The goal of this blog has been to highlight occasions when the national media has decided to shine its spotlight on Louisiana, New Orleans or its citizens. They usually focus on our area with the best of intentions, but at times, as musician, director and author Harry Shearer will point out, they muff up the story in the process.

Shearer, who has a home in the Marigny, is a multi-talented star who voices Principal Skinner, Ned Flanders and other characters on The Simpsons. He pens a blog on The Huffington Post that focuses on news, politics and, more importantly, on New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina and the Army Corps of Engineers' failures during the storm.

For the beginning of our periodical series where we will interview prominent bloggers and others working in the alternative news media out of New Orleans, we decided to catch up with him to get his impressions of how the media and outside world views our city.

WWLTV: President Barack Obama has decided to visit New Orleans in October. You have been critical of his action on the Gulf Coast, so what are your thoughts now on his upcoming visit?

Harry Shearer: Correction: I've been critical of his inaction on the two major issues facing New Orleans which depend on Federal decisions or resources: 1, building the new surge protection system right (and reforming the way New Orleans is engineered to deal with water in good times and bad), 2, restoring the coastal wetlands.

As to his visit, two thoughts. One, look at the calendar. On his first day in office, he pledged to close Guantanamo (even though he had no plan for what to do with the detainees); he comes to New Orleans ten months later. That tells you where we fit on his priorities list. Two, read the White House press release about the visit; it talks about reforming and refocusing disaster response. Nothing more. To be blunt, they still don't get it.

WWLTV: You run a blog for the Huffington Post that draws readers from across the globe. What are some of the perceptions of the city that you've seen from the people commenting on your blog posts?

Shearer: Half the people express love and understanding of the city. The other half have ingested some combination of the folklore (man, we're corrupt, so unlike, say, New Jersey) and the urban legends (baby rapes at the Superdome) and burp out something resembling hatred for the city.

WWLTV: What are some misperceptions do you often see repeated?

Shearer: "Dumb place to build a city", "why would anyone be foolish enough to live at or below sea level" are the two most common. A close third is "why should we help you people when you re-elect someone like Ray Nagin?" There's the belief that New Orleanians are "sitting on their hands" waiting for the feds to help us rebuild our city. And, of course, "natural disaster" when referring to what happened to the city on 8/29/05.

WWLTV: Do you see those same misperceptions perpetuated throughout the media?

Shearer: The "natural disaster" theme is baked into national media coverage now. Also, because the Superdome and Convention Center were easy for out-of-town media to recognize and reach, whereas St. Bernard Parish (and Gentilly, for that matter) were off their radar and not freeway-close, the notion that this was mainly a disaster for poor black people took hold in the media. The fact that rich and poor, black, white, brown and yellow people were flooded out and have had to work hard to come back--that eludes most national media members.

WWLTV: How were you given the opportunity to write for the Huffington Post? Did you approach them?

Shearer: No, I've known (and worked sporadically with) Arianna for some time (since way back when she was a Republican). We had been trying to pitch a TV show called "Eat the Press" for a couple of years when she called and said she was starting the website and asked me to run the media criticism section of the site under that name. I agreed, which is why I was sitting in LA (preparing to act in a film) watching live satellite feeds of WWL and WDSU when the disaster struck, and I immediately switched the focus of what I was writing for the site.

WWLTV: What kind of freedom does blogging give you over more traditional forms of media, like newspapers, television and radio? Is it easier to get readers because of your celebrity status?

Shearer: I have no idea whether it's easier to get readers or not, because I'm not privy to readership numbers on my blog posts. I actually started blogging (though it wasn't called that then) when I wrote daily posts for Slate.com on the OJ Simpson civil trial. Then as now, the freedoms are multiple: I can write as long or as short as the subject demands; when I have no thoughts or no information worth sharing, I'm free to keep quiet; and I'm free to mix the serious with the satirical.

WWLTV: Do you think that it's necessarily a good thing the opinions of celebrities on political issues are given more exposure than some politicians, experts and journalists?

Shearer: Gee, politicians, experts and journalists--what do they have in common? Oh, they get to opine on TV. Look, I think many celebrities who opine on political issues have consultants and advisers (just like the pols) to feed them info and/or talking points. Me, I'm too cheap to pay people to tell me what to think, so I do my own reading. Frankly, there are way too many politicians and "journalists" opining these days, and not enough experts.

WWLTV: What are you trying to accomplish with your radio talk show, which just recently found a home locally at 89.9 FM (Sundays at 8 p.m.)? How does New Orleans fit in?

Shearer: It started as a way for me to write comedy material regularly and come up with new characters, without having to stoop to doing standup (there's an anatomical puzzle for you). Then, during the runup to the Iraq war, I realized that access to "foreign" media gave me information not available in American media, and I figured, hey, I've got a microphone, I might as well share this stuff. After Katrina, I felt I could bridge the same divide between what we New Orleanians were finding out about the disaster and what the rest of the nation was being told by its media.

WWLTV: What do you think of how the mayoral race has been shaking out, with no clear frontrunner yet? Anyone you would like to see run?

Shearer: I'm afraid I see it as the March of the Lilliputians so far. Rather than name a prospect, I'll declare my bias: I think the next mayoral cycle, like the last one, is basically about one major job: representing New Orleans to the financial people in New York and the political people in Washington. I see every potential candidate through that prism. I don't think we can afford to send a lightweight to state our case, especially now that, with the trillions gone to the banks and the car companies, the cash window seems to be closing.

WWLTV: And lastly, whenever you're stuck in Los Angeles, New York, or whatever nook of the world you may find yourself in, what kind of New Orleans restaurants or food do you long for?

Shearer: Anything with andouille sausage in it. Rabbit. Duck. Crawfish. Crabmeat on top. Food with real flavor.

Want more from Harry Shearer? Check out his flashy website http://www.harryshearer.com and tune in 8 p.m. Sundays to 89.9 FM. You can also follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/letwits.