1572 Hugh Hewitt and James Lileks on the Media

Hugh Hewitt interviewed James Lileks, one of my favorite essayists/journalists who is on line and in Minnesota. It was recorded at Radioblogger.com on Thursday September 29.

"HH: Now let me talk about the media and New Orleans. I just did this...oh, it was so classic PBS, sitting around the table talking with three people about something that nobody's going to watch. But it was fun. And they're defending the media down there, and you know, the slashed baby throats, and the forty people in the freezer, et cetera, as, you know, they were the captives of Ray Nagin. What do you make of this?

JL: I think, I'm going to defend the media here, because I think that if somebody runs screaming out of the dome, shouting that a giant octopus is eating people in the upper deck, I think it's the duty of the media to report that. Because if the media went inside, they might be eaten by the giant octopus. So I'm on their side in this one.

HH: But couldn't they have spared a couple of cub reporters to snap a picture of the octopus before they got eaten?

JL: Cub reporters? No. Because generally, you know, there's a lot of investment with these people, because there's a whols rigmarole you got to go through with social security. I say send in some interns. And if they don't like it, you know, catapult them in. You know, use some sort of giant bungee cord to actually shoot them in, gather their impressions, and they'll spring right out, and you can run with that. No, Hugh, I think you're absolutely right. And it's fascinating to me to see how the pride and the chest thumping that went on after Katrina, the media had finally grown their kumquats back, and they were going to stick it to the administration. Now it seems to have been replaced by sort of a muttered coughing and a looking away, and saying oh my."