New Orleans Happy With Media Count at Mardi Gras
This is the week the worried stewards of New Orleans’ future were waiting for. By the first day of Mardi Gras, Feb. 18, about 1,000 media outlets had requested credentials to cover the first event welcoming tourists – the city’s lifeblood – since Hurricane Katrina made landfall six months ago.
By yesterday, Fat Tuesday, at least 2,000 members of the media had passed through the city, said Sandra S. Shilstone, president and CEO of the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp., the tourism agency. “The sheer magnitude of national and international media outlets that took up residence in New Orleans is absolutely staggering,” Shilstone said in a news release.
The evidence is in the coverage: Network newscasts anchored from the city, and there were features on Mardi Gras curiosities, follow-up interviews with Katrina survivors, and assessments of the progress – or lack of same – in rebuiliding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of Mississippi.
Good thing. Not only does the Gulf region need vistors’ dollars to pull itself back together, but it is depending on the news media to keep the rest of the nation’s attention focused on it.
“Keep the story alive,” Donna Fraiche, a lawyer on the Louisiana Recovery Authority, told Journal-isms, in an often-heard plea. Two weeks ago, in the state capitol in Baton Rouge, she and others briefed a 14-person delegation from the National Conference of Editorial Writers. “It’s a positive story about the worst disaster in U.S. history. . . . The rebirth is the story, and it’s an important story of the resolve of the American people, who are also benefiting by it. We are making history here.”
Fraiche sits on the 26-member commission alongside Vice Chairman Walter Isaacson, former managing editor of Time magazine, and Susan L. Taylor, editorial director of Essence magazine.
Every journalist should visit the Gulf Coast.
It is arguably the biggest story in a generation. In terms of scope, some in the region argued, it is bigger than the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, where nearly 3,000 died.
Comparisons are unnecessary, but here are some of the figures: more than 1,100 lives lost, more than 785,000 displaced, more than 18,700 businesses destroyed, more than 220,000 jobs gone. Economic losses are estimated at $50 billion to $70 billion.
What has happened cannot fully be appreciated it until you see it: a showcase of destruction for miles and miles. “Looks like a bomb’s been dropped,” one of our guides, New Orleans native Charles Mitchell, said as he drove through St. Bernard’s Parish. “Still got people missing. Each of these sticks had a house on it. They’re all gone. Looks like a junkyard.”
Those who remember the 1960s would find scenes reminiscent of damage wreaked on city blocks by the urban riots, which took decades to fix. Combine them with our images of the tsunami that swept away homes near the Indian Ocean in December 2004, a tragedy now largely forgotten in this country, and you approximate the scene on the Gulf Coast.
Editors of the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the Biloxi (Miss.) Sun Herald separately estimated it would be at least 10 years before the word “Katrina” was not somewhere in their newspapers.
“It’s like the biggest reality television show ever,” Mayor C. Ray Nagin said. “So many twists and turns to it. I don’t think we’ve seen anything like it. It’s definitely entertaining the nation.”
“This story is so huge that people could not begin to imagine what it’s going to take to rebuild the city,” Alden J. McDonald Jr., president and CEO of the city’s largest black-owned bank, Liberty Bank, said. “There are 180,000 vacant homes. Think about that. That’s larger than most of the cities in America.”
Everyone has a personal story to tell, even the journalists who covered it.
Times-Picayune City Editor David Meeks can talk about traveling back to his flooded house by kayak to rescue his golden Labrador.
Maj. Mark Whitlock of the Illinois National Guard can display a musket made in 1763 or a Gatling gun from 1918 used by Gen. John J. Pershing, both damaged when the Louisiana Guard’s Jackson Military Museum in New Orleans was flooded. Whitlock is there to help “stabilize,” or contain, the damage to the museum.
Musical treasure Fats Domino, now living in suburban Harvey, La., can relate how he was thought to have perished in the hurricane. The Lower Ninth Ward home of the legendary rock ‘n’ roller still carries a message scrawled in red: “RIP Fats You Will Be Missed.”
“People who haven’t seen each other since the storm, we greet each other now with, ‘How’d you do?’ instead of ‘Hi, How are you?'” said Walter Leger Jr., a lawyer in St. Bernard Parish and co-owner of the New Orleans Zephyrs minor league baseball team, who also sits on the Louisiana Recovery Commission.
