Cursor's Media Patrol - 09/04/05

Before New Orleans was 'left to the dead and dying,' a Reuters photographer was denied entry to the convention center by a National Guardsman who reportedly said: "It doesn't need to be seen, it's a make-shift morgue in there. We're not letting anyone in there anymore. If you want to take pictures of dead bodies, go to Iraq."

As the Red Cross explained why it is not in New Orleans, Chicago's mayor said he "was shocked" by a 'federal snub of offers to help.' Read the transcript of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's "Get off your asses" interview.

"What is highly surprising now is the disintegration of the administration's mask of competence and confidence," writes Camille Paglia, "as New Orleans sinks day by day into squalor and savagery, a shocking panorama of unrelieved human suffering."

During a "NewsHour" discussion of the political fallout from Katrina, Tom Oliphant spoke of "the anger that is going to come from the realization that virtually all public policy -- state, local, federal, where this area is concerned, has been against the public interests for decades."