Maybe We Should Organize a J-Tour

At last I don't feel so alone. Mark Fitzgerald, editor at large of the journalism trade publication Editor And Publisher, has written an editorial criticizing his colleagues for "moving on too fast" from the story of the devastation of New Orleans. The trigger: his first trip to the city since the disaster. He writes that few if any media, aside from the Times-Picayune, are covering the story on a day-to-day basis. Those that do tend to do heartstring stories, while ignoring the larger picture.

I glimpsed one reason for this lack of context just as I was leaving Friday. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was holding one of his frequent town meetings at the downtown Sheraton hotel, and I figured I had just enough time to catch it before getting the last flight back to Chicago.

Before the meeting, he held a press conference, with the ground rules being that every reporter could ask two questions. As Nagin's harried press spokeswoman went down the line, it became apparent that the reporters were either New Orleans locals, or foreigners. There were two crews from Japanese television, and at least three correspondents from Europe. So far as I could see there were no newspaper or broadcast reporters from outside Louisiana.

What? No Brian? No Anderson? You mean standing in front of nicely-lit rubble isn't enough?