New Orleans Faces "The Nation"

It's holiday time and we probably all want to be thinking about something other than bloodshed and disaster. But the editors at The Nation feel otherwise. In the January 5 issue, they've run a long investigative piece on perhaps a dozen unsolved shootings of African-American men in the largely-white New Orleans neighborhood of Algiers Point in the days after the event shorthanded as Katrina. It's a lengthy, painstaking piece of work.

And, just like the work of much of the mainstream media about the disaster in New Orleans three-plus years ago, it lies.

Not about the shootings. Nor about the white vigilantes who brag about their activity in shooting, or at least shooting at, black men in the days following 8/29/05. But reporter A.C. Thompson, who says he (she?) spent eighteen months in this investigation, repeatedly mischaracterizes what happened in New Orleans to set the chaos and hatred he portrays into motion. It's neither denying nor justifying what the piece reports to point out that, absent a catastrophic man-made flood, this nightmarish flood of racist reaction might never have been unleashed.

The mendacity starts in paragraph 2:

It was September 1, 2005, some three days after Hurricane Katrina crashed into New Orleans...

Some "crash". Reporting from New Orleans on August 29, most observers agreed that Hurricane Katrina had "spared" New Orleans, that the city had once again "dodged a bullet". While coastal Mississippi lay flat, relatively minor wind damage -- we recall the Hyatt Hotel's windows blown out--was the worst sign that Katrina had dealt the city a glancing blow. Later, the National Hurricane Center, in its final report for the year, was to revise downward its estimate of Katrina's strength as it passed by New Orleans to either a strong Category 1 or weak Category 2 storm.

Maybe Thompson made a clumsy mistake in paragraph 2. Five paragraphs later, it gets worse.

When the hurricane descended on Louisiana, Algiers Point got off relatively easy. While wide swaths of New Orleans were deluged, the levees ringing Algiers Point withstood the Mississippi's surging currents...

A reader might take from that passage the idea that a "surging" Mississippi was responsible for the flooding of New Orleans. In fact, zero river flooding occurred anywhere in the metro area. Algiers Point is protected (not "ringed") by exactly the same river levees that protected downtown, the Quarter, the Garden District, and every other New Orleans neighborhood abutting the Mississippi, which is why New Orleanians refer to the slim parts of the city that escaped flooding as the "sliver by the river".

Thompson's at it again later in the story:

Around Algiers Point people say they rarely saw cops during the week after Katrina tore through Louisiana...

What is it Thompson, and the piece's editors at The Nation, refuse to say? Simply that, according to at least two respected forensic engineering reports (here and here), ultimately confirmed by a semi-confession from the involved agency, the flooding of New Orleans was caused by a series of design and construction flaws, stretching back over decades, in the supposed Hurricane Protection System overseen, in all details, by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people drowned and otherwise perished in the flooding, white, black, rich, poor. Did The Nation ever do an eighteen-month investigation to find out why such a system, mandated by the Congress to protect New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Betsy, went so terribly, catastrophically wrong?

Or, like the mainstream media, did it content itself with a crime story that used the Katrina disaster merely as a fulcrum?

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. There are racists aplenty in New Orleans, white and black. Yet, after two decades of knowing the city pretty damn well, I'd venture to say that day-to-day living in New Orleans involves more casual, easy, frequent interactions between people of all backgrounds and colors than I see, say, in LA, NY, or DC. Flood 80% of any of those cities, flood the airwaves (local and national) with fearful rumors -- after those same airwaves have been gleefully saturated with grotesque images of rappers glorifying thuggery -- and see what latent emotions come to the surface.

But analyzing the systemic problems of the Corps of Engineers -- upon whom New Orleans is now forced to place its hope for future safety, barring a sudden change in federal policy -- apparently doesn't jibe with The Nation's agenda. Is this the best a wounded city can expect from liberal media?

Comments

[SUIGENEROUSLA]

Harry -- good for you for doing stuff about NOLA here and on your radio show, people need to think about it more; bad on you for telling me in an that you wouldn't comment on Prop 8 because it was a local issue -- I feel for NOLA but I'll weep when Ken Starr sets fire to my marriage license.

