When you consider the relative difficulty of reporting on it due to the remoteness and lack of infrastructure for travel and communication, the Boxing Day tsunami got tremendous news coverage, as befitting a disaster of that magnitude. Katrina is generating heavier coverage simply because a) it's relatively local for us and b) American media outlets can easily send crews to the scene. Most of the media were already in place, as teams are routinely dispatched to areas in hurricane paths in case it turns out to be a "newsworthy" event like this one. When the devastation occurred, and then intensified, the newsgatherers were already on the job and the coverage was immediate.

In comparison, nobody expected a natural disaster in the Indian Ocean. If there were any newsies there, they were travelers on Christmas vacation. For the first couple of days, most of the video from the tsunami was shot by civilians on hotel balconies and rooftops.