During the winter of 2001 and throughout 2002, Miller produced a series of stunning stories about Saddam Hussein’s ambition and capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction, based largely on information provided by Chalabi and his allies—almost all of which have turned out to be stunningly inaccurate.

At what point are some in the media going to admit they Judy Millered the impact of the oil disaster?

The Washington Post: Scientists report undersea oil plume stretching 21 miles from BP spill site

Academic scientists are challenging the Obama administration’s assertion that most of BP’s oil is either gone or rapidly disappearing — citing, among other evidence, the discovery of an undersea “plume” of oil stretching more than 21 miles from the well site.

The New York Times: Gulf Oil Plume Is Not Breaking Down Fast, Research Says

“I expect the hydrocarbon imprint of the BP discharge will be detectable in the marine environment for the rest of my life,” Ian MacDonald, an oceanographer at Florida State University, told Congress in prepared testimony on Thursday. “The oil is not gone and is not going away anytime soon.”

The Wall Street Journal: Study Says Gulf Oil Spill Caused Manhattan-Size Plume

At the height of the Deepwater Horizon spill, oil escaping from the damaged well was trapped underwater in a drifting plume of hydrocarbons the size of Manhattan and helped turn the Gulf of Mexico into a test-tube of experimental petroleum chemistry, scientists who probed the submerged spill region said Thursday. …

By confirming the existence of this submerged plume, the new data also challenge government estimates that the vast majority of the 4.9 million barrels of spilled oil is already gone from the Gulf or being rapidly broken down by bacteria, several marine experts said.

Instead, some of that oil may persist deep underwater and in seafloor sediments—at levels thousands of times higher than those caused by the natural oil seeps that dot the Gulf sea floor—where it can elude conventional detection and clean-up efforts, scientists said.

Meanwhile, here’s ABC News’ front page at this moment. It contains news about Jennifer Aniston, the “Mystery of Beer Goggles Revealed,” the new girlfriend of cable star Jesse James, and something about blind waiters serving people in the dark … but not word one about the reappearing oil, much less the tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico:

Spike Lee, Chris Paul, Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Wendell Pierce, Terence Blanchard, Rep. Joseph Cao and Phyllis Montana LeBlanc (pictured) attended the premiere of Lee’s second four-part documentary about post-Katrina New Orleans at the Mahalia Jackson Theater Tuesday night. (Photo courtesy of HBO)

The screening included the first and fourth hour of If God Is Willing And Da Creek Don’t Rise. The first part begins on the day of the New Orleans Saints’ victory in Super Bowl XLIV and dwells on it at length. Much of the rest is concerned with housing, displacement of citizens and the transition from Mayor Ray Nagin to Mitch Landrieu. The final segment is about the BP oil disaster, and it provides an excellent overview and hard hitting account of the saga, with a significant amount of commentary from Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser among others. It chronicles BP’s serially deficient accounting of the scope of the problem and examines clean up efforts. It’s critical of the failings of the federal government in allowing BP to control access to affected areas. Perhaps most stark is hearing historian Doug Brinkley describe global corporate giant BP’s treatment of Louisiana and Alaska (where it also had a recent oil spill) as the way it would treat Nigeria (which is plagued with oil industry accidents), where oil companies get little resistance from government officials. He follows up and says that the federal government is not doing enough to hold BP accountable.

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While we may not have Sean Penn yelling about us to the media, or Bono writing epic songs about us and singing them on top of the Superdome, and there’s no Auto-Tuned song about us sung by a truckload of annoying celebrities, we do have this: the nonprofit Air Traffic Control is releasing the Dear New Orleans benefit compilation featuring a bunch of really great artists.

I mean, some aren’t that great. Indigo Girls and Jill Sobule haven’t really done anything notable since the 90s besides appear in VH1 countdowns about, well, the 90s; Paul Sanchez conjures memories of Cowboy Mouth, and OK Go has yet to make music anywhere as good as this video. But besides that, there’s songs from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s Alec Ounsworth, Mirah and Thao Nguyen (check out a lovely duet with those two here), Bonerama, My Morning Jacket with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and the Wrens, a band that rarely releases new music.