[ElBruce]

I think the point of the article is clear - that while others were concerned with survival, this group of people immediately decided that their first concern was to get armed, form a militia and "prevent crime" from entering their neighborhood - never mind that "crime" is synonymous with being black.

What is worse - murder, or theft? For that matter, in an extreme regional disaster situation, does taking the necessities of life from wherever they're available count as theft? In a post-nuclear holocaust or zombie-movie situation, should you morally expect to be shot for getting your needs from the nearest grocery store? Is that OK?

How alarming is the notion that white people in the South are one disaster away from arming up and declaring an immediate race war on all black people in reach? THIS IS IMPORTANT.

Pooh-pooh this story all you want for now, but the next time there's a major disaster in the South and the first thing the local white folks do is grab their guns and go on a coordinated murder spree, please show the strength of your convictions and go to prison alongside them.

Mr. Shearer's position here is like saying that the Holocaust shouldn't be reported because it's a "distraction" from WWII Germany's far more important preemptive invasion of Poland.

[JulieSA]

Excellent post.

[Paul Peete - Huffpost Blogger]

Harry,
I have read your blogs on New Orleans and know that you love our hometown; but I think you are unfairly criticizing this article based on its omissions rather than its conclusions. While it did misstate the cause of the flooding, it correctly asserted that the racism that exists in Algiers that led people to fire on people merely seeking safety from the besieged city is a crime that needs to be exposed for the racism it is. As far as New Orleans having more interracial interaction than other cities like L. A., that may or may not be true, but on my last visit home from Los Angeles, it didn't take long for evidence of the racism that keeps the city in a virtual caste system was immediately evident.

Yes, there are racists on both sides of the color bar; I was initially a reactionary racist when struggling in the Sixties to force New Orleans toward integration. But it was just that, a reaction to vicious white racists who still held the old south ways. I am not surprised that even after Bush and the Republicans thumbed their noses at Katrina's victims, Louisiana still could not vote for the more qualified, BLACK candidate.

You are right in blaming the Army Corps of Engineers for the horrible construction that caused our levees to fail, but the ensuing examples of racism all but obscured the efforts of many citizens to come to the assistance of its own.

[rriva]

Mr. Peete, first let me thank you for any service you did to better our communtity in the sixties. Your efforts forced many racists into the suburbs. For that I am grateful. There is a "CASTE" like system in place in New Orleans, but it is created by the system of public housing which lent to people never leaving their neighborhoods. The schools grocery stores churches were all within blocks of the projects they served, so generations of poverty stricken people never knew there was a way out. That system has been abandoned, and there is hope, and I believe in 20 years, this will be a different city. I must say, though, that your insinuation that only black people are underpriviledged in New Orleans kind of short-sighted.
Also, I feel from your post that a caste system keeps black people from succeeding. You believe there aren't many middle class or wealthy people of color here. As a waiter in a fine dining Creole restaurant, let me tell you that there are. They are New Orleanians, they are black, and they are loaded.
New Orleans overwhelmingly supported the more qualified BLACK candidate.
As far as Algiers Point goes, the 3 blocks closest to the river are majority "white" but the rest of the point is fully integrated, and like the rest of the city the majority of its inhabitants are black.

[LizM]

I think you may be missing the point here.

If the writer of this Nation story had the necessary intelligence to know what really happened to New Orleans when Katrina grazed the outskirts of the Crescent City as a Cat 2 storm and left out the false references that Harry pointed out, then I'm sure we wouldn't be commenting on this post because Harry wouldn't have written it.

The point here is that the vast majority of the media continue to demonstrate their collective incompetence and ineptitude by failing to understand the first thing about why New Orleans was deluged in the aftermath of Katrina. More importantly, they fail to understand what needs to occur now to save a great American city from drowning again...perhaps for the last time.

[Raven]

"The point here is that the vast majority of the media continue to demonstrate their collective incompetence and ineptitude by failing to understand the first thing about why New Orleans was deluged in the aftermath of Katrina. More importantly, they fail to understand what needs to occur now to save a great American city from drowning again...perhaps for the last time."

