Shearer's Strange Broadside

We couldn't let Harry Shearer's post Tuesday, ("New Orleans Faces The Nation") pass without a reply. Shearer's strange broadside took The Nation magazine (and by extension the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute) to task for our publication of Katrina's Hidden Race War, an 18-month investigation that exposed a series of racially-motivated vigilante shootings and alleged misconduct by law enforcement in New Orleans.

In his post, Shearer accepts the general thesis of The Nation's article, which revealed these crimes. He goes after a couple of details about the piece, calling them lies. (We stand by the piece in full.) But his main criticism of our investigation is that it wasn't something else, specifically an investigation into the role of the Army Corps of Engineers and their culpability in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In short, Shearer attacks The Nation for writing an expose about race violence and police brutality in New Orleans and not on his preferred subject.

What Shearer proposes is, in fact, a worthy investigation. The Nation, in our extensive coverage of Gulf Reconstruction including a book and two special issues on Hurricane Katrina, has reported on the issue at some length. But Shearer's broadside belies a lack of understanding about investigative journalism. When a reporter uncovers details of an atrocity (in this case a self-appointed militia shooting with impunity) the role of a vital and vibrant investigative media is to provide the resources and support necessary to ferret out the truth. The role is not to say "thanks, but please conduct a wholly different investigation," or to suppress those details. To criticize an investigation because it brought to light racially motivated shootings and possible police misconduct instead of bringing to light misdeeds of the Army Corps is unfortunate and short-sighted.

In an introduction to Katrina's Hidden Race War, The Editors of The Nation wrote that "Hurricane Katrina still stands as a symbol of our elected officials' brutal indifference to the lives of poor African-Americans. If we as a nation are ever truly to transcend race, tolerance for racist violence in our midst must come to an end." We are heartened by the initial response to Katrina's Hidden Race War, as thousands have joined a campaign at Color of Change demanding an investigation, over 125,000 have viewed a companion video, and Congressman Conyers has signaled his concern and interest in the matter. Yesterday the New Orleans Police released a terse statement, pushed to do so by public pressure from the media scrutiny. This response offers the hope of accountability. Perhaps Mr. Shearer would prefer to read about something else. But for those involved in these tragic incidents, there is no doubt that they should be reviewed in full.

Ben Wyskida directs publicity and syndication for The Nation.

Comments

[MichB1]

Harry Shearer has no right to decide what stories should be told or not, or even how they are told. There are hundreds of important points of view about what happened in NO. To say any small slice is not worth examining is a little cuckoo. What sense, exactly, is there in criticizing someone so harshly who is on the same side in the matter? There is a great deal of value in being constructive with criticism, and not tearing down.

Thankfully, Shearer has no power to make these decisions for other people. He can't really decide anything here. But he does have every right to express his opinion, which I bet the documentarians here fully endorse.

Is Harry saying he would have done it differently? Go for it! He'll find it squeezes out a significant part of your heart and soul to make an investigative piece of this depth. Any effort to understand this situation -- even though it's somewhat granular -- is valuable.

[TomR]

I've been reading Harry's blog for several months since Katrina and he's been quite consistent. His main point has been to fight the false frame that has taken root in the media and has become conventional wisdom (FALSE FRAME: New Orleans flooded because of Katrina).

The poorly designed and deteriorating levees by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for the flooding of New Orleans. There was foreknowledge years in advance that the levees wouldn't hold and yet nobody adequately addressed the problem.

http://www.factcheck.org/article344.html
http://forum.kearman.com/extras/new_orleans.html
http://dir.salon.com/story/opinion/blumenthal/2005/08/31/disaster_preparation/index.html

Harry's been fighting the propagation of this false frame wherever he finds it. This time it happens to be in The Nation.

I think Harry's discussion on race probably distracts from his cause.

