MSNBC’s David Shuster blogs….

This is something people have been waiting days for; trucks came in from Orlando and Miami to bring ice and water to residents affected by Hurricane Katrina. Some residents were angry there was no food, pointing out that all the food had been swept away by the hurricane. When people rushed up to the attic, all of their food was lost.

In any case, they were happy to get what the relief did. Some of them were quite ecstatic because this is the first delivery of any kind since the storm.

I asked one local man how he felt now that this first-round of relief finally arrived. He told me, “It makes you feel good. It makes you feel proud that live in America you have so many people who care.”

While survivors are now focusing on day-to-day basics, the long-term future is just awful.

Anderson Cooper’s interview with Senator Mary Landrieu got heated tonight as Cooper started pressing Landieu, who was dodging and weaving, about the lack of adequate response he’s been seeing. Crooks and Liars has the video (and its servers are getting hit hard right now so you may not get in right away).

UPDATE: TVNewser has the transcript….

But it’s not about the Hurricane coverage exactly. It’s about Iraq. From Harris Online…

Former CNN President Reese Schonfeld was on my KMOX show this afternoon, talking about how TV newscasts aren’t paying nearly enough attention to the war in Iraq. He believes that we deserve as much coverage of the war as we do Hurricane Katrina, not to mention Natalee Holloway et al, and that it has to be more than just “what blew up today.” Instead, it should include context and in-depth reporting, which would have a big impact on public perception of what the US is doing in Iraq and how much longer we’ll be there.

You can listen to the conversation here….

While there may be something to this, I think Reese is tone deaf on the timing of this idea…

Here’s a story on DailyKos that may start getting some press in the coming days. It’s not yet….

On tonight’s news, CTV (Canadian TV) said that support was offered from Canada. Planes are ready to load with food and medical supplies and a system called “DART” which can provide fresh water and medical supplies is standing by. Department of Homeland Security as well as other U.S. agencies were contacted by the Canadian government requesting permission to provide help. Despite this contact, Canada has not been allowed to fly supplies and personnel to the areas hit by Katrina. So, everything here is grounded. Prime Minister Paul Martin is reportedly trying to speak to President Bush tonight or tomorrow to ask him why the U.S. federal government will not allow aid from Canada into Louisiana and Mississippi. That said, the Canadian Red Cross is reportedly allowed into the area.

Canadian agencies are saying that foreign aid is probably not being permitted into Louisiana and Mississippi because of “mass confusion” at the U.S. federal level in the wake of the storm.

Paul J. Gough in the Hollywood Reporter leads off with the ABC News incident where gunfire erupted as they neared a New Orleans Hospital as part of his story on security measures in tomorrow’s issue. This is Gough’s third must read in a row…

Correspondent Bob Woodruff and crew had tried to reach Charity Hospital to do a story about increasingly desperate conditions there when the incident occurred. But ABC News executives made it clear Thursday night that it wasn’t sure whether the gunfire, possibly fired by a hidden sniper, was aimed at its crew. There were National Guard troops nearby on the way to Charity Hospital; police and the military have been targets of gunfire in New Orleans.
….
“There’s clearly a lot more violence in this place and we’re now sending some security,” ABC News senior vp Paul Slavin said.

CBS News and CNN also sent security; Fox News said it had taken measures to protect its crews.
….
Security remained the most pressing issue, said Jack Womack, who is in charge of newsgathering at Atlanta-based CNN.

“We’re really evaluating locations and operations hour by hour where our people are,” Womack said. He added that Turner Broadcasting, CNN’s corporate sibling, had provided security since early this week.
….
“We are committed to tell the story,” said John Stack, vp newsgathering at Fox News Channel. “This is we what do for a living.”

The broadcast and cable networks have done a full-court press ever since the storm took aim at the Gulf Coast last weekend. But they’ve had to wend their way through an ever-increasing number of obstacles, from spotty communications to a lack of food and water to concerns that have led networks to send security personnel to protect news crews.

News executives wouldn’t discuss specifics about costs, but they acknowledge it’s going to be a big hit to the networks’ special-events and breaking-news coverage budgets.

“This story is going to be hugely expensive,” Slavin said.

Slate’s Jack Shafer questions why the TV networks have ignored what for him is rather obvious. Agree with him or not, Shafer is always good reading…

I can’t say I saw everything that the TV newscasters pumped out about Katrina, but I viewed enough repeated segments to say with 90 percent confidence that broadcasters covering the New Orleans end of the disaster demurred from mentioning two topics that must have occurred to every sentient viewer: race and class.