And it's a point worth making. If there were crazies roaming the streets of Algiers shooting people just because they thought they could, why was that? It wasn't simply because there's a lot of racism in New Orleans, as the writer of the Nation story would lead us to believe.

There's a story here that still hasn't been told in one complete piece. How from beginning to end, our government failed New Orleans. And if it could happen to New Orleans, one of our most beloved treasures, why not anywhere else?

And Harry's point is very well placed that the Nation really failed to give us that whole story.

Eighteen months? And they didn't even know how New Orleans drowned?

Harry's right. Somebody missed something here.

[maxfax]

Will all due respect, Mr. Peete, the Nation, if telling the truth, didn't only misstate, it misinformed the public of the cause of the destruction of New Orleans on August 29, 2005. It had a duty to tell the truth, IF they're telling the truth to begin with.

[rriva]

Thank You Harry!

I read that article in "The Nation," and it made me physically ill. First I was repulsed by the portayal of the attitudes of the "vigilantes" and then by the disgusting slant of the article. Lots of really bad things happened in the first weeks after the levees failed, but many many good and heroic things did, too. There are bad people of every hue, and a lot of bad people took advantage of the breakdown of society that happened here. I am from New Orleans. I've lived in Florida, California and Alabama. I moved back home in 2003, and God willing, I will never live anywhere else. People in New Orleans interact with eachother. People of different colors, different religions, different beliefs all live in the same neighborhoods. That wasn't the case anywhere else that I lived. People like to call us racist but in what other City are the people represented by an Indian Governor, a female Senator, a Vietnamese Congressman and a black mayor? When your city is that diverse, I'll listen to you about our racism.

[tavote08]

what does any of that have to do with white vigilante men using black men for target practice, bragging about it, and there not being a police investigation, which by the way was what the article was about????

[Harry Shearer - Huffpost Blogger]

Try this: if the author gets the basic facts of the disaster wrong, why do you trust him or her to get other facts right?

[rriva]

All of that is horrible, disgusting and one more story to go with the 4 women I know personally that were beaten and raped and were told there cases will never be persued. Also, my best friend witnessed a young man being shot in the back on St. Charles Ave, reported it to the police (2 days after storm) and was told they couldn't do anything about it. The color of the perpatrators skin is not an issue. The fact that for more than a week this city was governed by lawlessness. Many black people got away with murder. Many white people got away with murder. The only thing that happened is lots of really bad people got away with hurting people. That is wrong, and it sucks, but it happened to people of every color.

[ElBruce]

"Lots of bad things happened." = Cambodia, 1974. = Eastern Europe, 1943.

Sorry, didn't mean to make you look bad. I'm very impressed with the diversity of your city. By the way, why do you tolerate race-based murderers among yourselves? If my city were more diverse, would I somehow understand?

[marymac]

Please try to remember that the flooding in New Orleans was NOT a natural disaster. It was an engineering disaster. The largest engineering disaster in the history of this country. Rather like a dam breaking and many people drowning.

[tavote08]

I was under the impression the article was focusing on the viligante deaths of black men at the hands of white men, that was being covered up. If the details surrounding this fact were inflated or fabricated does it change the facts. Whether it's NY, CA. DC or any other state justice is what we should be looking for.
How about you write another 18 month investigative article about the levies, the Corp. engineers, and the best adjective to describe the effect of Katrina on New Orleans.

By the way police corruption, cover-ups, and racial crime was a problem in New Orleans long before Katrina....

[backhandpath]

Here's an adjective to describe what happened with the Federal Flood of New Orleans for you: crucified.
Harry has been "investigating" this for going on 4 years now.

[timtimes]

If a bunch of black people get shot in Louisiana by a bunch of racists and there's no liberal bloggers there to write about it, did it really even happen?

Here's a little tidbit I picked up earlier today. I don't watch TV news, but I hadn't seen this little ditty. I bet the coal industry would rather there weren't a liberal blogger around to point it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGmVCABMRRQ

Enjoy.

