Critics ranging from Jon Stewart to Rick Salutin have been tipping their hats to the U.S. MSM over their aggressive coverage of the botched relief efforts for hurricane Katrina.

But in some ways, Iraq is a worse catastrophe because the Bush administration deliberately started that conflict.

The bottom-end estimate right now by Iraq Body Count for Iraqi civilian deaths is just under 25,000. The cost? At least $200 billion US.

Question: Did the Bushies get an easy ride on Iraq because they stage-managed it quite well, or is it because the U.S. MSM only cares about Americans dying?

The NYT's Paul Krugman covers some of this ground in a column today on the Bush administration and accountability.