E-Mail This Article to a Friend Terror diary (continued)
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Saturday, July 9: Hurricane Dennis takes over as bloggers talk politics

As the weekend arrives, the London attack (and all its implications) no longer seems like the most imminent threat to our shores. It has been trumped by the ultimate perennial TV news story: bad weather.

By mid afternoon, the cable nets are in full-battle mode, warning of the impending arrival of Hurricane Dennis, cutting to reporters speaking from stormy coastal areas, airing news about evacuations, and conveying warnings from Florida governor Jeb Bush that residents should stay inside.

On the Fox News Channel, the hurricane is shown in raging red, while on CNN, it is depicted in a slightly subtler, more benign blue. Either way, the furiously swirling Dennis is bigger news than the slowly moving London investigation. A graphic of Dennis menacing the Gulf Coast is now a permanent fixture in the corner of the screen.

If you want new angles on the terror story, the blogosphere is alive with the attacks’ political implications, with some talk about a surge of support for British prime minister Tony Blair. Blogger Glenn Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor, is among those posting a new poll from England indicating that Blair’s job-approval rating has jumped dramatically from 32 percent to 49 percent in the wake of the bombings.

"The terrorist attacks in London seem to have backfired to judge from the latest poll data," he writes.

That evening, on the Fox News Channel’s political talk show The Beltway Boys, the theme that the British people are rallying around their leadership during the trying times is reinforced by co-host Mort Kondracke’s assertion that the British public will not be intimidated by Al Qaeda.

The conversation turns to the political fallout for President George Bush. Here, Kondracke and co-host Fred Barnes wax bullish. "If this has a political effect, I think it helps George Bush because it should reduce the amount of opposition there is in the country to the war in Iraq," he says. Adds Barnes: "Whenever terror is a big issue, it helps him."

Sunday, July 10: Chertoff and pessimism dominate the weekend talk shows

Although Homeland Security secretary Chertoff’s Thursday press conference received blanket TV coverage, today he faces a true baptism of fire: he is making the rounds on the Sunday-morning political talk shows.

Facing questions from George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week, Tim Russert on NBC’s Meet the Press, and Bob Schieffer on CBS’s Face the Nation, Chertoff is calm, crisp, and controlled. Viewers may or may not take comfort from his no-nonsense demeanor, but he offers very little in the way of new information or even informed speculation.

Asked by Stephanopoulos whether there is a way to make US rail traffic safe, he responds "George, when you got in the car to come to work this morning, there is some risk."

In response to Russert’s queries about security priorities, he talks only about "a layered approach. We have to be balanced across the board."

But while Chertoff sticks to carefully scripted comments, the other contributors to the Sunday shows are far less constrained, more critical of US policy, and notably pessimistic. And the conversation quickly turns to the question of whether the administration’s policy in Iraq has been a smart strategy or a costly diversion from the war on terror.

On This Week, Richard Clarke, an ABC consultant and former US counterterrorism official, asserts that the war in Iraq has made the fight against terrorism more difficult. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Iraq-based Jordanian terrorist allied with Al Qaeda, "has spread his tentacles into Europe," Clarke warns. "Iraq is not just a training ground [for terrorists], it’s a motivator."

On Meet the Press, guest Stephen Flynn, author of America the Vulnerable, asserts that the administration’s focus on fighting terror in Afghanistan and Iraq is part of the flawed theory that "we could think about national security as something we could do as an away game.... We’re really just fighting the last war." Flynn warns of "gaping holes" in homeland security and of "a heightened risk of the catastrophic attack" on US soil.

Retired Admiral James Loy, a man with a military bearing who is a former deputy secretary in the Department of Homeland Security, is more circumspect about assessing blame. But he is equally grim about the prospect of terror as an enduring national crisis and concerned that the nation is unprepared.

"We’re living in a new normalcy," Loy tells Russert solemnly. "The notion of risk being part of our lives today simply has to find its way into everyone’s souls and minds."

Monday July 11: The newsweeklies and the lessons learned

By the beginning of the week, four days after the bombing, Londoners have proved their grit and Americans are spending more time wondering whether Karl Rove will be ensnared in the investigation of the Valerie Plame leak than whether another terrorist attack is imminent.

As is the case with any major story, it is time for the media instruction on lessons learned — and the job falls to the newsweeklies.

In the new issue of Newsweek, Fareed Zakaria’s piece, "How We Can Prevail," begins by lauding the denizens of London and ends with an indictment of US policymakers. The good news, he writes, is that because of English resilience, "the London bombings have failed" to create mass panic and economic upheaval.

The bad news, he concludes, is that the US may not be in position to respond to terror as effectively as the Brits. He calls the response of raising the US mass-transit threat level despite no evidence of an impending attack "a perfect example of US grandstanding." He adds that "our leaders remain unwilling to speak honestly about the world we live in and to help people develop the mentality of response that is essential to prevailing."

Time magazine’s "3 Lessons from London," by John Cloud, won’t make anyone sleep any easier. His basic message is that the anti-terrorism sleuths are likely to remain one step behind the plotters.

"Despite losing their command-and-control structures, the terrorists have adjusted," he writes, adding that "the most enduring lesson terrorism experts have learned is that a movement as far-flung as bin Ladenism can’t be easily contained."

But we all knew that when we turned on our TV sets a week ago.

Mark Jurkowitz can be reached at mjurkowitz[a]phx.com