September 23, 2005

New Orleans and the Probability Blues

By CARLIN ROMANO

In the first days of post-Katrina coverage, journalists speedily attached famous faces to the tragedy of New Orleans, perhaps to balance those endless shots of the noncelebrity poor.

We saw and heard Big Easy stars such as Wynton Marsalis and Harry Connick Jr., and worried along with fretting anchors about missing great Fats Domino. We watched as writers and broadcasters with a New Orleans pedigree, like Cokie Roberts or Liar's Poker author Michael Lewis, became stories in themselves.