Following Hurricane Katrina, the leftist Nation
published a slew of articles and editorials that criticized the Bush administration and the mainstream media, identified with victims and praised the extraordinary efforts of relief workers and ordinary New Orleanians. Patricia J. Williams relates how an African-American MBA candidate noted on the radio how "jarring" it was to hear her neighborhood, the Ninth Ward, described repeatedly in the media as desperate and impoverished; Eric Alterman congratulates the "infamous media whores of cable news" for demonstrating how the relief efforts were affected by race and class. One of the best pieces, by Billy Sothern, tells the harrowing plight of the city's 8,000 prisoners, many of whom fled a flooded prison complex only to be rounded up and left shackled in the sun without water for two days, then parceled out to facilities where they were brutalized by their jailers. Some contributions feel dated; there's considerable overlap among them; and Nation
executive editor Reed is probably preaching to the converted. Yet there are many eye-opening, worthy nuggets that rightly point the finger at what's wrong with our domestic disaster policy. (Sept.)