“People focus on property, but [some] of the greatest damage that I see is the emotional damage to the people of the city of New Orleans,” said Ken Carter, a lawyer and former city tax assessor who once ran for mayor. “I’m a person of means. I have not been back in my home. Just think of my family. We spent 30 miles away in a rural area. What about everyone else? What’s happened to their minds? That’s the damage that’s permanent. That’s the damage we have to address in some way.”
“You’ve got 250,000 mentally ill people,” said Jerry DuPas of Lafayette, La., recounting the story of a suicide and the stress of the situation on others.
For Robin Roberts of ABC News, who hails from Pass Christian, one of the stricken towns on the Mississippi Coast, it is a personal story. It would become so for any journalist who visited. Roberts was grand marshal this week in her hometown’s Mardi Gras parade. “So many small communities like Pass Christian with their own Mardi Gras spirit,” she said Monday on “Good Morning America.” “It’s not just New Orleans, it’s along the Mississippi Gulf Coast as well. So it was a real, it was a real treat, a real highlight to be there yesterday with my home folks.”
Don’t expect to see water in the streets.
“People think the convention center is underwater, when it was never underwater,” Hans W. Wandflugh, Swiss-born president and general manager of New Orleans’ Royal Sonesta Hotel, told the editorial writers. “We need people like you to tell it the way it is, not the way it is imagined.” A National Guardsman showing visitors the breached Industrial Canal said, “Everybody who comes here all have the same reaction – ‘I had no idea'” the water was gone. “Yet it’s been all on CNN and Fox, but they really don’t have a grasp. Why is that?”
In a poll of travelers for the tourism agency, 45 percent said they thought the New Orleans streets were still filled with water. Shilstone, of the tourist agency, said she feared that on each anniversary of Katrina or Hurricane Rita, which followed, television would repeat old footage of the water-filled streets, compounding the misperception. One of the journalists’ guides from the National Guard complained he had seen such footage only the day before.
Actually, the streets were dried out – “unwatered” is the official term – in October after 43 days of around-the-clock work, assisted by huge pumps from overseas.
Outside of New Orleans, where there were no levees to break, the waters receded with the rain.
At New Orleans’ London Avenue canal, Lt. David Berczek, an engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, spoke near someone’s former swimming pool, a third of it covered by sand and broken tree limbs. “So much focus is on the devastation and destruction,” said Berczek, who had arrived two weeks earlier from the District of Columbia. “Some of these streets, a month ago you couldn’t go down them. You get a different set of feelings when you look down and see how much progress is being made. That’s the story people have to see as well. If they’re making decisions based on what they see in the newspapers. . . .”
It’s no wonder the media are regarded in some quarters as a lifeline. They have been.
In the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center now doubling as the Medical Center of Louisiana, often called Charity Hospital, Dr. James Aiken told how CNN saved lives. “I consider the news media one of the heroes for us,” said Aiken, medical director of emergency preparedness. “We and other hospitals needed evacuation. We did get assistance.”
On Monday, Aug. 29, the day of landfall, “We got attention by calling CNN. We had nurses and doctors taking the initiative calling into talk stations – at that point we got people’s attention. The first National Guard truck brought basic supplies, school buses, helicopters and an 18-wheeler, as many as 10 to 15 [people] per vehicle. We had Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to complete evacuation. We were relocated to Baton Rouge and Houston.”
As for the print media, Mississippi readers were “almost fighting to get the newspaper,” as editor Stan Tiner of the Biloxi Sun Herald told the American Society of Newspaper Editors. There was no Internet and no television, but the Sun Herald never missed an edition, even if it could be only eight pages. “People are reading . . . who didn’t read before,” Tiner told the editorial writers.
There are any number of stories about process – about the Federal Emergency Management Agency, insurance company red tape, about building codes, the voting rights of evacuees, the community meetings to seek consensus on how residents want their towns rebuilt. On the Mississippi Coast, there are littered but still-brilliant man-made beaches. Also on that coast are both the damaged retirement home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Beavoir Mansion, and the devastated community of Turkey Creek, founded in 1866 by freed slaves.
Following process stories can yield lessons, said Ricky Mathews, the Sun Herald publisher: “People don’t like building codes until your neighbor’s house ends up inside your home.”
