Levees.org scored a victory last week with History (formerly called the History Channel).

Levees.org mobilized its national support base to contact History and request a correction to its anniversary photo gallery.

History‘s gallery text stated that levees in New Orleans “proved to be no match against the intensity of Katrina.”

Such journalistic ‘shorthand’ gives the culprits – the Army Corps of Engineers – a free pass.

Here is what Levees.org’s Call to Action generated:

• Over 1,300 Levees.org supporters reviewed our eBlast communication about the mistake.
• Over 200 Levees.org supporters viewed the erroneous photo gallery.
• Over 50 people (that we know of) wrote to History and requested a correction.

The editors responded to each writer with this:

“We value your feedback and have added information that explain (sic) the Army Corps of Engineers authored a report acknowledging such flaws. We appreciate your comments and careful reading of our content.”

Levees.org is not completely satisfied because 1) the added information appears at the end of the text, and 2) the editors did not include the fact that a correction was issued.

Nonetheless, History has made a correction and responded to each writer.

Ignoring the presence of design flaw is dangerous to the 55% of the American people living in counties protected by levees.

Since the levees broke, many media houses have refused to admit their errors. So this campaign’s result is progress, though there is still work to do.