E-mail a friendJim Amoss
airdate January 10, 2006
Jim Amoss has spent his life reporting on his hometown of New Orleans. After serving as a suburban bureau chief, city editor and metro editor, he became editor of The Times-Picayune in '90. He led the paper to two Pulitzer Prizes and, in '97, was named Editor of the Year by the National Press Foundation. A Yale grad and Rhodes Scholar, Amoss says his proudest achievement was the paper's award-winning series on the racial history in his city-an examination that changed the way the paper does business.
Jim Amoss
Tavis: Jim Amoss is the editor of the New Orleans 'Times-Picayune,' a post he's held for over 15 years now. In 1997, he was named editor of the year by the National Press Foundation. Since Hurricane Katrina, the "Times-Picayune" has received high praise for its resolve. In November, Jim Amoss wrote an Op-Ed in 'The Washington Post' that became a rallying cry for the needs and neglect of the entire Gulf Coast. He joins us tonight from his office in New Orleans. Jim, nice to have you on the program, and Happy New Year to you.
Jim Amoss: Thanks, same to you. Great to be here.
Tavis: Glad to have you. Let me go back briefly, if I can, before we move forward, to have you, in your own words, share with me what those harrowing days were like, specifically for those of you at the "Times-Picayune," trying to get a paper out, and everything is underwater in your city.
Amoss: Well, I don't think anybody, no matter how much you've predicted it or written about it, as we had, can be prepared for what it looks like and feels like to see your city, in my case, my hometown, under water, really largely destroyed. And it, for us, meant that we had to take some extraordinary measures to reach our readers, who were scattered to the winds.
Tavis: How did, in fact, you reach those readers who were, to your point, scattered to the winds?
Amoss: We started putting out, from the very first night, a newspaper that was available to anybody who could go online and could read it from page one on. And we also used online to get people to communicate with each other, to try to find each other. So many people didn't know where their, their nearest loved ones had gone, and what had happened to them. And so, we helped by becoming a medium for that, as well as being a daily newspaper.
Tavis: So you said a moment ago, Jim, that nothing can prepare you for what it's like to have your city, in your case, as a native, your hometown, under water, even if you are on the staff of a daily newspaper that has predicted this, and written about it, and talked about it any number of times over the years. But let me ask, to that point, what that did, in fact, feel like.
To be looking at your city under water, making the job, your job, and those of your staff members, and for that matter, everybody in New Orleans, making lives and jobs more difficult, if not impossible. But you had written about this. You had predicted this. You had tried to raise a rallying cry about this. What must that feel like?
Amoss: Well, nobody likes to hear bad news, and especially if it's bad news involving where you live, what might happen to your house. And so, most New Orleanians, I think, probably chose not to think about the worst that could happen. And then the worst did happen, and right behind the camera that I'm looking at, the scene of devastation at the end of August was just extraordinary. And right behind this camera were people walking up to their chests in water, holding babies, trying to get out of here. It was just a horrific sight.
Tavis: I guess what I'm getting at, Jim, is whether or not you personally, and those around you, felt a personal sense of not even angst, but just downright anger about the fact, again, that you had written about this. That you had tried to raise this issue, and that quite frankly, with all due respect, you had been ignored.
Amoss: Well, yes and no. We, too, had trouble believing our own predictions. We were among the people who had houses in places that were totally flooded. Many of my colleagues' houses were completely destroyed by this hurricane. So I guess if we were as smart as the advice that we gave, we would have, we would have heeded it, and, and maybe gotten out of harm's way ourselves.
So it's a little hard for me to blame other people who didn't listen to our predictions, when many of our own journalists and our own people here didn't.
Tavis: Let me ask you then, speaking of journalists, what - and I wanna talk about some specifics here in just a moment. Before I get to that, though, speaking of journalism and journalists, what is, in your opinion, the responsibility of the "Times-Picayune" now, with regard to the rebuilding effort in New Orleans? It's one thing to cover the news. It is another thing, on your editorial page or other places, to raise issues. So, help me understand what you see the role of this paper as right now.
Amoss: Well, we have to do both. We have to cover the news, and it's a very complex story that involves not only writing about the destruction, but also writing about the complex forces of levee building, and insurance, and the taxation problems that arise. And at the same time, we have to be a voice for this community, and try to look out for the best interests of it on our editorial page. Try to figure out now New Orleans is going to go forward.