Air Traffic Control will release the album Aug. 24, and proceeds will go to Sweet Home New Orleans and the Gulf Restoration Network. Hit the jump for the complete track listing, via Pitchfork.

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BY MATT DAVIS

Academy Award nominated director Spike Lee is in New Orleans for the premiere of his new HBO documentary, If God Is Willing And Da Creek Don’t Rise, tonight at the Mahalia Jackson Theater. Gambit caught up with Lee over his second Arnold Palmer cocktail as he enjoyed some corn and crab soup in the French Quarter before the screening.

The following are excerpts from our interview, which will appear in the next issue of Gambit.

GAMBIT: How did it feel, asking Ray Nagin how he thinks he’ll be judged by history?

SPIKE LEE: Ray was kinda on edge, that interview, and it was really, we had Ray and we were supposed to interview Landrieu, and the only time Mitch could do it was right after Nagin, so were trying to keep them from seeing each other. We’d finished with Nagin, we were trying to get him to leave and he was staying in front! Someone must have told him that [Mitch] Landrieu was coming.

But for me that wasn’t the hardest question. The hardest question to ask him was to ask what he thinks about the most. And I think it was his best, when he talked about the eight hour window to call the mandatory evacuation, and he waited until the eighth hour, and I know…well, he didn’t talk about it, I didn’t ask him, I think that’s something that’s going to haunt him the rest of his life. It would haunt anybody. Because he knows, we all know that by waiting til the eighth hour, people are no longer here. That decision meant the difference between living and dying, and I give him, you know I respect, because he didn’t have to answer that, but he did.

When he got elected, he didn’t know the city was going to be 80% under water, there was no playbook, but I feel people’s problem with Nagin was really what he did in his second term, or what he didn’t do in the second term versus something that happens that he had nothing to do with.

…

Someone you’ve been critical of in the past was Larry Bird. Now Mitch is the first white mayor of New Orleans since his father, Moon Landrieu left office in 1978. Is Mitch Landrieu the Larry Bird of New Orleans mayors?

He can’t shoot like Larry. Or I’ve never seen him. I don’t know if he even plays basketball. But look, I like Mitch, I like his sister, but as he says in the film, he’s got a hard job. Right now New Orleans is on pace to have 203 murders this year, which by use of the population makes it the murder capital of the United States of America. Think about this: Greater New Orleans has 700,000, New York has eight million people. Eight million. They’re going to have more murders than New York City here, and New York City has eight million people! That’s, you’re talking about like, Iraq odds, I mean, crazy.

I know you interviewed [Tulane University homicide expert] Peter Scharf for the film.

Yes. He was very very informative. He’s the go-to guy for homicide. His figures he has are chilling, and it’s young black men killing young black men, and it’s not something that’s just owned by New Orleans. It happens everywhere.

SPIKE LEE, PHOTOGRAPHED FOR GAMBIT BY CHERYL GERBER

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The phrase “Sounds like an Onion headline” is pretty common these days. I saw this, and asked the reverse: “Shrimp Boat Captain Worn Out From Long Day Of Putting Human Face On Crisis“

The Onion’s coverage of the oil disaster has been perfect — biting commentary wrapped in easily viral, satirical news nuggets. But the headline above, and its following story, seem almost true. Fishermen, shrimpers and Gulf coastal residents really are feeling pretty overwhelmed. Yeah, it’s a funny bit, but there’s some truth in there. Kindra Arnesen says she has been interviewed at least 300 times, and it’s not enough. She knows residents on the Gulf need the media to tell their stories, so she’ll keep telling hers. Other reporters have talked with dozens of sources on the Gulf, more than once or twice. It’s exhausting work, so a lot of phrases and information are repeated.

And now we’re in Day Two of shrimping season. Is testing enough? Will people eat the catch? Are suppliers and warehouses and factories even buying? Few are on the water. Others are sticking with the BP checks, knowing there’s plenty of work to do and hoping BP is willing to stick with them through the bitter end in the months and years to come.

Below, Kindra Arnesen (at 10:40) and fishermen’s families at a Sunday rally in Panama City Beach: