RSS feed for comments on this post.
The URL to TrackBack this entry is: http://afrolicofmyown.com/wp-trackback.php?p=1070
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
0.177 Powered by Wordpress
This is a very very interesting letter from Greg Brock, Senior Editor/Standarde.
He reveals that “many people want” the NYTimes to make a distinction between Katrina and flooding. But notice he did not say “flooding of New Orleans.”
To my knowledge NO ONE contests that Katrina was a natural disaster in Mississippi. But in New Orleans, nearly everyone agrees the flooding was civil engineering failure (the levees)
We note that Ms. Cooper was careful to describe Katrina in general terms not relating to New Orleans. We believe that was intentional. That is walking the fine line.
In closing, Levees.org maintains that, in New Orleans, saying Katrina flooded New Orleans is like saying traffic broke the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis. Both Katrina and the traffic exposed structural flaws and blatant civil engineering mistakes.
Sandy Rosenthal, wife, mom, Who-dat and founder of Levees.org
www.levees.org
We close by saying that for Cooper to call
Comment by Sandy Rosenthal — 1 May 2010 @ 3:12 pm
This arrogant fop more than just “Walked the Fine Line”,
he committed the Fallacy of Equivalency, the Straw Man and Begging the Question in his hubris-encrusted statement:
[I think all the families who were displaced and who lost loved ones would agree that a hurricane did exist]
Yes, well, I’d wager nearly all of those same families would agree that that hurricane missed New Orleans and devastated MS.
If Brock wants to walk such a fine line, it could be argued that a Hurricane is only a Natural Weather Event and the Disaster comes as lagniappe after Man-Made Structures fail to take that into their design as in New Orleans and as well the BP Oil Disaster.
To allude even tangentially to either man-made disaster as a “Natural Disaster” is to lie in the face of facts.
And I know an Editor wouldn’t want to do that.
Thank you for running this!
Comment by Editilla~New Orleans Ladder — 1 May 2010 @ 3:24 pm
“I think all the families who were displaced and who lost loved ones would agree that a hurricane did exist.”
What a coincidence. I think all the families that were displaced and that lost loved ones would agree that Greg Brock is a snotty sonofabitch.
Comment by Kevin — 1 May 2010 @ 3:33 pm
It’s funny because the passage in the paper was only a little annoying; just sloppy writing, perhaps. But, Brock apparently decided to double-down on the stupid, and throw in a little condescension for good measure. I would bet that this is not the kind of defense Ms. Cooper would want.
There was an easy response to your complaint which was: Fine, maybe it should have said “disasters” and not “natural disasters.” But, the point remains the same: They provided opportunities or peril.
Comment by Kevin M. — 3 May 2010 @ 8:09 am
For Mr Brock to make such insensative statement about people who lost all their earthly possessions, even their loved ones and neighbors, he must have a heart made of a natural material….stone.
Comment by Roy Arrigo — 4 May 2010 @ 11:01 pm
He really needs to get his facts together.
Comment by Leslie Lopez — 5 May 2010 @ 9:07 am
He really needs to do his research/Leslie
Comment by Leslie Lopez — 5 May 2010 @ 9:08 am
Thanks for sharing awareness of this goof(Both the statement and the person). I think what we’re up against is the unshakable arrogance of the New York Times, the reason so many people hate the Mainstream Media. Once they’ve made a statement, you couldn’t torture a retraction or admission of error out of them, no matter how far astray they are.
But we’ll all keep refuting their error every time they print it: Katrina was a horrendous storm in Mississippi, but really skirted New Orleans. What flooded N.O. was an engineering failure, brought about partly by years of diverted funding — a bit of corruption a serious newspaper would have exposed long before there was so much damage.
Comment by Eileen O'Sullivan — 5 May 2010 @ 9:21 am
Wow, that Greg Bock! What a master logician! His implied syllogism: “a hurricane did exist”; a flood followed that hurricane; therefore the hurricane caused the flood. Greg, if you apply to your own life that same razor-sharp reasoning and commitment to fact, you will become, if you have not already, a natural disaster yourself.
