Alan Gutierrez

A journalist from a major newspaper called me asking for help on local response on the Jefferson indictment. I did not have a response myself. I sent an email with a lot of CC’s, asking people to give their response directly to the jouranlist. The pitch was, if you want to shape the media’s perception of New Orleans, here is your chance.

This has been generally how I handle a request for something quotable. I forward it. It is the same notion as the web. If you want people to return, send them away.

It worked out well. There were three people who gave a considered response.

An email is circulating that has the New Orleans bloggers fretting. Gina Lampard wrote:

There is some email (AGAIN) going around comparing the recent snow storms to Katrina, and blah blah blah . . . they were much better ‘behaved’ than those folks in the gulf regions for all these reasons. I detest this stuff! Here’s a link to a blog where my FRIEND rebutes some of the indiocy — but the pieces of the email are in her post - so maybe its something we can work from. This stuff grates me. GRRRR!

Greg Peters responsed that Snopes had covered this in Snow Comparison stamping it with the status false.

I don’t worry about these thing as much as the other bloggers. I’m afraid that the time spent researching and debunking email chains is not as effective as doing the sort of research that Levees.org, 1 Greater New Orleans, or CHAT have been doing.

Good to have Snopes around. One of the things that I’ve learned is that if a journalist calls, give them homework. Rather than try and debunk all this stuff ourselves, feed it to Snopes and feed them some a few head pointers. They’ll do the work. They’ll publish it with authority.