Kartrina: Poverty And Post-Mortems
The Washington Post's press writer, Howard Kurtz took a swing at "the media" for ignoring American poverty in general and in New Orleans specifically. For a national news organization like CBS, you wouldn't expect any special focus over time on one city, like New Orleans. And indeed a quick Nexis check turned up a series of stories touching on it – from a look at Louisiana's "chemical corridor" to one mentioning police brutality in the Big Easy.
Kurtz quotes Newsweek approvingly which claims that "TV dislikes poor people." What is the evidence for that sweeping condemnation? Have they counted the stories? That's a good avenue for Public Eye to explore in the future and we will.
Video: In the meantime, it's probably a little unfair to compare a broadcast network with relatively limited time available and a daily newspaper on stories as big and complicated as this one. But as the debate continues over the new prominence of the issue, we wanted to point you to an in-depth piece that aired on CBS' "Sunday Morning" yesterday. Correspondent Susan Spencer and producer Brian Healy do a bang-up job in looking at a touchy issue. And for television, that's an accomplishment. Do yourself a favor and check this out.