And if these issues aren’t enough, coastal Louisiana is losing so much land that New Orleans could end up an island. “If nothing is done to stop this land loss, Louisiana could potentially lose approximately 700 additional square miles of land, or an area about equal to the size of the greater Washington D.C.-Baltimore area, in the next 50 years,” according to the Louisiana Coastal Wetlands Conservation and Restoration Task Force.
R. King Milling, president of Whitney National Bank and chairman of the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Coastal Restoration and Conservation, reminded visitors that the area supplies 11 percent of U.S. petroleum, and 19 percent of the country’s reserves of natural gas, and is the primary source of the nation’s crude oil.
Two prominent African Americans said the story is the rebuilding. The signs on the streets tell the story: “We’re With You, New Orleans, Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez Encore – Hyatt Hotel”; “One More Block Done! One Block at a Time Coalition”; “Treat Mold (phone number)”; “Home Repair and Remodeling Drywall & Paint Services Free Estimate”; “TV Rentals”; “Lifetime Roofing”; “We Buy Old Doors, Mantels, Etc.”; “Get Rid of Katrina Wet Stains”; “State Farm Sucks.”
“Tell the world there are plenty of opportunities here,” said McDonald, the Liberty Bank president who is also a member of the mayor’s commission on rebuilding, “$50,000 and $150,000 to rehab. Multiply that. That’s a helluva lot on the economy.”
“It’s a young person’s city,” added Carter. “I would invite young people to come . . . those who have . . . initiative, it’s wide open. Billions of dollars are going to come here. For a young person, it’s going to be a golden opportunity. We are a resilient people. They’re coming back and they’re looking for some hope.”
As for the news media, McDonald, whose progress in rebuilding his bank is being chronicled by Gary Rivlin in the New York Times’ business section, said, “I don’t see them really giving a feeling as to what the city is doing. How is it rebuilding? There’s going to be problems . . . but we’re moving forward. South of Canal Street, you wouldn’t think anything happened. North of Canal Street, people are getting into their safe deposit boxes in the banks. People are working on their homes now. There is hope.”
Later, Nagin said, “There are investors all over the place taking notes. One bought up 40 properties.”
Neither McDonald nor Carter spent much time on the issue of race, which has garnered so much national attention.
The rebuilt city has to have a smaller footprint because it does not have the tax base to support anything larger, McDonald said. “I think a lot of African Americans are going to think you don’t want them back. You’re not explaining to them that it’s about the efficiency of government, the tax base. But it’s not being explained to them,” he added, reminding visitors of the massive layoffs at City Hall.
“Everyone knows there are those who are waiting for . . . a small city, and what’s been called a white city, but I don’t believe that they control the policy,” said Carter.
In the discussion with Nagin, who had been criticized for a reference to New Orleans as “Chocolate City,” the mayor pointed to a projection that the Crescent City, now 54 percent African American, would be 58 percent or 59 percent African American. “I never saw a scenario anything other than a diverse city,” he said.
It was agreed, however, that the Hispanic presence would increase. With the housing stock so drastically reduced, immigrants are most likely to put up with living in conditions others would consider crowded. And without places to live, it is harder to find workers. Wages, in fact, have gone up, some said, following the principle of supply and demand.
The editorial writers wanted arguments to make the case to their hometowns that they should care about all this. “What does the rest of the country need to do to help New Orleans? We’re very removed,” asked one. Others said: “How do we justify the rebuilding and investment of federal dollars?” “What are the next moves?” “What lessons might we take from this?” “How do we make people understand it matters to people like me?”
Jim Godbold of the Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard was one such writer. “I’m humbled by the enormity of the situation, and overwhelmed by what I didn’t realize and what the country didn’t realize about the challenges faced by the state of Louisiana and the people of New Orleans,” he said as the five-day experience proceeded. “I’m intimidated by the prospect of having to translate this” to the people of the Northwest, he said, “and explain that they should care.”
At trip’s end, however, Godbold found his footing. “It’s going to be a piece of cake. I’ve learned the answer to a bad question. Should we save New Orleans? Should the city be restored? The answer is yes – it is absolutely yes. Every person who has spoken to us was able to articulate its importance.
“I don’t know that anyone would question whether to rebuild San Francisco. I find the question about New Orleans as preposterous as that.”
