Washington D.C. (September 16, 2005) -- Over the last few years, HDNet World Report, a news magazine on Mark Cuban's HDNet, has delivered striking and sometimes frightening High-Definition TV images from such troubled areas as Iraq, Afghanistan and post-Tsunami Asia.
However, the program's current series on post-Katrina New Orleans is as disturbing and real as anything you'll ever see on television.
When viewed in HDTV, the city looks like something that came from the darkest corners of your imagination. The primordial black soup that envelops the city oozes and gurgles as if some form of evil has taken residence. The despair etched in the faces of both evacuees and rescuers seems tattooed permanently no matter how much money the federal government eventually pours in.
After watching hours and hours of the New Orleans coverage in analog TV, I didn't think I could be shocked any further. But, in HDTV, World Report brings home just how bad it was -- or, I should say, how bad it is.
In the opening minutes of this week's World Report, a boatman who has been deputized by the local police is rowing through the polluted water when he says he "smells" a body nearby. The high-def camera pans over and spots a large black male, deceased, floating face down. The camera moves in for various close-ups and you can't avoid watching this horrible image. Somehow, it doesn't seem gratuitous or exploitative; it just seems... sad.
Later, high-def cameras stationed in a helicopter tour the city, displaying various degrees of devastation and chaos. In high-def, which provides extraordinary detail and clarity in its picture, the city's hopelessness is evident.
Equally chilling, World Report replays some interviews from 2004 with local scientists who predicted the entire disaster, down to the last detail. The program interrupts their comments with high-def images of the current scene. It's eerie and enough to make you angry.
HDNet, which is available on DIRECTV, EchoStar and some cable systems, will repeat the New Orleans program at various times during the month.
Watch, if you can.
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