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Pulitzer Prizes:
These Pulitzer gold medals for public service were awarded to The Times-Picayune in New Orleans and the Sun Herald in Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss., for their coverage of Katrina. The gold medal is considered the most prestigious of the Pulitzer Prizes.
A Tale of Two Newspapers:
Hundreds of print and broadcast journalists covered Hurricane Katrina, the largest natural disaster in the country's history. Working under dangerous conditions, often without food, water, power or phones, journalists spread the story around the globe.
One of the most extraordinary stories of news media coverage was the saga of two hometown newspapers that were literally in the path of the storm. The Times-Picayune in New Orleans and the Sun Herald of Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss., lost their printing presses but never missed an edition, publishing online with generator power or in print on borrowed presses.
More than 1 million people evacuated the Gulf Coast, but thousands were left behind, either too poor or frail or stubborn to leave. With vast power outages, most survivors couldn't rely on television or radio for news. Newspapers became their lifelines, a source of help and hope. The papers' websites provided front-line reporting about the disaster and a forum for finding missing people.
"Under these conditions, the newspapers became not only the primary source of news, but for most it was the only source," said Stan Tiner, executive editor of the Sun Herald.
"If you could see the way folks grabbed those papers, it was like food," said Times-Picayune Page One editor Terry Baquet. "I could have had a po' boy sandwich and they were starving. They were very thankful that we were bringing them the news."
The Sun Herald and The Times-Picayune communicated vital information to their communities, editorialized for relief and served as watchdogs over the rescue and rebuilding efforts. Their service was recognized with a shared Pulitzer Prize for public service, and a Pulitzer for breaking news reporting to The Times-Picayune.
Connecting with Communities:
"They all just wanted a newspaper"
Hurricane Katrina reminded readers why newspapers are vital and demonstrated how local newspapers can bond to their communities in powerful ways.
"For this story, we had no learning curve," said Times-Picayune features editor James O'Byrne. "One of the reasons we were able to do compelling journalism about Katrina was because we understand it. It's our home and it's our life."
The hometown newspaper told readers where they could find shelter, get food and water, insurance claims and local missing relatives. They held officials accountable for failures and rallied relief. But most of all, they delivered the paper.
Reporting from the Gulf:
In Biloxi, staffers had to download story files from the paper's digital technology system to a jump drive and then to a computer with wireless access for transmission to Columbus, GA, where the paper was printed. Without phones, reporters walked streets littered with storm damage to find authorities to interview.
Parent company Knight Ridder sent a gasoline tanker to the Sun Herald to keep reporters and photographers on the road covering the story. "We had to be very careful about our fuel consumption," said photo editor Drew Tarter. "I became the keeper of the fuel chits."
Starting from Scratch:
After evacuating from New Orleans, The Times-Picayune set up operations in two remote locations. A core team remained in the city, working in the homes of colleagues and friends. Some waded through deep water back to the Times-Picayune building to fetch a kayak, filling it with supplies to keep working. Charged with setting up a news operating in Baton Rouge while finding beds for 70 people, features editor James O'Byrne asked the newspaper's technology chief to go out and buy "22 laptops, six large monitors, Microsoft Office, Quark Express and Photoshop" in one night. The charge on the American Express card was $22,000, but the staff was able to produce the newspaper.
Shared Losses:
Many reporters shared the same losses as their readers -- damaged or destroyed houses, ruined possessions, relocated families and even death. Sun Herald columnist Jean Prescott's sister and her husband drowned in their home. More than half of The Times-Picayune and Sun Herald's staffers lost or sustained major damage to their own homes. "It is the first time I knew exactly how people were feeling when I interviewed them," said Sun Herald reporter Anita Lee, whose house was destroyed by Katrina.
Stress, depression and divorce spiked among Katrina survivors, and the journalists who covered the story were not immune. Round-the-clock work led to fault lines in families; Biloxi Sun Herald photo director Drew Tarter's house was badly damaged and, ultimately, so was his marriage. The psychological toll of covering the carnage in their community while dealing with their own problems was huge, but work went on. "We hugged them, cried with them, and then went on with our task," said Sun Herald executive editor Stan Tiner.
