Disasters bring out the best in a newsroom

The last few days have left me sad, tired, grateful and extremely proud to work at my paper.

Our coverage of Hurricane Katrina has been exceptional. The reporting, the art, the design, the headlines -- I'm awed by my colleagues' planning, thought, hard work and, in some cases, courage. So far, we've told a horrific story well.

For all the complaining I do about the media seizing on tragedy and milking it for all it's worth, in times like these I'm glad we tackle disasters from every possible angle. Be it the graphic descriptions of the toilets overflowing in the Superdome, the chilling account of a desperate soul choosing death over the cramped squalor created by tens of thousands of refugees packed into a stadium with no electricity, or the story of the animal lover who had to leave her nine cats behind in New Orleans, it all serves a purpose far larger than boosting paper sales. The more people know about the appalling circumstances these people face, the greater chance they'll be moved to help.

A lot people bitch and moan about "self-serving" media types, and in some cases, they're right on the money. But don't for a second think that those who rushed to the gulf as others were fleeing it, or those who bravely manned The Times-Picayune until the last moment, until the rising floodwaters forced them from the newsroom, did so for purely selfish reasons. They risked their lives to document this disaster, and I think, I hope, that the stories they tell will help stir the world to help.