- From Baton Rouge to Bayou Le Batre and Beyond (reports by members of the National Conference of Editorial Writers)
- Brian Thevenot, New Orleans Times-Picayune: Their Mardi Gras . . . Our Mardi Gras
- Linton Weeks, Washington Post: A Bus Tour Of Hurricane Hell — Katrina’s Wake Is Gray Line’s Hottest Sightseeing Ticket
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Katrina Failed to Spark Discussion Anchor Wanted
“After two weeks of watching poor, often black residents of New Orleans struggle to survive in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, NBC News anchor Brian Williams made a bold prediction,” Eric Deggans wrote today in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.
“‘If this does not spark a national discussion on class, race, the environment, oil, Iraq, infrastructure and urban planning, I think we’ve failed,’ Williams said last September, speaking by cell phone from the city.
“‘I’m going to approach my network to do something in prime time. . . . I don’t know if it’s one hour or two, a town hall meeting with smart, professional people,’ he said. ‘It’s often said that we blew our last chance at a national discussion on race when the Lewinsky scandal broke (and distracted President Bill Clinton). . . . But I do know we have our next opportunity before us.’
“But even though Williams has made coverage of Katrina and its aftermath the signature story of his anchor tenure, the expansive, nationwide soul-searching he predicted has not come to pass.”
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Broadcast, Cable Coverage of Gulf Coast This Week
- ABC: “Charles Gibson, who co-anchored both ‘World News Tonight’ and ‘Good Morning America’ from New Orleans, reported on the Zulu Krewe and their participation in this year’s Mardi Gras parade,” spokeswoman Natalie J. Raabe said.
“On ‘Good Morning America,’ Charles Gibson and Robin Roberts reported on a ‘tale of two cities.’ Roberts reported from New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward, where many are still homeless and struggling in Katrina’s aftermath, while Gibson reported from the French Quarter, where there is a far greater sense that life is returning to normal.
“‘Nightline’ co-anchor Terry Moran reported from New Orleans on Monday and Tuesday and will be there again Wednesday evening. With entire neighborhoods wiped out by Katrina, Moran reported on the city’s options for rebuilding, plus lessons learned from other cities devastated by natural disasters. On Wednesday, Moran will anchor live from the Lower 9th Ward on the Common Ground Organization rebuilding the area.”
- CBS: Bob Schieffer anchored the “CBS Evening News” from New Orleans on Monday and Tuesday, spokeswoman Kelli Edwards said. Reports from correspondent Byron Pitts began last Wednesday, along with stories by Kelly Cobiella, she said. On “The Early Show,” co-anchor Harry Smith returned for a couple of days to Gulfport, Miss., where he had reported when Hurricane Katrina hit last year. In all, he made five trips to the region, spokeswoman Leigh Farris said. Co-host Rene Syler anchored from New Orleans Tuesday. Dave Price was there Monday. “I don’t think the story’s going away,” she said. “Was it the biggest natural disaster? That says it all. There’s a long road ahead, There will be a lot more as the city and the whole area rebuilds. We’ll be there.”
- CNN: CNN Correspondent Chris Lawrence rode aboard one of the floats in today’s Zulu parade; 10 members of The Krewe of Zulu, considered the premier African American Krewe, died in Hurricane Katrina. Also, “We have been busy unearthing stories of government ineptitude on a scale every bit as grand as Mardi Gras itself,” Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S., said in a news release.
The release continued: “CNN’s Anderson Cooper will anchor his newscast live from New Orleans beginning Monday, Feb. 27, at 10 p.m. On CNN.com, users will also find the ‘360° Blog,’ featuring postings from Cooper, contributors and producers from areas such as New Orleans and Waveland, Miss.
“For American Morning, Soledad O’Brien will anchor from the New Orleans Convention Center, a site of destruction and despair for thousands in the days following Katrina and a site for many Mardi Gras balls this month, while Miles O’Brien will anchor from Slidell, La. on Monday, Feb. 27, beginning at 6 a.m. In addition, CNN.com will offer an American Morning video blog with perspectives from its hosts and show correspondents who have been deployed to the region. CNN.com will offer a breadth of coverage surrounding Mardi Gras, including photo galleries and video highlights of CNN’s daily coverage from the region. “CNN.com has also produced a special report available at www.CNN.com/SPECIALS/2005/katrina/ on how the Gulf Coast region is recovering six months since Katrina made landfall.. . .
