Katrina's Challenge for TV News: Find a New Narrative

I spent some time this week trying to figure out why I don't give a crap about the loads of Katrina anniversary coverage TV has been pushing at us.

I didn't put anything advancing it on my media blog. I didn't even talk about it while it was going on. Only as Anderson Cooper was wrapping up the last of his earnest live shots from the French Quarter on Wednesday night -- how many times is he going to talk about all the cool restaurants in town, I wonder? -- was I able to put keyboard to blog and figure this all out.

I didn't write about it, because I'm getting sick of it. Not the post-Katrina story, mind you; but TV news' tissue-thin treatment of the subject.

If you have watched any television news this week, you've seen it. An earnest anchor stands in front of a still-devastated neighborhood, glowering with indignation and pity. They note the garbage which still lines the streets -- Brian Williams picked up an old videotape he said he saw there last year -- the desperate people still waiting for relief checks, the rising murder rate, the rampant homeless problem and something new, for good measure. On one station, the new thing was gangs of criminals targeting the illegal immigrant contractors who have flooded into New Orleans to do reconstruction cheap; the criminals call them "walking ATMS" because they carry so much cash.

But it was mostly an empty rehash of TV news' glory days two years ago, when just getting the human misery in New Orleans before a TV camera was enough. TV audiences have seen the occasional reports; they know it's not getting better nearly as fast as it should. And TV journalists are on the verge of losing the nation's attention, because they keep telling us what we already know.

It's time to dig deep. Anderson Cooper and Brian Williams can't just fly into town for a few days and hope to penetrate this morass of local ineptitude and federal obliviousness. Newspapers, especially the local Times-Picayune, have done a fine job of dissecting exactly why things aren't working, and it's time for TV news to follow suit.

Who exactly is to blame for this sluggish recovery? Where did the money go? Why have more than half of Americans given up on the idea that New Orleans will ever fully recover? Is New Orleans even prepared to survive another hurricane if it comes knocking this year? Where is that national conversation on these issues we've been promised by every politician who ran for office in 2006?

On Wednesday, I watched Oprah Winfrey dissect the anniversary backed by her favorite news experts: Cooper, Lisa Ling and Dr. Oz. And while I'm not faulting these guys -- Dr. Oz, in particular, earned his stripes trying to treat those stuck in New Orleans in Katrina's early aftermath -- I kept wondering why Oprah wasn't talking to people who could really put a finger on what's going wrong. There's a small army of journalists who have been working this story non-stop for two years -- why aren't they facing Oprah's gigantic fan base and naming names?

(One local journalist who did appear on Winfrey's show, Pulitzer Prize finalist and Times Picayune columnist Chris Rose, wasn't even allowed to mention the name of his book -- a collection of Katrina-related columns titled 1 Dead In Attic -- on the show. He was tapped to talk about his struggle with depression.)

If she insists on featuring someone with showbiz credentials, just get Harry Shearer, who has been tearing the press a new one on Katrina-related issues since Day One on HuffPost. (Dateline NBC didn't even try, offering yet another true crime confection -- ah the drama of a good marriage gone murderous.)

My fear is that we've grown too used to the narrative we're stuck in now -- the poor, miserable Katrina victims, victimized again by a nameless bureaucracy and teflon politicians like Bush and Ray Nagin (CNN's Susan Roesgen scored one point, trying to get Nagin to look out his window and see homeless protesters camped right outside City Hall. Of course, that might have meant taking some personal responsibility for the city's failure, so the Big Man wasn't about to go there.)

It's time for TV to start kicking some butt on this story again. Look at how much got accomplished when it happened last time.

Follow Eric Deggans on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Deggans

Comments

[Ginzaman]

As far as getting the truth out on this, what about Greg Palast? I know the corporate media thinks he's a wannabe reporter. But if he's so great, why hasn't the progressive media supported him more so that the corporate media would THEN have to pay attention?

[JGatsby]

"I spent some time this week trying to figure out why I don't give a crap about the loads of Katrina anniversary coverage TV has been pushing at us... TV news' tissue-thin treatment of the subject."

as opposed to their critical, in-depth analysis of the Iraq war, healthcare, ...?! I (and more and more thoughtful people) stoped giving a crap and stoped watching TV news a long time ago.

[realitytrumpsbull]

If you saw it when it hit TV, fault was found with the levees. If they're doing anything BEFORE fixing those professionally, it's all wasted time, effort, and money, because eventually there'll be another storm...then they'll be back on TV...

[nunzia]

If you get a chance to watch, on Cspan, Soledad O'Brien interviewing the presidential candidates at the Hope & Recovery forum regarding Katrina, be sure to watch. She is really impressive. I had no idea there was a tv anchor with that kind of power, incisiveness, and strength.

[acespeed]

This post is spot-on. I'd like to note that Harry Shearer was on Morning Joe on the anniversary. Shearer gave it straight, and it was refreshing, especially following Brian Williams' flowery human interest angle on going to Waveland, MS and taking a tour with the mayor who pointed out all of the missing landmarks. I already knew the area was destroyed, I want to know what the situation is now and what needs to be done instead of pointing aimless fingers.

[BigTuna]

> My fear is that we've grown too used to the narrative we're stuck in now

Hammer, nail, head.

It started with the 24/7 coverage in the immediate aftermath of the storm, creating a nationwide epidemic of Katrina Fatigue within a week or two. Now on every anniversary we're reminded of how superficial and repetitious the coverage was instead of how slow the recovery *IS*. Too much looking backwards and not nearly enough looking forwards. Thanks, media.

[PlanetKansas]

well said...

We could fix up NO, but there really hasn't been a national policy debate on NO, just news filler for every anniversary and too many cameras and not enough food.

There is a similar lack of national policy debate on our infrastructure, the future bankrupting of medicare and SSI, and for that matter, healthcare and the Iraq war.

Though there is a general public feeling that something should be done in all of these cases, the politics of celebrity and fear, and the unwillingness to actually pay the taxes to get what we want has resulting in a total and complete policy paralysis.

Politicians give a lot of lip service on such anniversaries, but there has never been a true debate on our national policy to rebuild hurricane prone regions. They just write out blank checks to their cronies and adjust the national debt to pay for it. We can't even summon up the nerve to debate and resolve our policy on the Iraq war.

Until America matures enough to realize that the private sector is not the answer to all of our problems and wants, and is willing to raise the taxes and expand government policy to provide it, we can only expect more books, retrospectives and commentaries with no real progress.

[Indiana]

Excellent post. I did watch Brian William's and Anderson Cooper's coverage because it was better than nothing. In recent months, news stories out of the storm zone have (except for the anniversary coverage) been few and far between.

And I agree--there has not been enough coverage of Katrina's aftermath that has gone into the current situation instead of rehashing what happened 2 years ago. This is sad because were people better informed on what's currently going on in Louisiana and Mississippi, namely the combination of hardships mixed with signs of recovery, perhaps there'd be more of an interest in rebuilding New Orleans and the rest of the devastated communities.

Nor have we seen much of anything on nightly newscasts about where the candidates of both parties stand on storm recovery--while in most of the recent debates the topic has come up, not enough time has been devoted to it. Usually, only 1 question has been asked. For example, Hillary Clinton has a 10-point plan for bringing New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Region back, but has never had enough time to go into specifics. I also understand that Obama and Edwards have plans, but don't know about everyone else.

It's time for Brian Williams, Anderson Cooper, and the rest of the mainstream media to take a good hard look at their post-Katrina coverage and provide more in-depth coverage on the current situation in Louisiana and Mississippi.