Harry Shearer, of “The Simpsons” and “Saturday Night Live” fame, said he wanted to “shame” practitioners of journalism before his appearance at a National Press Club luncheon. But when he actually took to the podium, he did so with appreciation and humor. “Ladies and gentlemen, as much as I was bewitched and besotted by comedy at an early age, I was also fascinated and seduced by journalism,” the voice of Mr. Burns explained.
Shearer said his beef with modern day news coverage was that once basic facts are set in place, newsrooms don’t move away from them, even if the story line is inaccurate. He cited Hurricane Katrina coverage, the subject of Shearer’s feature-length documentary “The Big Uneasy,” as an example.
“They put those first facts together and a template was born: big storm, city below sea level, poor black victims,” he said. But half of populated New Orleans is at or above sea level, and white and mixed-race neighborhoods were affected too, he said, adding that the storm wasn’t even the problem. “Your main guarantee of protection was maximum distance away from the hurricane protection system,” Shearer said, pointing a finger at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the failure of the city’s levees.
Five-and-a-half years later, the original story line is still stuck in people’s minds, though Shearer hopes his documentary will help set the record straight. “The networks, cable and broadcast, bragged big-time about the ballsiness of their Katrina coverage. Anderson Cooper actually wagged a finger in Sen. Mary Landrieu’s face,” he said. “How exactly do you go about retracting a boast?”
So what is the solution? Shearer just shrugged.
“I do want to conclude these remarks with a cogent three-word suggestion: Release the hounds.”
Shearer will appear at a screening of “The Big Easy” Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring.