In New Orleans, photographer John McCusker, depressed when his insurance wouldn't cover rebuilding his house, was arrested after a violent altercation with police. Times-Picayune columnist Chris Rose became the self-described "poster boy for post-traumatic stress disorder," writing personal columns about making sense of life post-Katrina. More than 10,000 readers emailed to thank him. Rose's column about his own depression sent "hundreds and hundreds of people to their physicians," said an editor.
"We arrived in Houma [LA] with two laptops and a PC that we essentially looted from our West Bank bureau. We had no working cell phones because of the collapse of the cell phone network, and with that we decided we would publish America's 35th largest newspaper."
-- Dan Shea, Times-Picayune managing editor for news
Logistical Challenges:
"It was much easier logistically to work in Baghdad."
Journalists had to work around power outages, telephone blackouts and impassable roads to report on the biggest story of their lives.
Cell phone networks were down or overwhelmed with traffic, and few land lines worked. Reaching people was difficult. Without power, reporters wrote stories in longhand, sometimes by candlelight, and dictated them over faltering phone lines. Portable generators and car batteries kept computers powered. Despite the challenges, neither paper missed an edition, although pages and print runs were reduced.
"It was much easier logistically to work in Baghdad than it was in New Orleans," said Times-Picayune reporter Brian Thevenot, who had recently returned from a reporting trip to Baghdad. "In New Orleans, we had no communications apparatus, we had insane deadlines, and much of the work had to scribbled by hand and read into the phone. And emotionally, in New Orleans, you take it a lot more personally."
Rescue or Report?
"Are you OK with saving lives?"
While covering Katrina, some reporters and photographers found themselves trying to balance reporting the story with rescuing victims. Sometimes the journalists were first responders, beating rescue crews to the scene.
"You are faced with choices -- you either help, or someone's going to get hurt," said Times-Picayune photographer Ted Hackson.
Setting out to cover the storm, Jackson asked a colleague, "If we have to make a choice between getting a story and saving lives, are you OK with saving lives first?" When needed, they put down their cameras and notebooks to pull residents from flooded homes.
When two Sun Herald journalists in Biloxi found an elderly man selling beer cans pulled from the rubble, they bought the beer and one of them gave him his boots. "We're human beings first and journalists second," said Sun Herald photo director Drew Tarter.
Crossing a Line?
"Help us now"
Three days after Katrina devastated southern Mississippi, the Sun Herald ran a rare front-page editorial under the banner headline "Help Us Now". It was a desperate SOS for relief -- and dramatic departure from a typical newspaper editorial. In the aftermath of the storm, hometown newspapers became advocates for their communities.
With basic needs for food, water and shelter unmet, many people felt forgotten. In New Orleans, where two-thirds of the population is African American, many of the stranded felt not only forgotten but ignored by the government because they were black and poor.
After President George W Bush;s first visit to the region, The Times-Picayune addressed the president in a scathing "open letter," which urged him to fire every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, "especially" its director, Michael Brown. He was later removed from his job.
Rumor vs Reality:
"Those reports were really wrong"
After Katrina, news reports spread word of savage acts of violence -- snipers firing at rescue helicopters, women and children raped, widespread armed looting and bodies piled in freezers. The problem was that most of these reports were not true or never confirmed.
"Reporters unwittingly helped slow an already slow response and further wound an already wounded population," charged a congressional committee. "We often remind you, when reporting breaking news stories, that the first reports are often wrong," said CNN anchor Aaron Brown. "With Katrina, it turns out that some of those reports were really wrong. Some were fueled by people who were tired and hungry and clearly desperate. But some were fueled by the people in charge."
Aftermath:
"We cannot quit"
Five years after Hurricane Katrina, the Sun Herald and The Times-Picayune are still covering the impact of the storm, including environmental, housing, and insurance issues, along with the region's latest disaster, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The newspaper still serve as advocates and watchdogs for their communities. The Sun Herald had comprehensively covered the problems and progress in rebuilding the coast.
The Times-Picayune continues its strong reporting on what went wrong with the flood walls, who was responsible, and how a recurrence can be prevented.
"What happened in New Orleans is cataclysmic, it is unique in the history of this country, and our nation has not yet come to terms with it, what it means to have a great American city so destroyed that it will takes years to put it back together," says Times-Picayune editor Jim Amoss.
Adds Sun Herald executive editor Stan Tiner: "In the days since the storm, we have been up to our elbows in the story. W e are encouraged by it, we are exhausted by it, but we cannot quit. It is our story, too, the most personal we will ever know." |