Leading with some anecdotes from Nashville anchor Bob Sellers–whose story TVNewser covered last week—The Washington Post‘s Howard Kurtz looks at how the Nashville floods failed to draw the media attention that the gulf oil spill and attempted bombing in Times Square did.
Kurtz notes that news outlets were looking for an “angle” to the coverage.
ABC, CBS and NBC sent correspondents whose pieces aired for a day or two on the morning and evening newscasts. Such reports often mentioned that the Opryland Hotel was under nearly 10 feet of water but had little time to explore the scope and texture of the human suffering.
Advertisement
Later in his column Kurtz tweaks MSNBC host Ed Schultz over a statement he made about Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu…
Following an interview with the Senator, Schultz said she had received $1.8 million from BP over the last 10 years.
But the figure he touted last Tuesday was wrong. Schultz offered an apology the next night, telling viewers that Landrieu had actually received $752,000 from BP during her political career.
Bzzzt! Wrong again. The actual figure is $28,000. The Democrat has gotten $752,000 from the entire oil and gas industry.