Rightfully overshadowed by Hurricane Ike, which is roaring to a devastation greater than Katrina's, here in Southern California we had a man-made disaster today when a Union Pacific train crashed into a Metrolink commuter train during the home-bound rush hour.

A little background on Paul Moyer -- aside from the fact he's the reason I quit watching local news coverage. Over a decade ago he probably ticked off someone in the control room and a shot of him picking is nose was "accidentally" transmitted. The next day he was on the top-rated rock station's morning show, "Mark & Brian", having an oh-so-serious discussion about how it wasn't actual picking because the level of finger penetration hadn't exceeded a certain point in the nose. (I'm not kidding.)

Wait, it gets worse.

Not much later, during a particularly bad fire season, parts of Malibu were evacuated because the fire had jumped the break and now was threatening lives and homes. Moyer was in the studio asking questions of the on-scene reporter. With a shot of the fire approaching a house that the reporter said people had refused to evacuate, Moyer asked: Do you think they're watching our coverage in the house? (Still not kidding, unfortunately.) The poor location reporter. There was dead silence for a moment and then he said probably they were more worried about getting out of the house. This was my breaking point, and I switched to national and newspaper coverage.

Fast forward to today.

In the early hours of the crash when all the outlets were scrambling for coverage and only limited information was available, KNBC was trying to describe what was happening in the pictures being broadcast showing rescue workers, firemen, etc. Moyer had Ken, labeled as a "Photographer", on the phone quizzing him about what he was able to see. The man said that he counted seven dead, and Moyer -- ever the obnoxious know-it-all -- said, "Really? We've heard of only 2 confirmed deaths today." Brave but foolhardy Ken proceeded to back up what he'd said by describing covered bodies and one that was clearly gone but not yet attended. As he was speaking, a stretcher with a body-bag in it was lifted out of the side of the train and passed by workers to the ground. Moyer's response was, "So that's your story, and you're sticking to it?" I had to leave the room. Even if you forgive him forgetting that it was just a few hours in, so the death toll was likely to rise, the unmitigated arrogance that the dribbles of information given out by official sources trumped observations of the scene defies belief.

It is beyond me how he keeps his job. What's even more unbelievable is that he's the recipient of multiple local-area Emmys. No, that actually just represents the sad state of local coverage and how meaningless the local Emmys are if he's considered the best in any broadcast year. His sheer ignorance should be enough to dump him into a small mid-west city that no one cares about, never to be heard from again. But no, he's in a major market as one of the top-paid (Wikipedia article) so-called journalists spreading his mediocrity around, interspersed only by stupidity so vast and deep that no one else approaches his amazing idiocy (yes, I know I'm repeating my adjectives. I've officially run out of ways to convey the paucity of his IQ.)

My rant aside, the death toll here had reached 15 by 11 pm, including an off-duty LAPD officer, and over 100 injured, one of whom was a sheriff's deputy who helped with rescue efforts until he collapsed from his own injuries. My thoughts and prayers go to the survivors and all the family members involved in our disaster, and to Texas where, unless a miracle or nature intervenes (depending upon your belief system), more devastation awaits the country. I will say this, rescue operations will likely commence forthwith since it's the president's home state, and Barbara Bush has deemed the citizens worthy of saving -- although who knows what they'll do with the transplanted New Orleans residents she held her nose at.