[LizM]

Can we stop calling the media 'liberal' and just call them what they are, for the most part, and that is INCOMPETENT AND INEPT!?

Perhaps we could shame the lot of them - regardless of their real or perceived political bent - into a more enlightened job performance...with respect to saving New Orleans and every other important issue that cries out for intelligent reporting.

[radiojunkie]

I read The Nation article and wasn't left with the idea that New Orleans is a racist city. I read Harry's complaints about the storm damage details being less than correct. I think Harry is nitpicking the periphery and ignoring the main gist of the message:

African American men were murdered in proximity to bragging, white men with guns. These murders are unsolved. Were they properly investigated?

I'm proud of where I live and like to think of my community as progressive. I'm trying to imagine my neighborhood full of rednecks murdering innocent black people. It would be a little difficult to defend the rest of my community if these murderers weren't brought to justice.

[Harry Shearer - Huffpost Blogger]

The cause of the deaths of thousands of people is the "periphery"? Pointing out journalistic mendacity on the cause of the disaster is "nitpicking"? Are you serious?

[Kahni]

I hope radio is serious. Certainly right. While I always admire your reports, you are insisting the Nation article was about the hurricane when it wasn't. There is no gain in posting here what the article was actually focused on; you must have read it, you are very smart, you are missing the point for reasons you are not telling us.

[BobSF94117]

Not to nitpick, but "thousands"? Plural?

Don't inflate the number for effect. Some people will accuse you of mendacity.

[ericfree]

Not the first time the Nation has been howlingly wrong, for reasons having more to do with its peculiar politics and tabloid-like desire to shock than any commitment to journalism. Remember their flatout statement from supposed eyewitnesses that nobody was killed in Tienanmen Square, but thousands died in the suburbs of Beijing? How long ago was that? Was it ever corroborated by anyone?

Magazines like The Nation and Mother Jones spend more time inventing ways to be provocatively, lefter-than-thou contrarian than concentrating on good journalism. A warning to the left: get it right. Don't be like that other side. Doing anything else just provides ammunition for those who say you can't believe anyone. Thanks, Harry.

[ElBruce]

Which of the corroborated facts or witness accounts do you take issue with? What evidence to the contrary do you have? And how do you take Mr. Shearer's complaint as an actual statement of factual inaccuracy on the part of the Nation? Because I didn't see that. All I saw there was that Katrina overall is a more important crime, so we should just sweep these murders under the rug.

[Harry Shearer - Huffpost Blogger]

You didn't see the factual inaccuracies I pointed out in describing the nature of the disaster? Perhaps you'd like to exercise your link finger and read the executive summaries of the reports I linked to.

[backhandpath]

Thank you as usual for keeping on it.
I try to tell people that from where I stood on the East Bank, that flood was color blind, the Reaper ambidextrous.

I found less blatant racism During the flood after the levees failed than before the storm.
It wasn't happening with us. I doubt those vigilantes would have lasted more than half an hour on our side of the bank. That kinda stuff just seemed to work itself out quickly and loudly.

We had Blackwater, but they stayed in the Quarters. Bamboes.

But as you say, Harry, the good people of New Orleans got even better.
A stranger fed me Gumbo and had a baguette of smoked salmon for my dog. Gumbo and smoked Salmon for goodness sakes!
"Here take some Gumbo." No kidding.
The bad people didn't stand a chance.

But I don't see how anyone can get past the point that you make here: those levees failed because they were built wrong by the Exquisite Corps of Engineers, and no one has taken them to task except you, levees.org and a handfull of other local activists.
They just seem to keep rolling along, the Exquisite Corps.
But for that, we wouldn't be having any of these conversations.
But thanks to you we are.

And a little off topic here but...

HAPPY BIRTH DAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR HARRY!
HAPPYY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
And many more!
Hahahahahahahaha,
Thank you so much, Harry!
Editilla

[Social Construct]

I, not having the pleasure of having been a resident of such a fine part of our country, feel less than adequate at making any moral judgements about those that do. I am of a mind that, although racial bigotry and the violence that can result of it are of national importance, a hard, long look into the infrastructural failures that caused many, many deaths and shattered lives is of an equal importance to us all.

