Aftermath: CNN Challenges FEMA On Press Restrictions In New Orleans

No news media allowed to follow along as bodies are recovered in New Orleans. “You can imagine sitting in Houston and watching somebody removed from your parents’ property. We don’t think that’s proper,” Col. Terry Ebbert, the city’s homeland security chief, said.

In response, CNN filed a lawsuit in federal court against FEMA this evening. “Government officials cannot be allowed to hinder the free flow of information to the public, and CNN will not let such a decision stand without challenge,” a memo from Jim Walton said.

> FishbowlDC: As if “you needed any more evidence that the failed response to Hurricane Katrina has lit a fire under CNN…”

> “One network news executive” told TV Week’s Michele Greppi that “any limitations on the press in the devastated area would be unacceptable to the press and ‘the American public.'”

> “I think everybody will be scrutinizing this [intent] in the next 24 hours,” FNC VP John Stack told Greppi…