Lolis Elie was interviewed by On The Media on NPR this past weekend and he had a lot to say about the national media coverage of Katrina. In part he thinks the story needs to be made important by a paper in order to become important to another paper or other media outlet. It the catch 22 of the main stream media, unless someone else is covering a story, I don't need to cover it. Luckily the Times Picayune (for all the faults some in the blogosphere have seen with it) has been able to stay consistent with its coverage of Katrina, rebuilding and New Orleans in such a way that the national media can only hope to hold a candle to them. In fact many members of the main stream media must turn to our local media 'elite' to get 'the rest of the story' as the locals know it. There is no other media group in the nation that is closer to a story right now than the New Orleans mass media. Gambit, the TP, and others are intertwined with the best ongoing national story since Edwin Edwards got into a runoff with an ex-grand wizard of the KKK. The rest of the interview going on the explain the difference between the percieved natural disaster and the actual federal flood. Very interesting stuff and definitely something to pass on to your contacts outside of the Katrina area to add to your argument for staying in a city that has the same right to exist that mudslide and blizzard prone Denver does and Earthquake filled San Francisco does and flood prone New York city does.

via Romenesko

What's going on here? Why am I posting so much? Today, in honor of Katrina I am attempting another 24 hour 24 post blogathon.