I'm still struck by something that's been bothering me all week. Why didn't the Lousiana officials let the TV camera's inside the Superdome? I never saw one TV shot from inside the Superdome, but I heard a whole lot of reporters "talk" about what was happening inside. CONVERSELY, before anyone arrived from LA, there were TV cameras inside the Astrodome in Houston.
I wonder if I will ever use so many poor choice words in one sentence ever again.
You read those reports from Australia and Britain; that's why.
I THINK -- best guess here -- by the mere fact that the FOX crew (Shepard Smith and camera crew) (who I think were the only ground broadcast crew near/at the Superdome just before and then just after the storm) (I note they moved into the French Quarter during the storm and were there early soon afterward then back to the freeway location near the Superdome with a water moat in between their position and the Superdome), anyway, I noticed that that crew was taking a great deal of personal safety risks by positioning where they were.
The FOX Crews was AT the Superdome the afternoon before the storm struck but didn't return that closein after the storm and probably because of security concerns. As it is, I have wondered how it was that Smith and crew remained as they did on that freeway adjacent to the Superdome (with water, food, security, an energy source).
It could not have been easy, is my point. They MUST have had helicopter transport in and out again daily inorder to remain there as they did, but if they DID, I also wonder how they maintained security for that transport, given their location. Otherwise, Shepard Smith looked bathed and freshly dressed every day amidst the mess he was covering.
I thought it was remarkable coverage, myself.
But, about the Astrodome in Houston, there was already a story there that was being persued and that was/is the conditions of the shelter, the security and wellbeing of the people being housed there. Given that that was the very, very big issue from New Orleans, I mean, it was already a story when the Houston facilities opened up, such that there was forewarning and incentive to film the place, before, during and now ongoing.
Few of us perceived the Superdome situation becoming as awful as it did, while with the N.O. Convention Center, people were trying to flee and those it was not at all a secure site for any news crew. So, no filming from there until after the swat teams and other military arrived. Then, usher in Heraldo.
..."I never saw one TV shot from inside the Superdome"....
Brian Williams of NBC spent the night of the hurricane in the superdome, and was taking pictures inside. Once the power went off, the picture quality was lousy as the emergency lights were very dim. At daybreak some stills he took clearly showed the slits in the roof, and the folks moving from the wet areas to dry territory. Once the communications went down, he was unable to get enough bandwidth for video out, but he did upload some stills through his satphone.
Once the water rose a few feet to take out the below sea level "emergency generators" (what total stupidity to place them on the ground) there was no light inside to take meaningful photos, and Williams was history from that hellhole by that time.
I agree....isn't that strange? perhaps the cameras were not operating after the storm due to electrical failure, but that is not the case with media cams and reporters and journalists...the reporters 'talked' about what they 'heard'...since obviously, they were not 'there'..
Of course, they weren't supposed to let knives and guns inside, either...
Wonder how long the NBC dude (I don't like him) stayed there after the lights started to dim? He didn't look all that happy in one shot of saw of him on MSNBC.