ABC News: Harry Shearer on Major Media’s reluctance to talk about ‘The Big Uneasy’

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

Today, ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper interviewed Harry Shearer, director of The Big Uneasy, a documentary about why New Orleans flooded and why it could happen again.

Levees.org thanks the New Orleans Ladder for hipping us to this interview.

The movie presents expert findings on the Army Corps of Engineers’ role in the catastrophic breaching of the levee system that flooded 80% of New Orleans and 100% of nearby St. Bernard Parish.

Tapper observed that The Big Uneasy was not getting a lot of national news attention at and after the Fifth Anniversary of Katrina and asked Mr. Shearer about it. Here is an excerpt.

TAPPER: Why do you think the national media in some cases has been reluctant in some cases to talk about this (the documentary)?

SHEARER: Well, Jake, I’ll throw it back to you. You work at ABC News, why couldn’t Good Morning America and World News Tonight take a pass at this? I can’t fathom it! You know,… to me, Katrina, the flooding of New Orleans, was the biggest domestic news story of the first decade of this century. 9/11 was an international story, because it had an international component. You would think that this (the 5th anniversary) would be a good time to revisit the story and learn what really happened. Nothing on CBS, nothing on ABC, nothing on NBC. NPR walked away from this story. I tried to buy underwriting announcements on NPR, and NPR legal would not approve about why New Orleans flooded. They thought that somehow violated FCC regulations.

You can see the entire interview here:

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Jennifer Day of the New Orleans Convention/Visitors Bureau gets the Levees.org Seal of Approval

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

Photo by Francis James, Oct 10, 2005

Jennifer Day, director of communications and public relations for the New Orleans Convention Center and Visitors Bureau gets the Levees.org ‘Seal of Approval’ for remarks she made as keynote speaker Tuesday at the Walton County Tourist Development Council’s 2010 annual meeting.

“I know you all have been going through a rough time, but I’m here to tell you that if New Orleans can weather the largest man-made disaster in history, the recession and stand alongside you in this BP oil spill … so can you,” Day told the crowd at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort and Spa.

According to NWF Daily News reporter Dusty Ricketts, Ms. Day called Hurricane Katrina the worst man-made disaster in U.S. history, considering the failure of the city’s levees.

More on the story.
http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/easy-34036-emerald-sandestin.html

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More indications that NPR may have censored Harry Shearer

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

H.J. Bosworth Jr, Harry Shearer and Sandy Rosenthal pose for cameras Aug 23, 2010 after a press conference. Photo/Pat Garin

In August, NPR refused to interview Harry Shearer more than once while he was promoting his movie, The Big Uneasy. NPR cited a 5-year old rule called the ‘dibs’ rule which limits the number of appearances one individual can make.

However, just weeks later, NPR broke that rule big time and interviewed Michele Norris on all four of its shows while she, an NPR host was promoting her book. Not only was this an apparent conflict of interest, it was terrible timing coming on the heels of the Shearer Flap.

And that’s not all. When Mr. Shearer realized he could appear on only one NPR show (Norris got four) he elected to purchase an ad but was denied. NPR claimed the text of Mr. Shearer’s ad was opinion and thus violated FCC regulations. Meanwhile, NPR local affiliates allowed the ad.

It appeared that NPR National didn’t like the information presented by credible experts in The Big Uneasy – that the Army Corps of Engineers was responsible for the New Orleans flooding and that such a disaster could happen again.

Bottom line: NPR’s allowance of Ms. Norris on four shows thoroughly validates the index of suspicion alleged by Mr. Shearer. It appears NPR capriciously denied him airtime, and then capriciously denied the text of his ad.

Here is Mr. Shearer’s take on NPR’s citation of the Dibs rule: “”So maybe you should have consulted said librarian before wholeheartedly buying the “dibs rule” bull***. Obviously, your addendum makes clear that the decision not to cover “The Big Uneasy” on the news shows was purely an editorial judgment, adhering to a rule which is invoked only as a fig leaf.”

And if that’s true, that’s censorship and therefore, abuse of power.

Click here for more on the Mr. Shearer vs. NPR issue.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harry-shearer/npr–the-initials-stand-f_b_697670.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harry-shearer/npr-vs-the-big-uneasy-a-q_b_740314.html

http://www.npr.org/blogs/ombudsman/2010/09/15/129883401/harry-shearer-post?ft=1&f=17370252

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