make right out of the blocks. Yes, in the crucial days right after Katrina hit, Bush declined to address the nation in prime time. Yes, he refused to cancel his umpteenth public pep talk about Iraq in front of a grateful group of military men and women, which only Fox News carried live. Yes, while he was taking part in a goofy backstage photo op with a country music singer, New Orleans was sinking into complete and utter chaos. Yes, New Orleans' mayor had already announced the death toll was likely to be in the thousands. And yes, gangs of looters were ransacking portions of the city. But for three days last week -- on Aug. 29, 30 and 31 -- the mainstream media really didn't say boo about Bush.

Even on Sept. 2, when the New York Times acknowledged that Bush was taking heat for his handling of the crisis, the paper couched it in purely partisan terms, under the headline: "Democrats and Others Criticize White House's Response to Disaster."

Eventually, though, the pictures from New Orleans became too ghastly to ignore and reporters turned angry.

For years, frustrated news consumers have wondered what it would take to finally awaken the press from its perpetual, lazy slumber. Now we know the answer: one ravaged American city and a few thousand dead civilians.

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