Nearly every rescued person, temporary resident of the Superdome, looter, or loiterer on the high ground of the freeway I saw on TV was African-American. And from the look of it, they weren’t wealthy residents of the Garden District. This storm appears to have hurt blacks more directly than whites, but the broadcasters scarcely mentioned that fact.
…..
To be sure, some reporters sidled up to the race and class issue. I heard them ask the storm’s New Orleans victims why they hadn’t left town when the evacuation call came. Many said they were broke—”I live from paycheck to paycheck,” explained one woman. Others said they didn’t own a car with which to escape and that they hadn’t understood the importance of evacuation.

But I don’t recall any reporter exploring the class issue directly by getting a paycheck-to-paycheck victim to explain that he couldn’t risk leaving because if he lost his furniture and appliances, his pots and pans, his bedding and clothes, to Katrina or looters, he’d have no way to replace them. No insurance, no stable, large extended family that could lend him cash to get back on his feet, no middle-class job to return to after the storm.
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Race remains largely untouchable for TV because broadcasters sense that they can’t make an error without destroying careers. That’s a true pity. If the subject were a little less taboo, one of last night’s anchors could have asked a reporter, “Can you explain to our viewers, who by now have surely noticed, why 99 percent of the New Orleans evacuees we’re seeing are African-American? I suppose our viewers have noticed, too, that the provocative looting footage we’re airing and re-airing seems to depict mostly African-Americans.”
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To the question of looting, an informed reporter or anchor might have pointed out that anybody—even one of the 500 Nordic blondes working in broadcast news—would loot food from a shuttered shop if they found themselves trapped by a flood and had no idea when help would come. However sympathetic I might be to people liberating necessities during a disaster in order to survive, I can’t muster the same tolerance for those caught on camera helping themselves in a leisurely fashion to dry goods at Wal-Mart. Those people weren’t looting as much as they were shopping for good stuff to steal. MSNBC’s anchor Rita Cosby, who blurted an outraged if inarticulate harrumph when she aired the Wal-Mart heist footage, deserves more respect than the broadcasters who gave the tape the sort of nonjudgmental commentary they might deliver if they were watching the perps vacuum the carpets at home.

Shepard Smith talking to Neil Cavuto a short time ago…

“This place collapsed into chaos..there’s no other way to put it. There were bands of thugs roaming the streets with ak-47s, police were being ambushed, many riots inside the superdome, the convention center torn apart last night…carpets being ripped up, shots being fired. Reports of murders all over the city. Forty-seven car jacks in one night. Looting all over the city as the water rises. Police not able to get out and about. Just not enough of them to control the chaos. No businesses open. No food available, no water available, no air conditioning, no shelter now from the rain…They hope that tonight and for the first time when darkness comes that it won’t slip into anarchy…People are volunteering their time all over the country. We know that 20 different nations have volunteered with monetary aid.”

FOX averaged 2.8 million viewers for total day to CNN’s 2.0 million. In prime time, FOX shattered all records for 2005 to date, with 4.9 million to CNN’s 3.6 million. Most of FOX’s lineup had record numbers for the year. From Studio B on through On The Record…every show was the peak viewer number of 2005.

Total day:
FOX 2,767,000
CNN 2,043,000
MSNBC 736,000

Total day P25-54
FOX 1,015,000
CNN 898,000
MSNBC 359,000

Primetime
FNC 4,922,000
CNN 3,618,000
MSNBC 1,476,000

Prime Time P25-54
FNC 1,961,000
CNN 1,671,000
MSNBC 772,000

FOX News announced some Saturday coverage changes due to the hurricane disaster…

FOX will present a two hour live special of “Cost of Freedom” on Saturday from 10-12 am EST. Hosted by Neil Cavuto, the business program will go in-depth to examine the financial effects of Hurricane Katrina on the U.S. economy. Cavuto will discuss the impact of Katrina on the stock market, how the booming housing market will recover from the destruction, and what this will do to oil and gas prices. He will look at the jobs and businesses lost to Katrina and the affects on workers in the area and the nation’s job market. Additionally, Cavuto will offer tips on protecting one’s money and assets from future natural disasters. Special guests and business block contributors Steve Forbes, Jim Michaels, Tobin Smith, Scott Bleier and Jonathan Hoenig will join Cavuto.

On Saturday night at 8pm EST, FOX will air a three hour live special, “America’s Challenge” that will include breaking news updates from locations impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Anchored by Alan Colmes and Sean Hannity, the program will feature coverage by Greta Van Susteren in Houston, Texas and on-site reporting from Geraldo Rivera.

Fox News Radio will also be presenting a three-hour special program on Saturday from 9-12 am called “Hurricane Katrina: America on the Rebound” and hosted by John Gibson with live reports from correspondents and anchors on location in areas impacted by Katrina.

