DISASTER IN THE SOUTHLAND – AT 10:28 A.M. ET:  And, no, I'm not talking about the oil spill, the dream story of the journalistic left.  I'm talking about the great Tennessee flood.

As one Facebook group asked, "Pardon us, but did you notice that Nashville is drowning?"  Apparently, many in the media have not.  Or, maybe they have, but don't see any political gain in emphasizing the story.  Can't blame BUSH (!!).  Can't blame the tea party.  Can't blame Sarah.  Can't praise Obama.  No obvious racial angle.  Where's the story?

The fact is, Nashville doesn't seem to care much that Katie Couric hasn't set up shop at the Grand Ole Opry:

The Christian Science Monitor reports:

Chalk up the ambivalence about the relative lack of national coverage and attention to good old country grit – and a city's determination to take care of its own. "A large part of the reason that we are being ignored is because of who we are," writes Patten Fuqua on the hockey blog Section 303. "Did you hear about crime sprees? No … you didn't. You saw a group of people trying to move two horses to higher ground. [We] weren't doing anything to draw attention to ourselves. We were handling it on our own."

What?  Handling it on your own?  What are you, some kind of right-wing nuts?  Actually doing something without calling for federal help?  Do you realize all the bureaucrats you can put out of work?

There it is, exposed, the face of the enemy.  Those self-help fanatics!

Actually, there has been some federal, by the book, help.  But mostly, Nashville is handling the crisis without the standard screaming and ranting, and the demands for an investigation into global warming.

And yet, the lack of journalistic coverage is troubling on its own level:

Dearth of media exposure?Yet many saw a troubling paradox in what was perceived as a dearth of media exposure. "It was mind-boggling to flip by CNN, MSNBC, and FOX on Sunday afternoon and see not one station even occasionally bringing their viewers footage of the flood, news of our people dying," writes Betsy Phillips of the Nashville Scene.

The gradual move by mainstream media toward opinion over hard news as budgets and circulation shrink could certainly have played a role in how the Nashville flood was perceived and covered. "Everyone is talking about BP and Faisal Shahzad 24/7, the 'thinking' goes," writes Andrew Romano in Newsweek. "So there must not be anything else that's as important to talk about. It's a horrible feedback loop."

COMMENT:  You can be sure that if the Nashville flood occurred a month after Katrina, and Brownie was sent to handle it, Nashville would be sinking even further under the weight of TV cameras and brilliant pundits.

May 9, 2010