Even though previous e-mails of mine that I'd sent Daily Nightly in early September have not appeared--perhaps having been censored, I thought I'd give that blog a piece of my mind regarding Williams' lengthy silence regarding New Orleans in spite of the fact that much that's been going on there is not only newsworthy--but arguably more newsworthy than many of the stories Williams has been airing instead.
I figure that somebody at Daily Nightly must be reading what I'm writing in order to decide that they want to censor it--and hopefully getting a message. So what I'm going to try to post there is below the fold.
Dear Brian,
I am a diarist (blogger) who has been with Daily Kos since mid-September of this year. Also, I am a regular viewer of NBC Nightly News who used to post often on Daily Nightly under a different name. I usually posted about Katrina and New Orleans, often venting my complaints both about how the Bush Administration has kept her recovery a low priority and about Nightly's own failure to cover the news out of that city, where much that is newsworthy--both good and bad--has been going on.
However, around the first or second week of September, I quit posting on Daily Nightly--reason being, I noticed that for some reason my posts had not been appearing--so I wondered if perhaps they were being censored. But I've continued monitoring your newscasts for New Orleans coverage, and after all this time I feel it's time to speak out.
Last night's newscast was the 67th you aired without airing a full report out of New Orleans. In fact, the last time you aired any New Orleans reports was on Aug. 29--the 2-year anniversary of Katrina. Does this mean you won't be airing any more news out of New Orleans until Aug. 29, 2008--the 3-year anniversary of Katrina?
Also, I have it on good authority from a fellow member of Daily Kos who lives in the New Orleans area that NBC has closed its New Orleans bureau. When New Orleans' recovery has been so slow, and so many problems still prevailing there, your closing the New Orleans bureau was premature, to say the least.
Lastly, regarding candidates' debates: Where have you been keeping your head when you've been coming up with questions? I mean, not only in your debate last spring (about which I complained a great deal at the time) did you not ask the candidates about New Orleans or Katrina, you also failed to ask them about New Orleans in the most recent Democrats' debate you moderated. (And kudos to John Edwards for bringing her up and uttering the line, "We don't need a surge in Baghdad, we need a surge in New Orleans!")
Have you forgotten that New Orleans even exists? Or are you, owned and operated by GE, the world's largest defense contractor, censoring all New Orleans news and not asking New Orleans debate questions because of pressure from on high--namely superiors doing the Bush Administration's bidding who have told you not to cover New Orleans news?
Your newscast's lack of New Orleans coverage shows that there is a serious lack of caring, or at least denial that people are still hurting there, on your part. Did you know, for example, that there are children in Louisiana who are suffering the same symptoms as war vets, because of all they've been through? And their parents or caregivers, depressed or otherwise ill themselves, have been unable to help them the way they know they should? (This is but one of many examples.)
And I'd like to see you show Louisiana's "children of the storm" who've lost parents to Katrina--or perhaps to suicide from the overwhelming stressed and frustrations, or to ills that elsewhere would have been treatable, but because of New Orleans' health care system which is in critical condition, went untreated--the same sort of compassion and sympathy you've been showing the kids of troops who've fallen in Iraq. About whom you aired a sensitive report Wednesday night.
You, and NBC's news department, need to do the following:
1.) Immediately lift the news blackout on New Orleans. Bring back the sort of regular coverage we saw out of that city in the 6 months or so after Katrina.
2.) Re-open NBC's New Orleans bureau as soon as possible.
3.) Have NBC's news department plan and schedule a debate of the two main presidential candidates to take place in New Orleans and at which Katrina and New Orleans will be discussed in detail.
Because the Commission on Presidential Debates discriminatorially rejected her application to host such a debate, this practically guarantees that, as with the candidates' debates so far, New Orleans will never or almost never be brought up. The only place at which these issues will be discussed will be at a debate in New Orleans.
Last but not least, in the interest of full disclosure, since I am a regular "Nightly" viewer who's extremely annoyed with your lack of New Orleans coverage, I've been posting on Daily Kos a semi-regular diary series. Here's my most recent example so far.
However, if NBC re-opens its New Orleans bureau, "Nightly" returns to full, regular coverage out of New Orleans, and NBC sponsors a presidential debate held in New Orleans, I will put an end to these diaries. But if the coverage slacks off, the diaries will be back. Deal?
And lastly, I'm also posting this as an Open Letter in Daily Kos--so whether or not this appears on Daily Nightly, it can be seen in Daily Kos.
Louisiana 1976