South Louisiana has always had some much better reporters and media than one would expect (or, some would argue, much better than it deserves). The collective bullshit detector of the populace is strong and finely tuned, and it's reflected in both the print and electronic media (well, in a lot of cases).
As the quality of local TV news around the country has gone down the toilet, WWL-TV has managed to hold the line with truly solid local journalism. Lately the station's Lee Zurik has been a total rock star pit bull, from his exposé of how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is stuffing local levees with shredded friggin' newspaper, to last night's exposé of a certain buffoonish public service commissioner and how a huge share of his campaign contributions come from the very agencies he's sworn to regulate. The Mosquito Coast has a nice tribute to Zurik here; it's well-deserved.
And the Independent Weekly in Lafayette, La., is way ahead of the game with this week's cover story on Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal and how his much-vaunted ethics and transparency campaign is concealing something very different. Written by Jeremy Alford, it's the piece that the national media are going to be revisiting in future months and years when they stop speculating about a possible Jindal vice-presidency and swooning about his star turn on Jay Leno's couch.
Hey, Noble Mon, you quite da'Kudo magnet yer'self ya'know...but I understand that you might feel silly engaging in shucking such grandelokudoiance on your own blog so I hung you on mine...right beneath the FBI--(but above the Exquixotic Corps:)
Thanks for keeping it
in'da Key of E-Major BadAss.
Bruce
Editilla~New Orleans News Ladder
Posted by: New Orleans News Ladder | May 08, 2008 at 10:54 AM
Aw, babe, ain't you nice. Right back atcha.
Posted by: Kevin | May 08, 2008 at 11:21 AM