Following up on the information I posted that WHAC noted about Larry King having a 3 hour special Saturday, CNN issued a formal release on the show this afternoon…

Following the devastation to the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina, CNN plans to broadcast “How You Can Help,” a three-hour prime-time special designed to provide a forum and information clearinghouse for viewers to understand and join nationwide and global relief efforts. CNN’s Larry King hosts the special, which will air live on Saturday, Sept. 3, from 8-11 p.m.

“People here and around the globe have been overwhelmed by Katrina’s destructive wake, and they want to know how they can help,” said Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S. “That’s why we’re preparing this special, to help our viewers understand that there are many ways they can contribute and volunteer.”

During the three-hour special, King will talk to hurricane survivors as well as organizations and celebrities who are helping with relief efforts. King will take viewer calls during the program, which will provide phone numbers, Web sites and other contacts for relief organizations.

The special will air around the world, due to simulcasts on both CNN International and on CNNRadio. CNN.com will post special “How You Can Help” coverage on its front page. The “How You Can Help” special replays on CNN/U.S. from midnight-3 a.m. and again from 4-7 a.m.

CNN reports that as of 3 pm today, it has received more than 11,500 emails from “citizen journalists” and of those more than 650 have included images or video. CNN’s new Victims and Relief desk has received approximately 11,000 emails since it began Wednesday morning

CNN issued a release today covering hurricane related items. CNN announced that it was sending more on air people to the region…

Drawing from its deep bench of top correspondents, CNN has sent chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, Africa correspondent Jeff Koinange, video correspondent Karl Penhaul and senior international correspondent Nic Robertson to the hurricane-torn Gulf Coast to assist in the network’s extensive continuing coverage of Katrina.

CNN has deployed nearly 125 anchors, correspondents, producers and crew to Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama along with six satellite trucks, six videophones and six digital newsgathering kits.

CNN also announced that a special documentary “Sudden Fury: In Katrina’s deadly wake” anchored by Anderson Cooper will be broadcast on Saturday at 7 pm and Sunday at 8 pm.

WHAC says that Larry King Live will air for three hours this Saturday…

Shepard Smith reporting a short time ago on FOX on the chaos in New Orleans. Johnny Dollar has the video…

Greta Van Susteren is headed to Houston to broadcast On The Record from the Astrodome tonight. Since the hurricane tragedy began, Van Susteren has received thousands of emails from viewers seeking answers and help and has answered as many as she could. GretaWire blogged a bit last night about how though the news people are putting in long hours, it’s nothing compared to what the victims are going through…

while those of us who sit comfortably in our studios do get fatigued from time to time, it does not come CLOSE to the fatigue our people on the ground in the disaster areas feel. Plus, even their fatigue is so much less than the actual victims of this cruel hurricane. No matter how little sleep I might have, I have a home to go home to this evening… this is not true of so many thousands and thousands. I appreciate you noting our long hours, but please know that we each know we have it SO EASY compared to those who truly do suffer.

Is now available for viewing on MSNBC.com…

FOX’s Shepard Smith last night…
(more…)

Mike McDaniel in the Houston Chronicle writes up on the coverage of the aftermath and includes an anonymous quote from a competitor praising FOX (!)….

Bill Hemmer had just gotten off the air talking about the move of “refugees” from New Orleans to Houston.

“I cannot believe I used that word in association with Americans,” Hemmer told the Chronicle. “When is the last time this amount of people has been displaced from their homes? I think the human story is really starting to bubble up to the surface today.”

Television’s hurricane coverage cycle has gone this way: Sunday, a day of warning; Monday, clichéd images of reporters struggling to stand up in the storm. It was a familiar drill.

But on Tuesday, the story changed as storm clouds cleared and bright skies revealed massive destruction.
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Fox News’ coverage has been the most watched so far, according to Nielsen ratings. Anchor Shepard Smith — in short sleeves and a ball cap — pulled iron-man stretches of air time. And complementing Leventhal’s reports were Phil Keating and Jeff Goldblatt in New Orleans.

“They seem to be more on top of the story than anybody else,” said a competitor, who requested anonymity for obvious reasons.

Though Fox was dominating, by no means did it have the story all to itself.

CNN’s Jeanne Meserve, for one, had our hearts in her hands as she tearfully struggled to describe to Aaron Brown on Monday all that she had seen in New Orleans. She gave a pulse-stopping account of people and animals in distress, her tears coming at the end of a long, exhausting day.

“You could hear people yelling for help, dogs yelping,” she recounted. “All of them stranded, all of them hoping someone would come.”