[ElBruce]

Hey, it's not a tragedy competition. Quit tacitly exonerating murder just because the other issues aren't getting enough attention.

[Deparis]

Thank you for making the point more succinct for Mr. Shearer.

[theporcupine]

Let us not confuse two issues by trying to paint New Orleanians as helpless victims of Katrina and therefore blameless for these associated events.
Regarding Katrina, the fact is that the city was warned years in advance about what would happen. For example, The Times Picayune, New Orleans' lead newspaper, ran a five part series of articles from June 23-27 2002 about the risks. Titled "Washing Away", this series laid out the entire story, from the vanishing coastline to the implications for flooding in New Orleans. Nothing was done. The consequences, therefore, were predictable.

[Harry Shearer - Huffpost Blogger]

If you read that series, what it predicted was what could happen if New Orleans was hit head-on by a hurricane. It was not a warning about the fatal problems with the Hurricane Protection System.

[radicalcentrist44]

Harry: What about the importance of the Nation story? You make the story the basis for your post, but yet all you want to discuss is how it did not address your usual subject matter. The story is very powerful.

[theporcupine]

My reply seems to have gone astray. Let me try again.

Mr. Shearer, your reply to my posting is evasive. Those articles in The Times Picayune – and many others like them -- did indeed warn New Orleans about the impending consequences of different hurricane scenarios. At that time, I was surprised by how my neighbors ignored those articles, so I kept them for future reference. I thought that sooner or later those very same neighbors would argue that no one warned them.

The city was warned. Of course the poor could do nothing; we are talking about the lack of action by the wealthy and educated classes. You can read the minutes of the Orleans Levee District, posted here. http://www.orleanslevee.com/Board%20Meetings.htm. These people were responsible for protecting the city; read 2002 to 2005.

Even if you were right -- that no one expected hurricanes and flooding in New Orleans -- surely you are not suggesting that when there is a calamity, we can all turn guns on our black neighbors? Instead of criticizing the vigilantes, you blame the reporters for “liberal bias”. How very sad.

It seems to me that the central problem facing New Orleans is that no one will take responsibility for their actions or for the city’s survival. Your article does not help defend this beautiful city. It contributes to the attitude of “nothing is our responsibility” and “it is all everyone else’s fault”.

[bintalshamsa]

Theporcupine:

Oh that's just pathetic! Have you ever examined the poverty rates in New Orleans? Do you realize that many people simply didn't have the money to leave on their own? What would you have had them do? Steal cars and rob gas stations? Yes, the city was warned. What you leave out is the fact that the Corp of Engineers were the ones who were supposedly keeping the infrastructure intact so that what occurred during Katrina/Rita never happened. Well, guess what? They screwed it up. They didn't listen to the experts who told them what was needed. They neglected the levy system even though people in the Lower 9th Ward had been trying for years on end to get them to pay attention.

Just like we pay the police so that we don't all have to buy guns and rely on vigilantism, the Corp of Engineers were paid to do a job. They didn't and THAT is why people died. Unless you were willing to pay for all of these poor New Orleanians to get out of the city and pay for their room and board while they were out of town, your claims are nonsense.

[theporcupine]

I was not trying to blame the victims.

I was trying to say that Mr. Shearer was using the events of Katrina to justify what seems to have been blatant racist behavior. My point was that Katrina, and other hurricanes, are predictable in the broad sense. There are steps that could have been taken, and they were not. The city should have been better prepared, and it was the responsibility of the better educated and wealthier to make it so.

The use of Katrina to justify vigilante activity is not acceptable.

[ElBruce]

If your city were warned "years in advance" that there might be an impending catastrophe, would you move away? Really? I doubt it. Far fewer people actually move away from their homes than say they'd move if X happened.

Years is enough to actually fix the problem, no move required. If they can warn you that long out, they can do something about it.