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Long-Term CoverageOur newspaper’s watchdog role, inparticular, has increased exponentially.Our reporter, Anita Lee, has beendogged in pursuing stories about insurance—arguablythe topic of greatestinterest for many of our readers. Herstories have carefully chronicled aninsurance company’s plan to changetheir protocol for assessing and payingclaims based on wind vs. water. It wasLee’s reporting that let our readersknow that despite help from the statelegislature, a new policy for wind damagewould cost about $5,000 annuallyfor a $250,000 house—a huge increasefrom what residents had paid beforeKatrina—and that makes rebuilding adifficult decision for many.We know, too, that we can’t just write“process” stories or inform readersabout government action or inattention.People need to see themselvesand their neighbors’ lives in our dailycoverage, as well as hear about thethousands of volunteers who’ve cometo help them rebuild. These everydaystories—such as the one we recentlypublished about a couple who is raisingvegetables and selling them at aroadside stand—are reminders that wehaven’t forgotten this is a community.It is ordinariness and optimism; thestory said to our readers, “We’re goingto be OK.”Responding to Charges ofBiased ReportingOnce the national media left Mississippiseveral weeks after Katrina roaredthrough, those of us left came to understand—morethan we did before—theinvaluable role that daily journalismmust play in this recovery effort. Butthe dominant question, even now, ishow we report on our community witha staff whose lives are as affected by thestorm as those of our readers. This hasmeant that objectivity is a newsroomissue we’ve tackled head-on since thefirst few days after Katrina hit. Everyoneat the paper—editors and reportersincluded—have insurance issues andhousing problems, transportationchallenges and medical needs. Onereporter lost a member of her familyin the storm. Name a circumstanceand someone in our newsroom hasexperienced it. As a result, editorsdidn’t even try to tell reporters orphotographers to put aside their livesto tell these stories. Instead, we askedfor fairness and balance in the reportingthey brought us, and we remindedourselves to look even harder than wenormally do for evidence of any biasthat a reporter might inadvertentlybring to the piece.Since Katrina, we’ve done this bycarefully matching reporters with storiesthat they have the skills needed totell. (Those beats and stories requiringa watchdog approach, for example,are given to those whose investigativeabilities are strong.) And we constantlyconverse with them as they report andare diligent in the editing process tomake certain—as best we can—thatwhat we publish is a fair representationof what our reporters have been ableto learn. Editors also check editors inmuch the same way—an acknowledgementthat we are not immune from thepossibility that our personal situationmight taint decisions about the storieswe assign and approaches we couldadvise our reporters to take.Getting this formula to work as wellas it can is a daily exercise, one still inprogress. In the insurance industry,there are those who don’t find ourreporting “objective,” pointing out thatour beat reporter has insurance issuessince she lost her house in the storm.(The insurance industry might not likeour stories, but its representatives haveyet to tell us that they aren’t accurate.)This assertion of bias has been raisedwhen local agents talk with customersabout their policies, from corporateofficers on editorial boards, and incomments made to other journalists.We’ve heard this charge raised in ourSound Off line, an anonymous call-inline that allows readers to bring upsubjects or offer news tips. (Others inthe business have admitted that ourreporter presented fairly their side ofthe issue.) We publish a sampling ofthese comments each day.We believe Lee’s reporting aboutthis incendiary issue of insurance hasbeen abundantly fair. It’s certainly wonher the respect of our readers and hernewsroom peers and even from somein the insurance industry. Yet thesecriticisms are what she constantly dealswith as part of her beat.Our executive editor, Stan Tiner, saidearly on that in the post-Katrina world“every story is a business story” as theGulf Coast recovers from the storm.That’s turned out to be true, but I’dadd another newsroom maxim that“nearly every story is a post-Katrinastory.” Even routine coverage of citycouncil and board of supervisors meetings,the business council, and gamingcommission has the undercurrent ofrecovery running through it. Planningand zoning board meetings—once thepurview of only a few civic-mindedindividuals—are now events of greatcommunity interest; the Sun Heralddevotes a lot more attention to thesedeliberations than we did before thestorm. Our reporters know moreabout SmartCode as a way to rebuild acommunity than we ever thought possible.They know how to read detailedinsurance policy clauses and calculatebridge spans and flood elevations and,as a result, so do our readers.Before August 29, 2005, many of ourolder readers measured their lives bywhat happened before and after HurricaneCamille, which hit in mid-Augustof 1969. Katrina is this generation’sCamille, only more so. And so as weadjust our coverage—and the workneeded to accomplish it—we need tobe sensitive to the trauma that all ofus in the newsroom have also experiencedin our personal lives. As editors,we have accommodated reporters andphotographers as they have had to taketime away from their jobs to deal withinsurance adjusters, contractors, medicalneeds, permit offices, and dozensof other unexpected situations.Just as the rest of the communitytries to recover—and sometimes looksto our newspaper for help in doingso—we, too, cope with our recoverywhile finding fresh ways to respond tothe community’s reliance on us. Kate Magandy is city editor of theSun Herald in Biloxi/Gulfport, Mississippi.Nieman Reports / Fall 2007 43