We Fail to Report, You Conclude, We Report on Your Conclusion

The crystalline moment of what I've feared, the political consequences of the national media's failure to report on the "why" of the Katrina disaster, came during last night's MSNBC-WDSU New Orleans mayoral debate. Chris Matthews, representing an organization, NBC News, which has yet to report the Corps of Engineers' self-confessed culpability for "design and construction flaws" at the 17th St. Canal floodwall (not "seawall", as Matthews called it), rounded on challenger Mitch Landrieu, as reported in today's T-P:

At one point Matthews sparred with Landrieu, for instance, on the question of whether the federal government bears responsibility for the failed levee system, which has been under the auspices of the Army Corps of Engineers for nearly 80 years.

"Nobody out there thinks the problems are with the levees," Matthews asserted, but rather with corrupt local officials.

Nobody out there thinks that, Chris? Why would that be? Could it have anything to do with the reporting they've been absorbing for eight months, even from the "committed" folks at NBC News, that continues to leave out the context of the disaster and the suffering--i.e., the massive negligence of the federal agency that supervised the design and construction of the city's flood-control system?

What the media report, or don't, has consequences, as the national media now presume to report on the alleged consequences of their own lack of reporting. If this didn't piss me off so much, I'd be getting dizzy right about now.