Tribune's "ugly American" editorial Wednesday ignores Gulf Coast suffering in favor of cheap theatrics.

What on earth can the Tribune’s Wednesday editorial writer be thinking?

Before the Wednesday edition's editorial was written, the almost incomprehensible devastation from Hurricane Katrina already was being reckoned as the worst natural disaster in America since the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco.

Thus, with thousands of deaths, an entire city evacuated, the prospect of widespread disease, rampant looting, and the very real possibility that there will be no return to their homes for residents until months have passed, what is the Tribune’s editorial focus?

It’s, “Will other countries come to our aid?”

Yes, that’s it.

As the appalling human tragedy on the Gulf Coast unfolds, the Tribune’s official editorial position can reach no higher than to ask how much it will cost to rebuild New Orleans, and to petulantly demand that because the United States is “always first on the scene with money and goods,” that the rest of the world should come to our aid.

Which Tribune luminary is responsible for this graceless outrage?

Not only does the Tribune’s typically unresearched position fly in the face of statistics that show other wealthy nations (as opposed to citizens) to be larger per capita donors of aid than America in times of crisis, it perpetuates every stereotype of the self-centered, ugly American.

As well as every stereotype of a newspaper too damned lazy to learn.