Crises, it is often said, bring out the best and the worst in people. In the case of the terrorist attacks that took place in the United States on Tuesday, the best was illustrated by citizens waiting five hours to donate blood, while the worst was exemplified by service stations gouging customers for gasoline and those customers threatening violence in return.

Crises bring out the best and worst in the media, as well. The varied coverage that appeared in Salon.com and the online edition of the Village Voice (though the banner headline, "The Bastards!", was, I think, a bad idea: The first thing it made me think of was "South Park") provided a street- level view of the tragedy as well as balanced analysis of the political and economic ramifications.

But print and Internet stories do not approach TV for the kind of immediacy we demand when such stories break. We want to know right away the extent of the damage, how many people were killed, who is responsible and how something like this could happen.