MSNBC and its broadcast counterpart, NBC, also found benefit in two lesser-known reporters, Bill Karins and Jeff Ranieri, from its obscure digital cable channel, NBC’s Weather Plus (channel 320 on Time Warner). Ranieri, in particular, was put to prominent use on Today .

An emailer writes in that CNN was live overnight when refugees from the hurricane disaster started arriving in Houston while MSNBC and FOX were running tape…

Dana Stevens of Slate looks at Rita Cosby and her show Live & Direct…

Watching Live & Direct this week, it’s been hard to get a sense of what Rita was hired to bring to MSNBC. The aftermath of a devastating hurricane is not really a Rita Cosby kind of story; for one thing, there’s no one to blame for it. (I suppose you could rant bitterly against God, as if He were Robert Blake or Joran van der Sloot, but that might lose you a few viewers, especially from the Fox camp.) Cosby seems much more at home with stories like the disappearance of Olivia Newton-John’s boyfriend, Patrick McDermott (I loved her attempt last week to pump some juice about this case out of a visibly nonchalant private investigator, who suggested, “I would say two words: Las Vegas, OK? Look in Las Vegas. He’s probably hanging out there”), and of course, the Natalee Holloway story. This week, Cosby was supposed to be reporting live from Aruba, and she actually did broadcast the show from there, but God had thrown a wrench in MSNBC’s plans to steal some of the Natalee Holloway fire away from Fox: Hurricane Katrina. There was something bitterly amusing in watching Cosby try to justify her presence in Aruba (”As you know, I just arrived here in Aruba, which was not hit by the storm, but is dealing with the fury of the Natalee Holloway investigation”) before devoting the rest of the hour to long-distance coverage of the mega-disaster happening back in her own country.

Glenn Garvin in the Miami Herald…

‘’Lord, we’re making up the new rules as we go along on this one,'’ said Terry Connelly, general manager of the Weather Channel, whose reporters and photographers in Mississippi are sleeping in their rental cars. “Our crews have had to fend for themselves. . . . I have no idea where they’re getting food.'’

Several news organizations dispatched convoys full of food, water, gasoline, batteries and extra staffers Wednesday to relieve their weary teams in the area — made even more difficult as New Orleans is virtually now an island.

‘’The logistics are enormous,'’ said Jack Womack, a vice president at CNN. “We’re running a military-like supply line from Atlanta, sending out fuel, RVs, generators. After three or four days on a story like this, just finding places to charge up all the batteries on your equipment is an enormous task.'’

Bill Carter in the New York Times writes about the obstacles the news orgs are facing…

After struggling with enormous logistical problems trying to cover the calamity caused by Hurricane Katrina, television news organizations moved yesterday onto what one executive called a “war footing.”

That description, from a CNN senior vice president, Jack Womack, reflected the widespread view among news executives that the problems they have faced this week in documenting the damage to the Gulf Coast have been far tougher than anything experienced covering the war in Iraq or the tsunami that hit Southeast Asia last December.

The Hollywood Reporters Paul J. Gough writes up on security measures being taken by the networks in the increasingly lawless disaster area…

NBC News has sent private security personnel to the increasingly dicey Gulf Coast region to help keep its employees safe while covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The private security officers, usually former soldiers or police, are licensed to carry firearms and are trained to keep the situation under control so that journalists can do their jobs safely. That’s becoming increasingly difficult in New Orleans and in Gulfport, Miss., where there aren’t enough police or National Guardsmen to keep the streets safe
…
Fox News VP newsgathering John Stack acknowledged that safety was an issue and said that Fox News is taking measures against not only possible crime but also the lack of food, water and threat of diseases. He noted that many Gulf Coast residents hadn’t eaten or gotten fresh water in three days.

“I don’t know how much longer that they can be expected to stay calm. These people have gone through a lot,” Stack said. “But we’re certainly hoping that appropriate relief kicks in before that becomes an issue.”
…
News organizations have had to rely on techniques and technologies normally used in wartime and usually not in the U.S. Cell phone service has been sporadic at best, and electricity is out in many places and not coming back anytime soon. Satellite trucks have been the only reliable communication system, and correspondents and crews are out of touch for hours and days at a time. A lot of transportation in New Orleans is via boat.

“This compares to absolutely nothing that we’ve ever done before, and we’ve been here 20 years,” Womack said. “It’s so enormous, so devastating. It’s hard enough to tell that story. But it’s like a military operation in terms of our people and our supply lines.”

For CNN, that meant getting help from Turner Broadcasting and CNN International, both based in Atlanta. CBS News, in addition to its own efforts, got supplies from its owned-and-operated station in Miami, WFOR. The station sent two carloads of gasoline, food and water from Miami to the Gulf Coast, McGinnis said.

This is Gough’s second must read article in a row…