DADvocate

Since I added the NOLA links I figured I better click on them every once in a while. I clicked on Metroblogging and found a nifty link to We're all Oprah fodder in New Orleans by Ken Foster at Salon.com.

More than insight into the experience of living in New Orleans at the present, the article gives insight into the workings of the media. In particular, Foster shows how the media doesn't come looking to see what it there but tried to create what they want to find there.

Meanwhile, a producer from one of the networks is on the phone with me, looking for a "typical family" who is mourning the loss of a loved one due to violent crime. I begin spouting off candidates. There is no shortage. The producer interrupts me: "We don't want it to be a teenager, or gang related, or have anything to do with drugs." This, of course, eliminates the majority of the homicides in town. Instead, I offer cases that are in the court system and the complications they have met reaching trial. "Well, we aren't really interested in that," the producer says. "What we're looking for is a case that hasn't gone to trial because of police incompetence." The list of stipulations whittles the pool down to a handful of victims, exclusively white. When I mention this, the producer gets defensive. I suggest a handful of other tragic cases, but their trails aren't as cold as she'd like. I feel like a salesman in a boutique, working with a customer who wants to try everything on.

"This is a great opportunity for you tell your story," they tell us. The term "great opportunity" is their currency, particularly when trying to persuade someone to speak of the dead. An acquaintance recently had the "great opportunity" to speak to the media about the homicide of her husband. "But aren't you angry with the police?" they asked, unaware that she came from a family that had worked in law enforcement for generations.

If the media tried to report what was actually happening in NOLA, they'd have a good story. But, instead, they have to put their special slant and the reality of New Orleans today gets lost.