Brian Williams Blogs About Censorship in New Orleans

Posted on September 7, 2005

NBC Anchor Brian Williams is blogging about his tour of the French Quarter. He reported good news that the French Quarter area appears to be drying out. Unfortunately, he also says that the military and law enforcement is blocking some of the news from being reported. Williams reports that a police officer even pointed her weapon at the media.

At that same fire scene, a police officer from out of town raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media... obvious members of the media... armed only with notepads. Her actions (apparently because she thought reporters were encroaching on the scene) were over the top and she was told. There are automatic weapons and shotguns everywhere you look. It's a stance that perhaps would have been appropriate during the open lawlessness that has long since ended on most of these streets. Someone else points out on television as I post this: the fact that the National Guard now bars entry (by journalists) to the very places where people last week were barred from LEAVING (The Convention Center and Superdome) is a kind of perverse and perfectly backward postscript to this awful chapter in American history.

It is shocking that reporters can no longer get into the Convention Center and Superdome. Brian Williams himself had even blogged from the Superdome last week before the military arrived. The government's attempts to prevent coverage have also been reported by many bloggers. As we reported earlier many bloggers are also upset that FEMA won't allow the media to photograph any of the dead bodies found in New Orleans.