- Tom

ps. The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed when there was heavy traffic congestion and construction on it. Yet no one says the I-35W bridge collapsed because of traffic congestion and construction. Again, it was poor design and maintenance:

http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/34454549.html?elr=KArksi8D3PE7_8yc+D3aiUo8D3PE7_eyc+D3aiUeyc+D3aUU

[Tremonius]

It's another Rashômon! No single event can stand alone. There are multitudes of causes and even effects for and from each fallen robin. A quick reading of this current controversy might suggest that someone claims that someone else claims that white racist murderers caused the levy failure in the Ninth Ward.

Nixon said, the story was communist infiltration and our noble attempts to deal with it, not some second-rate burglary. Why not report that? A drugged-out vet goes berserk in our town, does extensive damage to private property. It's Vietnam caused it! Let's talk PTSD!

Reminds me, along with everything else, of Monty Python. The bobbies had made outrageous charges, and the accused had responded, "It's a fair cop, but society's to blame."

At which point the cop replied, "Right. We'll be rounding them up this evening."

[robertjames]

You make not sense much......­.

[robertjames]

My take:
Some details in the Nation article of the cause of the flooding in NO during and after Katrina were imprecise, but race-based killings happened in NO after Katrina, and Harry does not want his adopted city to be tarnished by these incidents.

So?

[raker]

It didn't seem to me that Shearer's "main criticism of our investigation is that it wasn't...a­n investigation into the role of the Army Corps of Engineers and their culpability in the wake of Hurricane Katrina." Rather, the problem is that The Nation offhandedly repeated dishonest factoids about the flooding of New Orleans. It's maddening when the press makes references that assume a "common knowledge" that's patently untrue. The reasons this is objectionable should be apparent to anyone.

[ElBruce]

He criticizes three quotes in passing. If you go and read those quotes out of context, they may seem unclear, perhaps even misleading, but they do not constitute an incorrect assertion in any way.

[blindjester]

I've been a huge fan of Harry Shearer's for a long time, and I believe he's an important voice for justice. I feel almost the same about the Nation, and I have great respect for their integrity and their professionalism. Both are progressive leaders, and we need to get all of us together on this stuff.

So the Nation did a long report on the proximate causes of injustice after Katrina, and Harry argued that they should be focused on the ultimate cause.

How about we do both, and recognize that we're allied against the same villains?

Otherwise, we're tripping each other on the way to justice, and the criminals are laughing.

[SeanGardner]

Harry Shearer's indignation over THE NATION's excellent piece takes me back to the controversy surrounding the movie "Causualties of War", with Sean Penn and Michael J. Fox. At the time, some Vietnam Veteran's groups frowned on the movie, which was a departure from the valor and triumph of movies like "Platoon", "Full Metal Jacket" and "Hamburger Hill". For those who may not remember, "Causualties of War" was about a group of soldiers who abducted and repeatedly raped a Vietnamese farm girl as they journeyed through the countryside.

The parallel here is clear: just as those vietnam groups objected to a true story of cowardice and inhumanity that went against the narrative that they felt need to be adopted about vietnam vets, Shearer objected to a true story of cowardice and inhumanity (and racism) in New Orleans that went against the narrative he feels needs to be adopted about the aftermath of KATRINA.

A friend of mine (a white woman) has gone down to build homes in New Orleans each of the past 3 summers, and she told me that it was an open secret in New Orleans, and that the participants were reportedly bragging about hunting down blacks, and how they were going to get away with it. Why hasn't Harry written a piece on it himself? He had to have known about it? Was he scared the whites in New Orleans weren't going to support him anymore for supporting the African-American victims in this case? Who knows.

[schmuckwithearlaps]

An excellent and important comment. When people like Harry think that they "own" an issue, then anyone else who departs from the script is the enemy, liberal or conservative. If we each think hard enough there are plenty of other analogies, including the Clinton-Obama primary battles this year that pitted liberal against liberal. I sometimes wonder if Harry believes it ever rained at all in New Orleans or the wind ever blew during Katrina, because such acts of God only distract us from the 'real' enemy, the engineers.

