Jim Amoss, Editor of the Times Picayune has replied to citizens who wanted to know more about an alleged coordinated effort by a group at the Army Corps of Engineers who were caught attacking citizen critics. Mr. Amoss’s email is in response to hundreds of phone calls, emails and petition signatures he received. The reply is re-printed here, special thanks to a supporter who forwarded it.
Please read Mr. Amoss’s response and leave a comment below.
Dear readers who have written to me in the past several days,
First, please excuse the impersonal format of this reply. Unfortunately, it’s the only practical way I can reach each of you who have written and whose email addresses I have pasted above.
I am the editor of the 172-year-old daily newspaper of New Orleans. We pride ourselves on intensely local coverage of the New Orleans metro area. Most of us, myself included, stayed in our New Orleans newsroom during Hurricane Katrina. All of us were deeply and personally stricken as we watched the floodwalls of the drainage canals, shoddily engineered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, collapse and inundate our city. We were and continue to be in the vanguard of coverage of what went wrong, who was responsible and how a recurrence can and should be prevented. When an aspect of that story broke last fall — Corps employees sending negative comments about stories critical of the Corps posted on NOLA.com, our affiliated web site — we covered it. Please see the list of related stories at the end of this message.
I am a native New Orleanian. I deeply love my city. My parents and my brother lost their houses in Katrina. It took my wife and me two years to restore ours, in the Bayou St. John area. The editor of NOLA.com, James O’Byrne, had to have his Lakeview house demolished after it sat, inundated, for weeks.
The notion that either James or I or anyone in our news operations would deliberately withhold information lest it upset the Corps is both preposterous and deeply offensive. Therefore, please forgive me if I choose not to respond to or engage in dialog with the person who is spreading those allegations.
However, you who have written and who are readers of The Times-Picayune deserve to hear back from me. For those who know our newspaper only from a distance, I hope to acquaint you better with who we are and what we stand for. The following are links to material we’ve published relating to the Corps emails:
Http://blog.nola.com/editorials/2008/12/the_corps_responsibility.html
http://blog.nola.com/jarvisdeberry/2008/12/snipers_lurking_at_the_corps.
htmlhttp://www.nola.com/news/t-p/letterstoeditor/index.ssf?/base/news-14/124
6425619220660.xml&coll=1http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-34/1245389035317
980.xml&coll=1If this story develops further, we will cover it, though, like most newspapers I’m familiar with, we don’t discuss in advance what stories we’re working on or what issues we’re investigating.
If any of you wish to follow up on this message, I’ll do my best to reply.
Thank you for your abiding interest in New Orleans and in The Times-Picayune.
Sincerely,
Jim Amoss, editor
The Times-Picayune
3800 Howard Ave.
New Orleans LA 70125
I find Mr. Amoss’ letter perplexing. An editor of a major newspaper must always engage in dialog and communication.
One of the paramount responsibilities of a free press would seem to me to be an unwavering pursuit of the “Full Story”. We need more than the ‘What’, of New Orleans’ flooding; we need the ‘Why’.
And in the past the Times-Picayune has pursued just such a course. An editor must encourage his reporters to take chances, to investigate leads, and above all talk to everyone they possible can.
The LSU team, and Levees.org, are attempting to bring light into what is still a dark and murky cover-up of the ‘Why’. The suppression of this is in itself a story worthy of investigation.
The Times-Picayune has done exemplary and laudable work in the past, uncovering corruption and the truth about Katrina.
But now is the time to renew efforts toward uncovering the companies and people responsible for this engineering holocaust.
Mr. Amoss mentions “shoddy” engineering, yet this is only the tip of the iceberg.
What of Eustis Engineering? Or the firm of Modjeski & Masters? Have these firms been investigated? Do they receive new Core contracts? Have all the contractors been interviewed? What of the Army Core’s chief engineer that approved the faulty design? What of the staff and command structure in the Army Core which remains hidden? Who was responsible for the Army Core sign off of the Floodwall plans?
So many questions unanswered and so little attention by the mainstream media. If the Times Picayune does not step up to the task, then who will?
