Katrina: Evening Notes

> It seems that all the cable news nets are going into repeat mode again at midnight. “They should be ashamed,” an e-mailer screamed…

> “Dateline, NBC’s only newsmagazine, does not have a SINGLE person at the hurricane,” an insider says. “Why? Because “I want to be a Hilton” and “The Contender” flopped, the news division has to cut costs. What’s wrong with this picture?”

> Aaron Brown in his NewsNight open: “New Orleans is no longer safe to live in. It is that simple, and that stark.”

> “I’ve never been a fan, but boy, is Shep Smith doing just a superb job today,” a viewer writes in. “In the face of a real disaster and emergency, he’s calm and cool and steady and measured, in marked contrast to his hyper style when he’s reporting trivia.”

> On MSNBC’s Countdown, Keith Olbermann “threw to 10 MINUTES of raw tape of a helicopter pilot narrating the destruction in Mississippi — so powerful.”

> “I had an opportunity to take a walk along the beach today here in Biloxi,” CNN’s Jonathan Freed said on 360. “I felt like I was walking on the set of a disaster movie. It was truly surreal. And it has forever changed me.“

> Newsweek: Louisiana National Guardsmen in Iraq watch Fox News to find out if they have homes to return to… (Via FishbowlNY)