Tavis: Let me throw a few things at you, speaking of specifics. I wanna get your thoughts on the paper in one way or another has written about or touched upon some of these issues that are ongoing as we speak. Let me throw a few of them at you right quick. First of all, levee protection.
Amoss: An absolute essential. The biggest single obstacle to anything having to do with the future of New Orleans. Unless we can get levee protection for the strongest kind of hurricane, our future looks bleak. And people who want to rebuild here, and businesses who want to invest here know that.
Tavis: Is it your sense on that particular issue, before I advance, that what the "Times-Picayune" has called for, or what others have called for, for that matter, is, in fact, happening where the levees are concerned?
Amoss: We've taken the first step. The Congress appropriated close to three billion dollars for levee protection for this region. But it's only a first step, it is not enough. It is absolutely not enough, and it has to be followed up with the kind of protection that'll guarantee a real future for this city. In the way that the Netherlands in Europe, for example, after a big disaster, protected their country from such a flood.
Tavis: I see that one of your Senators, Mary Landrieu, has led a delegation to the Netherlands to try to see what they did in the aftermath of a similar tragedy.
Amoss: I believe both our Senators and our Governor are on this trip, and it is a trip that we ourselves undertook with a reporter and photographer about a month ago. And we wrote extensively about the very elaborate system of floodgates and dams and levees that the Dutch built, and that have kept them safe from the North Sea. And that's what we need here in Louisiana.
Tavis: Let me ask about another issue with regard to the rebuilding of the city. Neighborhoods. Has the paper talked about how the city ought to be rebuilt? There's been much debate, as you know, certainly inside the African American community, about whether or not certain parts of the city are going to be neglected, or put another way, sacrificed, in the rebuilding effort.
So talk to me about what the paper has been saying, or is saying, about how the city ought to be rebuilt. Specifically in its ethnic and varying neighborhoods.
Amoss: Well, our view is that people, and I think we hear this when we talk to people of all classes and ethnic backgrounds, our view is that people want some degree of a firm answer as to where the city will take shape, what will happen to their own houses in their neighborhoods, and we fear that politicians are not giving them the kind of answer that they want to hear with some degree of certainty.
People can take more bad news, I think, than politicians sometimes realize. Yes, the answer has to be equitable for all citizens, but there has to be a certain amount of courage.
Tavis: These FEMA trailers have made for an interesting story, specifically with regard to the placement of the FEMA trailers. There have been certain neighborhoods in the city that have protested where these trailers are placed. Certainly some of the more elite neighborhoods have complained about the placement of these trailers.
What's the paper said about the controversy around where these FEMA trailers ought to be placed for people to live in the meantime, and in between time?
Amoss: We've said in very strong tones on our editorial page that it is just unconscionable that people would have no compassion for their fellow citizens that are homeless, and that one of the first things that needs to happen in this city is for people to return, to have some kind of housing, even temporary, and that all of us should open up our hearts to those who are less fortunate than we.
Any of us who live here could have been just as unfortunate, and could have had our homes flooded, just as those people who are now homeless and trying to get back.
Tavis: I started this conversation, Jim, by wishing you a happy new year. Let me close our conversation right quick by going back to the notion that we have now entered a new year, a new season. And ask you whether or not, in this new year, in this new season, you think that the media, by and large, those who covered this story and made money off of it, and people got jobs as a result of it, and promotions, and all kind of stuff for covering Hurricane Katrina. Has the media forgotten the story now, save the "Times-Picayune?'
Amoss: Well of course, it's our backyard, and so we have to cover it, and we want to cover it daily and very intensely. I think the answer is kind of in the gray area. There are signs that people are beginning to pay attention to it. It's hard to sustain interest over a long period, but this is quite simply the biggest natural disaster ever to happen to an American city. And it behooves us as a nation to pay attention to it, and to keep paying attention to it.
Tavis: Well, Jim Amoss is the editor of the "Times-Picayune' there in the city of New Orleans. Mr. Amoss, glad to have you on. We'll continue to cover this story as often as we can. I know that you all will cover it every day, and we appreciate having you there to read about what's happening, and for that matter not happening, in this great city, the Big Easy. But thank you for coming on, and again, have a great year.
Amoss: Thank you very much, it was a pleasure.
Tavis: Glad to have you. Up next on this program, from the new film 'Glory Road,' I've not seen this film yet, but I can't wait to see it, the first all-Black team to win a national basketball championship, actor Derek Luke joins us, stay with us. Derek Luke is a talented actor whose notable film credits include 'Antwone Fisher' and 'Friday Night Lights.'
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