6 feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

What better sign that Fox News Channel has arrived than the fact that Shepard Smith was the guest on "Late Show with David Letterman" last night? True, Shep is stepping into a vacuum -- CBS does not currently have a permanent news anchor and Letterman's old pal Tom Brokaw has retired. But then why not call on CNN's Anderson Cooper, who I'm sure would've found an excuse to get back to New York? (Note: See Update below for the answer to that.)

As I said on the radio yesterday, the media world is coming to grips with the fact that Fox News has moved up to its next level of dominance in televised news. Its coverage of the disaster was consistently gripping, more so as the week went on. If you haven't heard yet the audio or seen the video of Shep and Geraldo at the New Orleans Convention Center from Friday, Paul Harris has it linked (see the next post down).

CNN and MSNBC were good, even excellent at times, but I kept gravitating toward Fox because, ironically, I thought I would find less spin and more reporting there. It did seem at times like Fox was so hellbent for leather that it was like a different channel from its usual talking-points-obsessed self. True, Fox was quick to put into circulation the notion that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin could have dispatched 250 school buses to evacuate people, although it's unlikely (Fred Barnes, I'm talking to you) that would have cleared 20,000 people. More like 2,500, if we use the figures of 10 people per busload that we were hearing during last week's evacuations.

Still, it felt like Fox's personalities were much better integrated into its reporting. I saw a few CNN faces I'd never seen before, though for all I know they've been regulars ever since the last regime change in New York. As for the voice I heard most often on CNN -- that of chopper pilot J.T. Alpaugh -- his day job is chief technology officer for Helinet, a company that leases helicopter TV cameras. (Helinet just installed the first hi-def camera in L.A., which I suppose means viewers at home will now be able to google the license plates of whoever's being chased by police that day.) Over on Fox, meanwhile, Shep Smith, Geraldo Rivera, Rick Leventhal and other familiar faces were all over the hurricane story, and were getting visuals I wasn't seeing elsewhere. This was a big improvement from its 9/11 coverage and I expect it to get even better in future crises.

I was amused to read at various red-meat-eating political websites the idea that Roger Ailes has gone "anti-Bush" or, alternatively, speculation that Shep is not long for the Fox News Channel for his failure to toe the network's supposed party line. They pointed to the exchange between purple-faced Sean Hannity in the studio and Smith:

SEAN: I want to get some perspective --

SHEP: That is perspective! What more perspective do you need??

People are dreaming if they think Shepard Smith is in hot water over that. He made for great television. And that gets people watching, not just the come-to-Jesus types who watch "Fox and Friends" and "The O'Reilly Factor." People like me and Letterman, for starters.

By the way, is it just me, or was Bill O'Reilly completely marginalized during the last week? His rants were so off-key -- his ripping into Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco reminded me of Christopher Hitchens' ill-considered attacks on Mother Teresa -- and he seemed curiously out of the loop on whatever Fox was reporting the hour before he went on the air. O'Reilly is getting more Larry King-like by the day, except that Larry's core demographic is appealing only to the makers of Poli-Grip, whereas O'Reilly appeals both to the Poli-Grip and Smith & Wesson demos.

In the coming years I fully expect Roger Ailes to beef up Fox's global reporting, add some kind of headline service, acquire better radio assets and finally make good on his tiresome slogan, "Fox: The Most Powerful Name in News." Tiresome, but becoming truer by the day.

Update: Maureen writes, "Just for your information Anderson Cooper was supposed to be on Monday's Late Show ... he must have cancelled at the last minute as it was on the Late show website earlier in the day on Monday." So Shep was the fallback guy. Well, maybe next time he won't be.  I thought he set just the right tone.

On the jump page: What the Katrina fiasco means for the indecency crackdown and other so-called "media reforms."

 

Katrina and George

As much heat as the president is taking for misreading the scope of the Katrina aftermath, I still think the broadcast networks should be held accountable for continuing to air reruns as usual last week.

That said -- and remember that this comes from someone who truly does not care whether the next president comes from the Republican or Democratic party -- the fact that this president fumbled this crisis so badly means that he will likely spend the last half of his second term doing damage control. I think it's clear by now that bold initiatives and strong leadership will not be forthcoming from a White House that can't even get good intelligence on a disaster that happened less than 600 miles from the president's vacation home.

So don't expect the incoming FCC commissioner, Kevin Martin, to have a very long leash. No matter how ambitious his plans, Martin can't do much unless he has the support of his higher-ups, and right now they're busy managing Pet Goat II.  Next month they'll be in a Supreme Court battle.  And then there's that pesky war in Iraq and even wobblier peace in Afghanistan.

Let's put it this way: If Social Security reform ever gets back on the table, then it will time to worry about Martin's applying indecency standards to cable TV (something, by the way, TV Barn predicted long, long ago).

***

For those who've been reading the blog and staying glued to the coverage, you may have noticed two more references to Randy Newman's "Louisiana 1927" over the weekend. Paul Shaffer played Shep Smith out with it last night, and Aaron Neville performed it on the NBC benefit hour Friday night for hurricane relief. Probably just as well he changed the line

President said, Little fat man, isn't it a shame
What the river has done to this poor cracker's land

to "this poor people's land." Too bad he couldn't have changed the reference to obese journalists as well. I mean, talk about your stereotypes.