Most of America still believes our City to have been destroyed by a natural disaster, rather than the negligence and misdeeds of the Army Core of Engineers. The Press must be the ally of the People, not of the bureaucracy which feeds off them.
It is the responsibility of an editor to pursue and encourage the reporting of Truth, and while this is a daunting task, each step in cooperation with others devastated in this disaster is a step in the right direction.
It is not acceptable for the Times-Picayune editor to make excuses or simply remain silent.
Jerry Newburger
Former Lakeview & Uptown Resident
4th generation New Orleanian
Of the four links Amoss cites, two are editorials and one is a letter to the editor. The only one that is actually an article is titled “Corps lets workers argue with critics” – are you serious? It’s like Amoss has completely missed the point!
An open Letter responding to Mr. Amoss:
First off, thank you, Mr. Amoss, for continuing the paper’s coverage during and after the storm. Like many new Orleanians, I found it invaluable. And because of that dedicated coverage, I find it now puzzling that your paper would hesitate to investigate ANY following information on this story…
But am I supposed to feel particularly sorry for you and your editor who lost his house? THOUSANDS of your readers ALSO lost their homes. And THOUSANDS more spent two years getting their homes back together. And THOUSANDS more are STILL working to get their homes together. And THOUSANDS were displaced and continue to labor under inopportune exile. So why is your suffering any more severe?
And certainly, no one can justify NOT investigating the Corps because of personal suffering—that is precisely WHY stringent investigation SHOULD occur.
Your letter appears to attempt to disassociate your newspaper from the nola.com blog. Why do that? Your paper started the website. And when unpleasant information about the Corps is revealed, or indicated, you should stick to your guns and follow through.
It is disturbing to lean the Corps used government financed equipment and a government financed URL address to send disparaging comments (read intimidation) to discredit citizen critics of the Corps. Why not address the problem INSTEAD of trying to “shoot the messenger”…?
Because of the disaster and because of the personal suffering and because it is what competent media does and because it is what American citizens expect; you have a responsibility to particularly investigate any, and all, information about potential Corps malfeasance. Otherwise, the problems remain and countless other THOUSANDS of American citizens will suffer in the future.
Ken Conner
Displaced New Orleanian
I am assured by former employees that this Editor is much much smarter than this.
Yeah, so Jim Amoss saw dead people too, eh?
Different ghosts for different boasts I suppose, but…
The problem here is not one of insult, but of Corps’ violation of Federal Code governing Computer Fraud on Federal Property.
It would be way’mo’betta if Editor Amoss could suck it up and answer Questions of Culpability and Conspiracy After The Fact,
–rather than crying Mommy over Spilled Lake Water.
I’m sorry, but it just makes me Tremble when people try to pull that logic’rape equivalency bull’pockey.
I too survived that Flood in the City, and in fact laid eyes on the T-P headquarters building. That is precisely why they don’t get the benefit of the doubt when they take Corps Flood Funding for Advertisements and yet seem to miss things like the Big Leak at the 17th Street Canal (until we raised Hell) or how they have admittedly catered to the Article Placement Whims of the Corps $5 Million PR firm: OPP, or became goddamn flood wall filler for the Corps of Engineers!
Editilla would like to thank Editor Amoss for deigning to respond to literally hundreds of letters asking WTF, but WTF difference does it make if he just wants to Blow More Smoke Up Our Ass?
If this is James Amoss’ idea of Editorial Leadership, then we can certainly understand why former Editor in Chief Jon Donely would prefer to go milk real goats!
Thank you for staying on top of this important issue of actual free press.
Gutenberg would be rolling in his grave.
But more importantly, thanks for keeping the Story Told.
Dear Mr. Amoss,
For someone as deeply involved in the news business as you claim to be, it puzzles me that you would sit on a story of such tremendous importance not just to New Orleanians but to the entire nation.
