Katrina: Emotional Journalists Made The Scenes “Come To Disturbing Life”

The San Jose Mercury News: “To suggest that journalists are always dispassionate about the stories they cover, particularly ones involving human tragedy, runs against all logic. Reporters are affected all the time by what they see and the people they meet and interview.

But it is rare that a story can bring clearly shaken reporters to tears and sometimes to anger, as the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina has in recent days.”

More: “Do such outbursts, such displays of emotion, diminish the journalistic integrity of the journalists involved?

Not at all. In fact, they added to the picture that TV news was able to paint of the breadth and scope of the unfolding tragedy. The emotions made the scenes in New Orleans and Biloxi and Gulfport, and all the small communities around them, come to disturbing life.”