The next day we started out early with a meeting with the new bureau chief. He told us what his goals are for us and how we address the networks needs. I’m not thrilled about having to please the Anderson Cooper Show but that is where CNN President person Jon Klein has focused his sights and where we now have to focus ours.
After that we headed to Pascagoula, Mississippi to talk to locals about the problems they’re having with getting insurance claims paid off. Our main focus though is how even the powerful Senator from Mississippi, the well coiffed Trent Lott, can’t even get his claims paid off — so what does that mean for the everyday person?
We meet with the city manager who is very gracious and goes with us out to Lott’s house. It’s a beautiful spot right on the water. And marking what was his home are literally a pile of bricks. There’s a few belongings strewn about and that’s it. There are several lots like this. Some with FEMA trailers on them where former homeowners now live. I then go over and speak to a neighbor of Lott’s who says that he’s not surprised his powerful neighbor had to go that route and cheers him on. There is video of Lott crying when he arrives at his home for the first time since Katrina, and it’s sad. You just wouldn’t wish this on anyone — even a politician with a now controversial past.
The neighbor said he’s getting by. He wasn’t fully insured and so will only be able to build a one-story house. He said he couldn’t believe how many people just came up and volunteered to help and brought food and clothing. He said humor was what was getting him by as he raked the dirt were his house once stood still looking for his belongings.
We headed back to New Orleans that night. Sean banged out a script and I made sure we had all the video we needed and logged it. When Sean finishes writing he tells the AC360 show that he has a script for them to approve. They look at it and decide they want the piece that night. Our editor and camerman extraordinare had gone home to run errands and go to the gym, we had to call him back to cut the piece.
Ken comes in his gym shorts and tee-shirt and begins to edit. About an hour later, the show decides not to use our piece. This is not the first time this has happened, nor will it be the last (Two days later the show sent a correspondent from Dallas, a producer from Atlanta, a cameraman from New Orleans who drove, and a satellite truck operator who flew from Chicago to Dallas so he could drivde the satellite truck — all to Arkansas for a story about a woman who cheated on her husband — who is the mayor — with jail inmates. Not only is the story ridiculous but the show didn’t even use them that night. A colassal waste of money and time.).