I think we're discussing two different issues, though -- whether it was possible for the media to have done more hands-on lifesaving themselves and whether they adequately informed the authorities of the presence of the people on the freeway overpass (which is how the conversation started) or the slant of the media casting blame, which is another topic.
This started because Shep spent days on that bridge screaming that no one was getting food and water to those people and implying that nobody cared about them. It could have been taken care of the first day if he would have gone to the hotel that was right behind him in most of those shots and told the mayor to either get some aid to those people or he'd start naming names. Instead, he just kept ragging on "the government" which was the equivalent of loading a gun, aiming it at the Bush administration, and handing it to the DNC. He basically accomplished NOTHING constructive and in fact did manage to accomplish something quite DESTRUCTIVE.
Now, we'll find out just what kind of man he is by how he fixes the mess that he made.
As a "newsman" he of all people should have known the hierarchy. He went through 9-11 and saw for himself how the city and the state were responsible for the first response, so he can't plead ignorance.