Clicking around the dial ...

On Hardball with Chris Matthews:

MATTHEWS: "I'm here with Howard Fineman from Newsweek. Howard, you're the best in the business."

FINEMAN: "Thanks, Chris."

MATTHEWS: "Howard, it's been almost four months since the Katrina disaster in New Orleans. We've all had a chance to catch our breath and figure some things out. So let me ask you, from your perspective, what went wrong there?"

FINEMAN: "Well, Chris, it's hard to pinpoint one specific thing. I mean, first, the levees, obviously."

MATTHEWS: "The levees?"

FINEMAN: "Yeah. And the dynamics of surging water created a situation that--"

MATTHEWS: "No, no, no. I don't mean 'what went wrong' as in 'what went wrong with the levees and the flooding and the thing,' I mean 'what went wrong' as in 'what went wrong with the media reports.'"

FINEMAN: "Not following you."

MATTHEWS: "C'mon, Howard, you're the best in the business. We had reports about looting and rapes and cannibalism and thousands of bodies in the street, and it turned out that none of this was true."

FINEMAN: "Well, right, but--"

MATTHEWS: "Howard Fineman, you're the best in the business. Isn't it true that the big story out of New Orleans is about reporting and journalism and the new media age?"

FINEMAN: "I like to think that the big story was about water and flooding and inefficient bureaucracy."

MATTHEWS: "Yeah, okay, that's a story. But isn't the big story about this job and this profession? Isn't Katrina really a story about us and the way we do our jobs?"

FINEMAN: "You know what? I think you may be on to something."

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On Meet the Press with Tim Russert 

RUSSERT: "My guest today is Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Good morning, Mr. Secretary."

RUMSFELD: "Good morning, Tim."

RUSSERT: "Mr. Secretary, last month Americans watched images across their television sets of happy, jubilant Iraqis with purple ink-stained fingers casting a ballot in the first totally free election in the Middle East in recorded history. Let me ask you, sir, if I may: What went wrong?"

RUMSFELD: "Well, I think a number of things, Tim. First, we had good security going into the election process. We also had excellent communication between the parties that--wait a minute. What went wrong?"

RUSSERT: "Yes sir. What went wrong?"

RUMSFELD: "I confess, Tim, that I'm unclear here."

RUSSERT: "Mr. Secretary, we were led to believe, following press reports and news accounts, as well as the reporting filed by credentialed journalists in theater, that the election last month was going to be an abject failure, and would probably result in what one reporter described as a 'bloodbath.' Sir, what went wrong?"

RUMSFELD: "With the bloodbath? Um ..."

RUSSERT: "Sir, wouldn't you say that the big story out of Iraq is the state of journalism in America today, how we gather and report the news?"

RUMSFELD: "I like to think that the big story out of Iraq is that highly trained, highly competent brave Americans in uniform have brought freedom and--"

RUSSERT: "That's certainly one of the stories, yes. But if I could, sir, just ask you to focus for a minute on another of the big stories--the important role of the news media."

RUMSFELD: "I'm not sure this is really about you."

RUSSERT: "But in a very real sense, sir, isn't it always sort of about us?"

RUMSFELD: "No."

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On Anderson Cooper 360[degrees]

COOPER: "My guest today is Howard Kurtz, CNN's media analyst, and a columnist for the Washington Post. Hi, Howard."

KURTZ: "Hi, Anderson."

COOPER: "Howard, I think all Americans were heartbroken last week when the story of the West Virginia miners took its tragic and devastating turn. What do you think went wrong there?"

KURTZ: "Well, Anderson, I'm no mining expert, but it seems to me that there was some sort of explosion, right? And the miners scrambled for safety and--"

COOPER: "Yeah, Howard, I don't mean 'what went wrong wrong.' I mean 'what went wrong with the media reports.'"

KURTZ: "Oh."

COOPER: "I mean, in a sense, don't you find the media angle here--the fact that journalistic checks and procedures broke down--in many ways the second tragedy in West Virginia?"

KURTZ: "I think I may need to think about that for a moment."

COOPER: "In a very real sense, Howard, isn't the whole journalistic profession trapped in a mine of its own, if you will? And isn't that a tragedy, not just for West Virginia, but for the whole country?"

KURTZ: "Um ... I'm not sure these things are really equal."

COOPER: "No, no, no. Of course not. I mean, the thing down there with the guys and the fabric thing and the fumes of course, big, big tragedy. But if I could just get you to focus, for a moment, on the media angle here, the journalistic angle, which is something, frankly, that we in the news business don't do enough of, I was wondering if ..."

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