12:07 PM
Perhaps, like me, you've been reading the post-Katrina reporting of the Times-Picayune. Now (via Making Light) read the story behind the story, of the journalists who stayed behind:

"A few of us started grumbling immediately. We can't just leave the world's biggest story in our own hometown, we griped in hushed conversations. Sports Editor David Meeks, formerly the suburban editor and the man who hired me in 1998, harnessed the unrest. He made the pitch to Editor Jim Amoss: Give me a delivery truck and a small group of writers. We'll go back.

"How are you going to eat?" Amoss asked him. "How are you going to file?"

"Jim, we'll find a way," he said"

Seriously. Read it:

"As he scoped out his friend Margi Sunkel's house Friday for our next headquarters, Meeks told a local cop of his plans. He asked if the police might keep us in mind and send patrols around.

"Are you armed?" the cop said.

"No," Meeks said. "We're reporters."

He thought he'd given the right answer.

He hadn't.

"Can you make yourself armed?" the cop responded."