THE AGONY OF THE MEDIA

Posted at 7:46 a.m. ET

Decisions, decisions.  What to do, what to do?

I feel the media's pain as it decides which is more important this week, the hurricane or the convention.  Just the anguish in their hearts moves me.  Do read the report of their suffering at The Politico:

On Saturday evening, CNN broadcast Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s campaign appearance on an Ohio football field, with the live feed taking up roughly three-quarters of viewers’ television screens.

But it was the more ominous, unfolding news story taking up the remaining sliver that’s more likely on the minds of media executives and top editors: the path of Hurricane Gustav.

When asked about the focus of his network’s coverage this week, David Bohrman, CNN’s senior vice president for programming, had more questions than answers: “Is it a hurricane? Is it the convention? Or is it a blend of the two?”

Either way, the storm is already having an impact on news organizations still moving sizeable teams from Denver to St. Paul, Minn.

Anderson Cooper, whose television breakthrough occurred while covering Hurricane Katrina three years ago, is CNN’s first big star to change flight plans from St. Paul to New Orleans. Bohrman said he’s coordinating CNN’s convention coverage with the expectation that Cooper will not be in the Twin Cities on Monday.

Believe me, this is complete dry rot.  Remember something called World War II?  There was a war in Europe, and there was a war in the Pacific.  And there was war at hundreds of spots in between.

And, amazing, the whole war got covered. 

News organizations have the resources, either individually or through pools, to cover both stories.  But I do suspect (why is this?) that some news outlets look forward to minimizing or even blotting out the Republican convention.  For them, this really is the perfect storm.  Okay, that's terribly harsh.  But we now know that a number of "journalists" stood and applauded Barack Obama's acceptance speech in Denver Thursday night.  That is outrageously unprofessional behavior.  So excuse me if I attribute less-than-professional motives to some other journalists.  They embarrass my profession.

The Republicans may modify or even put off their convention.  McCain is now surrounded by first-class strategists, and they have the ability to turn this sad disruption into an advantage.  Yes, that's political calculation in the face of tragedy, but that is what strategists are paid to do.   Even if the midst of major war, elections are held and strategists plan.

So watch what the candidates do this week if the hurricane hits hard.  And watch how the news media handle the balance between Republicans and weather.

August 31, 2008.