The AP’s Lynn Elber writes about the swarming coverage about to hit the gulf coast to note the one years anniversary of hurricane Katrina…

NBC, which won a Peabody Award for its reporting, will air the hourlong special “Katrina: The Long Back” on Monday. It includes “In His Own Words, Brian Williams on Hurricane Katrina,” an expanded version of the NBC anchorman’s film that originally aired on Sundance Channel.

Williams will anchor “NBC Nightly News” from the region Monday and Tuesday. NBC, which opened a Gulf Coast bureau in New Orleans shortly after the hurricane, will offer coverage on “Today,” “Weekend Today” and “Meet the Press,” with an interview with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

Other NBC News platforms, including CNBC, MSNBC and Telemundo, will report as well.

“America’s Challenge: Rebuilding the Gulf” is Fox News Channel’s blanket title for coverage set to begin Saturday with live reports from New Orleans by Smith, who gained notice for his passionate reporting from the scene last year.

Smith will be in Mississippi beginning Wednesday. Several Fox News correspondents and Greta Van Susteren’s “On the Record” will be in the region.

CNN, also a Peabody winner for its Katrina coverage, is drawing on its Gulf Coast bureau in New Orleans on shows including “The Situation Room” and is sending anchors and correspondents to the region for “Anderson Cooper 360″ and “American Morning” with Soledad O’Brien and Miles O’Brien.

On Tuesday, “Larry King Live” will feature Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and musician Aaron Neville.

I’ve read enough horror stories on DEBKA’s accuracy and I’m leery to post something from them but they did toss this out there and a stopped clock can be correct twice a day so…

DEBKA says it has identified the kidnappers of Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s exclusive sources on Aug. 25 identified the kidnapper as Dughmush, a former follower of the late Jemal Semhadana, head of the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committees who was killed in Rafah by rockets fired from an Israeli warplane on June 8, 2006.

Semhadana was the first Palestinian terrorist to attack Americans. He staged the bombing attack of October 15, 2003 on a US embassy convoy from Tel Aviv as it drove past Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip.

Read this with a grain of salt. Hell, toss in the whole salt shaker while you’re at it..

Reuters has an update…

Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal said information from “third parties” confirmed that Fox News correspondent Steve Centanni, a 60-year-old American, and New Zealand-born cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, were in good health.

The previously unknown Holy Jihad Brigades claimed responsibility on Wednesday for the kidnapping and warned the United States to free Muslim prisoners or the captives would face unspecified consequences. The three-day deadline passed at midday (4 a.m. ET).

“Good efforts to free the two journalists are continuing,” Hilal told Reuters.

“Things are still going in a positive manner and information confirms the two journalists are in good health and are unharmed.”

If you could play Uber-News Director for a day, what one story, that you think the networks are under-reporting, would you emphasize? And why?

The New York Times’ Mark Leibovich writes about Tucker Carlson’s Dancing With The Stars gig…and check out those pictures! (link will cause you trouble if you aren’t already logged in to the Times)

“We go for fish-out-of-water types, people you’d never expect to see out on a dance floor,” says Conrad Green, the show’s executive producer.

This profile fits Mr. Carlson like a bow tie, his trademark accouterment (which he recently shed). He has been a leading conservative voice for several years, the host of since-discontinued shows on CNN and PBS, and a contributor to several journals. He catalogs his personal dance portfolio as “a bunch of weddings and Grateful Dead shows.”

It says something that the two biggest events in Carlson’s life as far as publicity are concerned, getting torched by Jon Stewart and now this, have nothing to do with his abilities as a talking head or as a conservative. Which are things that are far more pertinent as far as his livelihood is concerned.