[Harry Shearer - Huffpost Blogger]

Blame the messenger if you like, but I don't claim to "own" the Katrina story. My point in my post is that the facts own the story. What happened in New Orleans is not putty to be shaped as the writer wishes. Please read one or both of the executive summaries in the IPIT and Team Louisiana reports, and then tell me this is a "narrative" to be favored or dismissed as one wishes.

[JimBozo]

Harry Shearer has his particular view of the Katrina situation. His view is only blaming the Army Corps of Engineers for the levee failures. It's his personal hobby horse. I'd like to know why he totally ignores the responsibility of the oil industry in destroying the coastal wetlands, which previously protected the levees, and the city of NO, until they vanished. In my humble opinion, Harry Shearer is a Shill For Shell, unless he can prove otherwise.

I have no connection to the Corps of Engineers. Can Harry say the same regarding Shell Oil Co, or their ilk?

[Harry Shearer - Huffpost Blogger]

Gee, I think I actually can. The Corps of Engineers is not my "hobby horse". Please read at least the executive summaries of the IPIT report, from UC Berkeley, and the Team Louisiana report, from LSU--two separate forensic investigative teams that looked into the flooding of New Orleans. And, starting with my interviews with Dr. Ivor van Heerden on my radio show and at mydamnchannel.com, I've also been callling attention to the necessity for coastal wetland restoration.

[JimBozo]

And do you expect the Federal Government, which is bankrupt at the moment, to fix the wetlands problem- or the people who actually caused the problem, and profited from the destruction?

All we've noticed from you recently is "It's the Feds who failed us, waah waah waah!" Who has the money to fix the problem the oil industry caused? Not us tax payers, I assure you.

[garlicpowder]

I side with Harry on this one.

[bdd]

I DON'T!!!

[timinhi]

Yeah, me neither.

[ElBruce]

This is a discussion, not a show of hands.

[j.gold]

Thanks for helping to divide and conquer Nation. Whites were murdered after Katrina too and there was black against white racism going on as well. Why don't you try and tell the whole story. Such as where is the investigation of the white women who was run over and decapitated on purpose? Her body sat on Magazine and Jackson Ave. for days. By looking only into the blacks folks murders the Nation is helping to divide races even more. The national media did the same thing when they focused only on the mostly black 9th ward and barely mention all the other people who lost everything. People of all races lost everything and our government is to blame. They left people of all colors to starve and fall into the darkness of fear and chaos.

I want all murderers put in jail. The cops and Blackwater mercenaries who killed people, the blacks murderers, the white murderers and don't forget the murderers who were responsible for drowning our city.

Justice for all New Orleans.

[bdd]

Please link your sources.

[doctorj2u]

They are all the same sources as this article. People talking. Shortly after the storm, my brother-in-law saw men in semi-military black uniforms riding around (Blackwater?). He says the police told him they were sharp shooters called in to take out thugs in the Arena. Is it true or another one of those wild stories circulating around (like the ones about the Superdome)? Everybody has a story. I want to know the truth of what really happened, but I doubt we will ever find it. It was Armageddon and fear ruled the day.

[ElBruce]

Maybe it's because I'm not inculcated in the "unique" racial culture of NO, but I see a huge difference between a single murder and a coordinated campaign by an entire neighborhood to commit lots of them. Also, the latter can rightly be referred to as a "race war." There's an organized group of armed people (an army) and they're instituting a shoot-to-kill policy (a war), based on the race of the targets. Race war.

That's like super-duper-extra bad. At least it is to people who aren't racists.

[LizM]

You really have to hand it to the media - they are really something else. They simply don’t seem to understand that their credibility is pretty much at zero and going backwards. This sad state of affairs is reinforced and compounded by every instance in which they stubbornly ‘stand by the piece in full’ despite glaring and substantial inaccuracies.

Is it so difficult for the reporters involved here to recognize that this Nation story was wrong with respect to what caused the deluge in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina? It is this apparent arrogance and an attitude that says the facts are not important that act to severely diminish the integrity of all journalism and journalists. This is most unfortunate as this particular story is extremely powerful and needs to be told.

