Here are the surprises: Saturday morning I visited the Daily Nightly entry on which I posted my Open Letter which was also posted here on Daily Kos and it had appeared. Also, Saturday night "Nightly" aired a piece on evacuees who are getting five free years of housing in Canadaville, Louisiana. Then last night there was a brief on the reopening of a New Orleans firehouse he'd reported on early this year.
However, Brian Williams still is not airing full reports out of New Orleans--Monday night was his 69th newscast since he aired any out of that city. So I'm posting a second Open Letter on Daily Nightly--which is linked here so you, too, can e-mail Brian Williams and NBC Nightly News and let them know how you feel about the continued news blackout on New Orleans. I strongly encourage everyone to contact him on this matter--we need to flood him with complaints on his lack of New Orleans coverage.
So here's my second Open Letter:
Dear Brian,
First of all, that was good news last night on the re-opening of the New Orleans firehouse you'd reported on early this year. The coverage you did back then was one of the few things "Nightly" has done right regarding New Orleans this year. Because the attention it brought to the fact that the firefighters had been working out of trailers, etc., had drawn donations that made possible the reopening.
However, since this story was merely headlined when the situation in New Orleans merits far more than that after such a long stretch without being covered, I'm continuing my count: Last night's newscast is the 69th since you last aired a full report out of New Orleans.
Also, although you weren't anchor Saturday night, kudos to Martin Savidge's piece out of Canadaville, Louisiana, on New Orleans evacuees who are getting free housing there and are now living new and better lives. That, and the Canadian donor's generosity in building this village, are good news. So thanks for "Nightly" for airing it.
The evacuees in Canadaville are the lucky ones. For at this time of year folks sing about being home for Christmas with loved ones, and have warm, happy memories of past Christmases back home, there are still many in New Orleans, or who are poor evacuees longing to return, who won't be home for Christmas. Here are three excellent Daily Kos diaries on this profoundly distressing issue, where you'll find more information, by fellow diarists: NOLA: Just Arrest Them So We Can Do Some Business and NOLA: From The Overpass To The Underpass, and Our Democracy Broke When That Levee Broke. (Bear with me for the extensive reading list, but I wanted you to see how this issue has been getting beaucoup attention from us bloggers and is far more newsworthy than you and others in the mainstream media have been letting on.)
Not to be ungrateful for the Canadaville story, I wish I could be so sanguine about how homeless people actually in New Orleans, or evacuees living difficult lives in far-off cities who want to return to New Orleans but can't find affordable housing, are faring. So as long as I don't see any full reports actually out of New Orleans on "Nightly" I'm going to continue to demand that this pressing issue be covered and be covered regularly out of New Orleans. And that the New Orleans bureau be reopened. Because what's going on in New Orleans is far more newsworthy than a lot of the stuff Nightly has been covering.
When you and "Nightly" have been concentrating heavily on sub-prime lending and the mortgage and foreclosure "crisis" and other economic matters almost every night, you have been neglecting to cover all the far more serious affordable housing and homelessness issues which beset people in New Orleans and in the diaspora over two years after Katrina. This includes the fact that undamaged or lightly-damaged public housing is wastefully going to be demolished, when fixing it up will not only provide much-needed affordable housing, but employment. Not to mention the suspicion many have that such housing is going to be razed to prevent poor people of color from returning to New Orleans. And it's not just public housing that's being razed--see Demolished: A New Orleans Tale for more details about homes, schools, etc. slated for demolition. It's as if someone wants to see that New Orleans does not come back.
Your, and NBC's, consciousness needs to be raised regarding New Orleans. Thinking about your lack of coverage out of that struggling city makes me physically ill because of how so many are still in a world of hurt there. The lack of coverage not only displays an appalling lack of compassion, but also is morally wrong of both you and NBC. Have you decided this doesn't matter because it's going on in New Orleans?
New Orleans does matter--because she's the canary in the coal mine. Because what's started in New Orleans where the problems are most acute due to Katrina's aftermath will eventually spread to the rest of the country--even without a major disaster, the way the economy's going.
As noted above, last night was your 69th newscast without a full report out of New Orleans. Why is the plight of the people there being ignored? This includes the survivors still living in those dangerous, formaldehyde-emitting FEMA trailers and the homeless still living under overpasses.
(Many of these survivors are vets, by the way--odd that given your obvious soft spot about military folks including veterans, you never aired anything on New Orleans' homeless vets, even around Veterans Day--but I guess you've just shrugged them off with "After all, they're in New Orleans--so who cares?")
And then there are people homesick for Louisiana, frail elderly, disabled or poor folks missing New Orleans while stuck in Houston, Atlanta, or some other strange, distant city, unable to return because they cannot afford to do so. And because their life in unfamiliar surroundings away from friends has been so difficult and sad, they've not only developed depression but also serious physical ills, or have had ones they've already had worsen, and died sooner then they would have otherwise.
Newspeople such as yourself are supposed to function as a Fourth Estate--standing up for the "little guy" against large predators such as Big Business and Big Government. Your silence on what's going on in New Orleans, where many "little guys" who only want to rebuild their lives and homes in New Orleans are being preyed upon by "big guys" who want to make BushCo's genocide by neglect in Louisiana stick by destroying housing they could move into and discouraging their return to New Orleans--is unconscionable.
The last time I looked New Orleans was still an American city. Read the below comment to find out what sort of impression your lack of full coverage out of New Orleans and treating her if she were not part of America and her people as if they were not Americans conveys to someone on the ground there:
Nightly News NOLA Reporting
The Nightly News dropped the story of New Orleans and Katrina immediately after Brian Williams made his grand speech about how he was NOT going to drop New Orleans Katrina reports just because viewers were tired of it. In my fantasy world I hope it was Brian having his last say to his bosses who were dictating no more Katrina news. I do believe he sincerely was affected by the suffering of the city. Truthfully, I don't watch national news anymore. How can I when huge areas of my world lie in ruins? They don't treat us a citizens of this country, so I guess it is not my country anyway. I just get to pay taxes to it.
by doctorj2u
And it is truly sad how New Orleans has been abandoned and forgotten by the rest of the country, including those who really matter because they set the agenda, namely politicians and newspeople, as noted in the diary, I'm Depressed. You, as a major mainstream media person, need to put an end to this distressing trend which is only making the suffering of the people of New Orleans worse and may threaten the survival of that beautiful city. And the only way you can do this would be by reopening the New Orleans bureau, airing full, regular coverage out of that city, and by working towards an NBC-sponsored presidential debate held in New Orleans.