“For Mardi Gras, the network will deploy more than 100 staff members, including New Orleans-based correspondents Sean Callebs and Susan Roesgen; chief national correspondent John King; correspondents Alina Cho, Sumi Das, Randi Kaye, Kathleen Koch, Ed Lavandera, Chris Lawrence, Keith Oppenheim and Gary Tuchman . . . CNN en Espanol Washington, D.C., correspondent Juan Carlos Lopez will travel to New Orleans on Friday, Feb. 24, and offer live reports throughout the Mardi Gras.”
- NBC: “Brian Williams will return to New Orleans for the eighth time and will anchor ‘NBC Nightly News’ live on Monday, February 27 and Tuesday, February 28,” a news release said. “Coverage will include a look back at New Orleans – six months after Katrina devastated the city – with reports on how much and how little has been done to repair the city, racial tension and rebuilding challenges, and whether Mardi Gras marks the beginning or the end of the ‘Big Easy.’ Dateline NBC’s Hoda Kotb, a former New Orleans news anchor, and the Grand [Marshal] of Tuesday’s Argus parade, will report on the traditions and culture that make Mardi Gras what it is – from Krewes and doubloons, to throws and ladders, Zulu and Rex.
“In addition, Williams will offer personal reflections on the six-month anniversary of his trip to the Superdome in which he rode out the storm with many New Orleans residents.
“On Tuesday morning, February 28, Katie Couric will co-anchor “Today” from New Orleans, and will revisit some of the families she introduced us to when she reported from New Orleans, Mississippi and Houston in the aftermath of the storm. Investigative correspondent Lisa Myers will report on the state and local government failures following the storm. Al Roker will report live as a Mardi Gras float prepares for the Fat Tuesday parade.
“MSNBC will offer extensive coverage of Mardi Gras throughout the day and in primetime with correspondents reporting live from New Orleans. On the Internet, “Rising From Ruin,” (www.risingfromruin.msnbc.com), MSNBC.com’s ongoing look at the rebuilding of the gulf coast after Hurricane Katrina will feature a special entry dedicated to Mardi Gras. The dispatch from Waveland, Miss. will include photos and other multimedia about a reborn Mardi Gras parade in that community. Videos from ‘NBC Nightly News’ and ‘Today’ coverage of the Mardi Gras festivities will be available on the site and the ‘Nightly News’ blog, ‘The Daily Nightly’ (www.dailynightly.msnbc.com) will feature entries from New Orleans.
Williams cut short his anchor duties Monday night after his sister, Mary Jane Esser, 60, died after fighting breast cancer. Louisiana native Campbell Brown has been filling in.
“In addition, beginning last Friday and continuing on Monday and Tuesday, Brian Williams has an exclusive interview with former FEMA director Michael Brown,” NBC spokeswoman Barbara Levin added. “As you know, Brian has made it clear since he rode out the storm in the Superdome with many of the residents of New Orleans, that he is committed to this story for the long haul. And NBC News was the first network to formally open a bureau in New Orleans to cover the region.”
- National Public Radio: “This week, NPR features extensive, in-depth coverage from New Orleans, the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Baton Rouge. Michele Norris and Robert Siegel are co-hosting from New Orleans for a week of special coverage, including Monday’s long-form Honeysuckle Lane town meeting piece from Robert Siegel and Senior Producer Art Silverman,” said spokesman Chad Campbell.
“On site, Day to Day has Correspondent Karen Grigsby Bates and News and Notes will be hearing from Correspondent/Substitute Host Farai Chideya. “Other programs will feature pieces from reporters/correspondents Audie Cornish, John Burnett, Alix Spiegel, Howard Berkes, Joshua Levs and Noah Adams. “NPR’s website, www.npr.org, has a New Orleans Diary daily blog with many stories from our staff there.”
- TV One: The cable network will air Arthur Fennell’s documentary “Hope and Recovery: After the Storm” Saturday at 7 p.m. Eastern and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Eastern, said CEO Johnathan Rodgers. He said TV One would run it additional times over the next few months. The Philadelphia-based Fennell is a former president of the National Association of Black Journalists.
“This is the fulfillment of a desire that I’ve had to do more long form storytelling,” Fennell told Journal-isms. “Comcast has given me editorial and creative control to produce a series of human interest documentaries. The first was ‘Hope and Recovery . . . After the Storm.’ Comcast has first airing rights. This is not freelance. I’m still the Managing Editor and Anchor of the nightly news. As you know, Comcast and TV ONE are media partners.”