The story about what happened in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina is also a powerful story and needs to be told. Something tells me though, that we won't find an accurate account of it anytime soon at The Nation.

[doctorj2u]

The story of Katrina will never be told in any media or government agency. It will be told in an epic novel or in a great piece of music that will last centuries, not just the piddling times we live. The shame of the US will be recounted in the ages to come. It doesn't help the people living with shards of decaying destruction now, but I feel it is the arts and only the arts that can truly tell our story.

[LizM]

That is a beautiful way of putting it and I am sure that is how the story must be told. I just hope that, in the meantime, a great American city will be saved...an­d, the Gulf of Mexico denied.

[FreelanceMinion]

I just have to add my idea.

I think the point upon which Shearer is absolutely correct and which he seems to be most criticising is that the media, ALL media, even PROGRESSIVE media, has this tendency to forget to lookup certain facts that they think are tangental to what they feel they are really writing about. This story was about a part of the aftermath of the storm so the writer wasn't as precise as they should have been in describing the actual storm and the surge vs. wind vs. rain damage. Not that this writer or this magazine are the worst offenders, I'd bet you could pull out a dozen examples without trying from the average Time or Newsweek. You see this in science stories particularly all the time.

On the one hand it was a bad idea to call the article a "lie", because that word seems to question the more central premise of the story, which Shearer never actually does. On the other hand Shearer has an EXCELLENT point that the Nation's (and a LOT of other news organizations) editors and fact checkers should be more careful about those sort of background statements to not accidentally change history little pieces at a time.

[bdd]

Shearer did not make that point. Re-read his post.

[bolivare]

Mr. Shearer needs to do his own investigative report. He's been down there long enough, yet hasn't produced anything. But, he sure was quick to jump on this piece and how it was not completely factual. Well Mr Sunny Jim, do your own piece and then you can point to your facts when someone else gets theres wrong.
I'll be waiting for it.....

[Harry Shearer - Huffpost Blogger]

I'm not an investigative journalist, nor do I play one on TV. But on my weekly radio broadcast (which you could find with two clicks), I have interviewed Dr. Bob Bea and Dr. Ivor von Heerden, both recognized experts in their fields who led two independent investigations of why the city flooded, as well as John Barry, author of "Rising Tide" and a member of the newly-reconstituted East Bank Levee Board. Those interviews are all archived at harryshearer.com. So, your wait is over.

[azureblue]

The amazing refusal of some of the posters here to do even a cursory fact search before they post is astounding. I bet not one of them has even bothered to go there, much less use a street view map, like Google, to see what Lakeview and the Lower 9th looks like.

[doctorj2u]

Thank you Harry for your tenaciousness. I know you love New Orleans too. I wish these people would listen to the truth. Why do they fight so hard against it? Are we that different from them?

[Harry Shearer - Huffpost Blogger]

And, just in case you need pictures, I directed a five-part video series on New Orleans post-K, "Crescent City Stories", available at www.mydamnchannel.com

[ElBruce]

Oh, one thing you can't criticize Harry for is a lack of output. He's been working, and producing a lot of good work too.

[ElBruce]

I'm seeing a number of defenses of Mr. Shearer's piece, based on the assumption that he was merely pointing out some misleading language. If that had been the only thrust of his criticism, I'd agree.

Any left-leaning reportage aimed at seeing New Orleans get belated justice for the crimes perpetrated on it should be careful not to fall into the trap of making other crimes sound too rosy. That is, New Orleans reporting should be on the "same page." Those who want to bring to light the Algiers Point situation should have been more careful not to make the disaster sound like an act of God in passing. However, those who are interested in seeing that the failures of the ACoE are brought to light should not use that as an excuse to cover up or gloss over other important injustices.

In this light, Mr. Shearer makes the same mistake he's complaining about. He didn't merely point out a few examples of misleading language, he went considerably further:

"I write a post this long, and this harsh, because New Orleans has enough problems, self-inflicted and otherwise, without a respected national magazine asserting that the city had or has a race war."