Comment by Gerry White — 5 May 2010 @ 9:42 am
Greg Brock seems to have chosen to remain ignorant. If he can’t differentiate between hurricane damage and insufficiantly built levees that failed and caused major flooding he’s also stupid. Our city survived Katrina but not the Corps of Engineers.
Comment by Lillian Orlando — 5 May 2010 @ 10:02 am
Why should any one be surprised at at the New York Times lack of accuracy and ignorance in reporting the news. Lets start with the man made oil spill. Did the NY Times raise the question as to where was the Obama administration’s EPA prior to the drilling and after the disaster in terms of response time and mandating redundant fail safe systems in deep water drilling? Mr Bock’s article reflects a lack of competency and reinforces the demise of the NY Times due to ongoing customer loss and readership. Both disasters are the result of incompetency of engineering and government.
Comment by Jerome Malinowski — 5 May 2010 @ 12:44 pm
If Editor Greg “All the News that’s Fit to Print” Brock had been alluding to a natural disaster that had skirted Manhattan, followed 24 hours later by a flood resulting from a quarter-century of Corps of Engineers incompetence and neglect, and had that flood,centered at Times Square, caused as much death, despair, and desolation as afflicted us, surely he would have been less cavalier and heartless in his flippant closing paragraph.
Comment by Clay Waggenspack — 5 May 2010 @ 12:45 pm
Mr. Hoyt,
Katrina was a natural disaster along the coasts of Mississippi and Lousiana, but not a disaster in New Orleans.
When trees fell onto and into houses in Mississippi this was a natural disaster. The ocean storm surge that wiped Mississippi coastal houses off their foundation was a natural disaster.
In metro New Orleans, the hurricane caused minor wind damage. The hurricane moved north and New Orleans had survived the hurricane.
After the hurricane passed the levees failed. The levee failure was a man made disaster of poor engineering and false government promises.
Katrina massacred the coast, but spared New Orleans.
To generalize the completely different experiences of the Mississippi/Louisiana Coast and metro New Orleans is just plain lazy reporting. While it is easier to lump these two different things into one, it is your responsibility to understand the differences and report them accurately.
Do you truly not understand the difference between a hurricane wiping out the Mississippi Gulf Coast and the levee failure in metro New Orleans? Do you not understand the different times these two separate disasters took place? I ask because I will be happy to answer any questions you have.
Comment by Eric Swanson — 6 May 2010 @ 10:32 am
[…] Click here for the subject letter: http://afrolicofmyown.com/?p=1070 […]
Pingback by Levees.org supporters respond to NY Times editor’s defense of calling Katrina a ‘natural disaster’ | Levees.Org — 6 May 2010 @ 3:49 pm
As a child I would rather have thought that NYT was once again foolish in its choice of words. Since I am an adult I can assimilate.
This will never be allowed to happen. This newspaper spin to see if it is still too soon to start rewriting the real fate of New Orleans.
We will NEVER allow you to REWRITE this history as you are already trying to do re: offshore today.
If you NYT editors cannot distinguish between natural and man-made perhaps its time to close shop. After all you are supposed to be capable of reporting news AS IT HAPPENED, not rewrite it. This is not journalism 101.
Comment by Johni Prinz — 7 May 2010 @ 3:36 pm
[…] Click here for subject letter: http://afrolicofmyown.com/?p=1070 […]
Pingback by Over 1,000 petition signatures to New York Times | Levees.Org — 7 May 2010 @ 3:48 pm
Greg Brock missed his calling. He needs to be working for insurance companies.
Comment by Chere Coen — 8 May 2010 @ 7:38 am
The oil disaster is crazy because the leak is so deep. I hope BP do all against the spread of the oil. The nature will be destroyed for a long time.
Comment by Hansfried Blaschke — 8 May 2010 @ 2:49 pm
I’m glad that BP is finally starting to get the spill under control.
Comment by Julian Paavola — 17 May 2010 @ 10:44 pm
I’m just horrified by this tragedy. Where can I find an accurate assessment of the true size of the oil released? The statistics are widely different from different sources. Thanks for your good post.
Comment by Teena Millers — 28 May 2010 @ 9:29 am