Again many, many thanks to the organizers of the conference -- it was well presented and superbly organized.
Here are some squibs about what I took away from the conference:
Loudest and most applause:
Shane Landry was applauded more than once for his opinion that Louisiana should secede from the Union. "We have food and we can turn on the lights. That's all you need for a civilization."
Most emotional moment:Peggy Wilson's lengthy attack on Mitch Landrieu for vaguely defined offenses which she had heard about but couldn't go into detail on. She was very exercised on the subject, her voice was raised, and there was an obvious emotional animus. One conference organizer walked out on her when she would not clarify her accusations.
Most ill considered remark:Someone who should have known better said "I am not interested in hearing a blogger's opinion of Bush. I want to hear about that person's daily life and struggles." (my paraphrase from memory) The arrogance of the Washington press corps touches down in N.O.
Most divisive neologism:"Carpet-blogger" I suppose I fit in that category, since I am not living in New Orleans. It makes me feel unwelcome.
Best categorization of Louisiana politicians:"Corruption aside, they're entertainers and clowns. So when there is something serious for them to do, they are completely incompetant." Greg Peters (my very poor paraphrase.) This struck me at the truest thing I heard that day.
We elect our politicians for their entertainment value, not for their ability. I think maybe that's because we're really a colony of the US, and extractive economy, so our politicians are not really in charge of things here. The owners are, and they live out of state.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
I really enjoyed meeting you!
--scout
I'm glad you came to the conference. I hope you got something from it.
With regard to your comment about "some bloggers opinion of Bush" I think it is taken somewhat out of the context. In the discussion I understood it to refer to the contribution of bloggers to journalists with a wider audience. Not that the opinion is not valid but that there is greater value in authenticity and personal knowledge which gives context to events.
The term "carperblogger" was coined to describe a particular rather controversial group of "bloggers" who were making an investigative trip to New Orleans to uncover the "truth" of some spectacular old allegations. It offended many New Orleans Bloggers.
The context was not well described at the conference and probably shouldn't have been. Certainly it does not apply to you, or other bloggers who have contributed to the understanding of New Orleans.
The "carpetblogger" epithet is narrowly defined to mean bloggers who travel down here more interested in their own profit and self-aggrandizement than in the problems and people of the region. It's a form of "disaster tourism" journalism, what Christiane Amanpour derides as the "happy-camper war-and-disaster-zone travelogue".
It's only a subset of visitors that the term would apply to, and certainly you or anyone else I met at the conference would not fall into that category.
What Ray Said. I'm sorry I didn't do a s good a job.
Post a Comment