From New York Public Radio, this is On the Media.

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From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's on the media.

Bob Garfield is away this week. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

Last weekend, OGM producer Jamie York and I took a quick trip down to New Orleans

because we heard that the floods had washed away much of the old media, and in the process of rebuilding, an extraordinary transformation was underway.

When we arrived, the city was holding its much delayed elections, ending in a runoff to be held next month between the current mayor, Ray Nagin, and Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrew.

There were 23 mayoral candidates, ranging from the serious to the ridiculous.

My favorite of the minor candidates is Manny Chevrolet Bruno, whose campaign slogan is

a troubled man for troubled times.

David Meeks, city editor of the Times Picayune, sits on a stoop just outside the French quarter.

His editorial board endorsed Ron Foreman, a favorite of many in the white middle class,

not a popular choice in most of the city.

But the paper is more popular now than it's ever been, because the

Big Easy ain't easy anymore, and neither is its newspaper. We're scrappy, we're aggressive,

we realize the future of the city's at stake, and we wonder, how long will it be before

...