He didn't merely criticize a few passing statements, but rather continued to assert that The Nation should not be reporting on this at all.

[azureblue]

Wrong- harry asserted that is you're gonna report- then make sure your facts are correct. That is all. New Orleans has enough trouble with out having to deal with smears based on half truths. BTW, did you know Algiers is not New Orleans?

[ElBruce]

The three quotes he cited were not factually incorrect. They made no direct assertions about the causal relation between hurricane and flood. They were merely too unclear for his taste, and may have been taken by some as implying that the hurricane directly caused the flood. In that, he's basically telling them to talk about what he wants to talk about instead of what they want to talk about.

Then he went on to pretty much say that racism wasn't a problem in NO and they shouldn't be talking about that anyways. That's what you're saying. So what we're hearing is that in attempting to get more sympathy for their situation, NO residents are trying to justify an organized race-based murder spree. Probably not a great idea there. Might want to rethink that approach.

I really don't care where the technical city limits are drawn, except perhaps within a discussion of which police or sherriff's department should have been responsible for controlling the area.

[noladawlin]

Azureblue darling, you're wrong. Algiers is a neighborhood in New Orleans. It is separated geographically by the river but it is part of our city and our parish. Please assert only what you KNOW!

And what did you intend to imply with that geography tidbit anyway?

[noladawlin]

azureblue, you wrote:

"The amazing refusal of some of the posters here to do even a cursory fact search before they post is astounding. I bet not one of them has even bothered to go there, much less use a street view map, like Google, to see what Lakeview and the Lower 9th looks like."

later you wrote: "BTW, did you know Algiers is not New Orleans?"

You are utterly ridiculous. If you lived in New Orleans or even "bothered to go there" as you so ridiculed of others, you would know that Algiers in indeed part of New Orleans. You don't even follow your own preaching.

[doctorj2u]

It seems that Katrina to most of you outsiders is the opportunity to pick whatever social problem is of interest to you and USE the tragedy that happened after the storm to serve your purposes. Fine. Just realize to the people that LIVED the tragedy, we know that the main issue, the cause of the suffering, is a failed government that has yet to be held liable for its offenses. So rail against racism, rail against euthanasia, rail against whatever topic is important to you. But the people of the Gulf South know the true situation in which these horrors occurred and the ANGER is held towards the real devil in this, the US government and the US Army Corps of Engineers. We want justice. We want people put in jail for the murder of thousands of US citizens and the loss of hundreds of thousands of homes. So continue your fight for the "drowning" victims with bullet holes, but don't expect a lot of support from the people that lived it. We know there are much bigger fish in the pond that have yet to be held accountable for their actions and lack of action. When will America wake up and help us? We need a 8/29 commission. I thank Harry for not letting the issue go. There are millions of lives at risk to this day in southern LA and MS. How many more thousands of us have to die before this country wakes up?

[maxfax]

Bravo doc!

[ElBruce]

Justice isn't one of those things where there's only so much to go around and issues have to get in line based on importance. You're excusing an organized campaign of race-based murder here. Rail as much as you want about the larger issues, and I won't disagree that they're of extreme importance. But no matter how much you do so, the fact still remains that you're excusing an organized campaign of race-based murder.

[doctorj2u]

ElBruce,
You are a babe in the woods. New Orleans is a town of storytellers. Remember the rapes in the Superdome? Things are enlarged and embellished, not for mean reasons, but for the entertainment of it. We live with passion. The cardinal sin is to be boring. I have no doubt that some vigilantes killed innocent people. I would like to see them prosecuted. There was also a number of people killed because they were looting homes. There was NO law. There was NO government. Most of the vigilantes were there to protect their neighbors because heaven knows the US government was no where to be found. Where was America? I hope you find the truth. I think you are too willing to hear what you want to hear and listen to people that will tell you what you want. The story of New Orleans needs to be told. I would just like it to be the REAL story.