In the New Orleans in the News blog we aim to show you instances when the national media puts the city and state under its magnifying glass. We believe that it is beneficial to look inward from the outside -- to step in another's shoes, so to speak, and gain their perspective of our city.

Occasionally, though, we like to flip the glass around on them and pick their brains a bit, like we did in October with blogger and actor Harry Shearer. Today's guest is Campbell Robertson, a New York Times reporter who has covered a wide array of beats: gossip, theater, Iraq, and now New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Robertson, a native Alabamian, took some time out to speak with us about his experiences reporting from a war zone and how that's aided him in the Crescent City. 

WWLTV: You've covered several beats during your career, from the New York social scene to theater and then to Iraq. How has that experience, especially your tenure in a war zone, helped you in your transition to covering New Orleans for the New York Times?

Campbell Robertson: Sort of all over the place, right? The New York social scene, where a bad hair day is a disaster, to Baghdad, where a day without car bombs is a cause for celebration. There's no question that each experience helps the next one, in practical ways, like honing your reporting skills, and in larger ways, like giving you insight into how power works.

You can't be a really good reporter, in my opinion, without being curious about human nature, and nothing teaches you about that like meeting all kinds of different people. A guy in Iraq describing how his tribe is set up can teach you a surprising amount about Louisiana politics.

WWLTV: How so? And on another note, we've all heard statements from some media outlets saying that Baghdad may actually be safer than New Orleans. Having reported in both, do you find that is just hyperbole or is there some truth to that?

Robertson: Well, Iraqi tribes have extremely complicated networks of friends and rivals that are difficult to see at first. On the face of it, some of these relationships seem arbitrary. But there's always a reason for these alliances and rivalries, even though you may have to go back years to figure out what that reason is. That's true in Americans politics, too, I think, and in Southern politics in particular.

On the safety issue, I've heard that comparison a lot, even once from a soldier in Iraq, but I don't think it makes much sense. First of all, when I left Baghdad this summer, whole neighborhoods were surrounded by concrete walls and police checkpoints were everywhere --it's not your standard city. We went out into the streets just about every day, but with discreetly armed Iraqi guards tailing behind. As a Westerner I certainly would feel less comfortable taking a solitary walk along the Tigris than I would along the Mississippi. On the other hand if I were poor, or lived on a street where there was a flourishing drug trade, the calculus would change. Different parts of the city would give you different answers I think.

WWLTV: From your experiences in the field, are there similar misperceptions that you see by the rest of the country concerning Baghdad and New Orleans? Do you think both are viewed as more dangerous now than they really are?

Robertson: Ever since the war, people have a hard time seeing Iraq outside of a political viewpoint. It's either a hopeless pit of despair or an inspirational beacon of democracy. If you're that reductive about any place you're going to be wrong.

New Orleans is the same way: if you decide it's a city of rampant crime and corruption or a carefree city of strawberry daiquiris and good time charlies, you're missing it. It's a complicated place with some corrupt people, some admirably engaged citizens, a lot of people just trying to make a living and some folks who sit around drinking strawberry daiquiris.

WWLTV: The New York Times is one of only a few national publications to have a beat reporter -- namely, you -- covering New Orleans, and that's after the publication had for a time gone without one. What did your editor tell you as they decided to reembark on covering New Orleans?

Robertson: Well, we didn't have a specific conversation about it but I think the paper sees the recovery of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast as a story of major and continuing national importance for all kinds of reasons: the amount of federal dollars down here, the experiments in educations and urban planning, the coastal situation. Above all, I mean, we are talking the survival of an American city: isn't it astonishing that that is still something in question?

WWLTV: What were your immediate feelings after being assigned here?

Robertson: Are you kidding? I keep waiting be told there's been some mistake. It's a dream beat. Being from Alabama I always wanted to cover the South. To be based in New Orleans, which we all know is not the South, well, it's like having a foreign assignment in the part of the country I know best.

WWLTV: There's been a push to make New Orleans 'Broadway South' in recent years, and there are several hits coming to the city in the fall and next year: The Color Purple, Mamma Mia!, Wicked and Avenue Q. Being a former theater reporter, any of those pique your interests?

Robertson: Not to take away from those shows, but I've found you can take in some of the best theater in the country sitting in the window at Molly's at the Market and watching the foot traffic. It's free and you can even have a couple of beers while you watch.

WWLTV: Speaking of Molly's, what are some other cool joints that you've discovered in your brief time here that you find yourself going back to?

Robertson: The usuals, when you live downtown. Mimi's, Cosimo's, The R Bar on Royal Street. Markey's wings are first rate. As you can tell I'm into the genteel establishments.

WWLTV: Thanks for your time, Campbell. We hope to hear plenty more from you in the future.

Robertson: Thanks for the opportunity.

And as always, if you have any good tips of national news stories that are about New Orleans, send them to cbower@wwltv.com.Videos, stories, blogs, pictures, whatever; you got it, we want it.