You have been presented with the “mother of all leads”. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers – an institution formed by and managed by our own Federal government – has used tax-payer funded equipment to wage a campaign to silence individuals who want to reveal the truth about what happened: that the levees failed due to their negligence. This campaign, waged by government employees against their own citizenry, involved not only comments that “blamed the victim”, but resorted to name calling and race baiting. While it did not involve weapons in the traditional sense, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers waged warfare against the citizens of New Orleans using the new “weapons” of technology. And the Times-Picayune, by virtue of their site “NOLA.com”, was made a pawn in this warfare.
I want to know the truth! If the USACE has engaged in this type of behaviour agaisnt the citizens of New Orleans, they must be made accountable! And if this is the methodology which the USACE employs – failed engineering followed by a campaign to silence the victims of their mistakes – then the entire nation must be made aware. For New Orleans is the current victim, but the rest of the nation can be considered “victims in waiting.”
The man who does nothing, does nothing wrong.
Accountability is missing. Very nice soft soap. Is it Palmolive? Good for your hands and apparently good enough to wash your hands of all responsibility to your public and keep your rather precarious standing with The Corp. What else can we think? You allowed the truth to go untold. Now you are whining about the storm. At least you lived. How many people DIED? Can we have the real truth on that little question? Weapons of mass technology=no accountability from the Times-Picayune & The Army Corp. The Truth is M.I.A. Thanks for writing such a nice form letter.
“shoddily engineered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers”
That is the only positive thing about his response.
I am much confounded as to why the Times Pic hasn’t run with the ball re: demanding that heads should roll for the abusive postings. Is deliberate misinformation from our government implicitly condoned? Judging from the fact that there was a tiny bit of coverage, apparently not; but also apparently, it has been swept under the rug – as has any aggressive reporting regarding the failure of the ACOE (read, our federal government) to properly construct levees.
After one of the most calamitous incidents in American history, we still have no answers. The who’s, the why’s, the how’s. The contracts, the engineering errors, the malfeasance. All of these scream for a huge light to be shined upon them!
People all around the country live in the shadow of ACOE construction. They are probably as clueless as New Orleanians were previously.
Now, however, New Orleanians’ eyes have been opened.
How does one move home, and have any confidence that the same thing won’t happen again, without that bright light? Will the levees that didn’t fail do so at some point in the future? What guarantees are there that the new ones won’t do the same? Might the new ones in some fashion put additional stress on the old structures?
Still in the dark, with no light at all. No neutral entities to check and double check. No 8/29 investigation to date.
Again, I am confounded as to why Mr. Amoss doesn’t sic his team on this. It could be the biggest story he will ever have.
I had subscribe to your paper for 40 years and then it dawned on me that all that was in the paper was what you wanted people to know, not the whole story. What ever happened to reporting the news? People deserve to know the whole story concerning any investigation started or needed. Set an example for this nation and New Orleans will prosper and grow because prople will want to live here or return, what ever the case might be.Lets do it right.
I am with Bari Landry on this one. As an editor and journalist, I can’t understand how Mr. Amoss can back away from a hot potato story that is perfectly on topic for his readers. One almost has to wonder if his reticence is political, and not a simple matter of waiting for more news to develop. If Mr. Amoss has, hypothetically, been coerced into limiting his paper’s investigation into the Army Corp of Engineers’ actions, people will find out, because this type of corruption no longer goes unnoticed. It will be an embarrassing day for the Times-Picayune, if that’s the case.
In response to Mr. Amoss’s line, “If this story develops further, we will cover it,” I say the following: The news has already happened, Mr. Amoss. There is no need to wait for future developments. Your job and that of your reporters is to dig as deeply as you can through the information that you already have or have access to. The information you need is out there. The question is, how hard are you willing to work to find it?
Mr. Amoss,
Policies are made to be broken, when appropriate.
Please break your rule about announcing ongoing TP investigations and tell us you are looking into this Corps manipulation of the media thing and just what forum messages originate at the USACE New Orleans District with times, username and message. We can wait, but we need to know if you are looking into this matter. Telling us this would definitely appease those subscribers saying there should be a TP boycott because of this situation with the Corps.
We all think we know the difference between right and wrong. The Corps destroyed our beloved city and is using the TP to persuade people the Corps was not responsible for the floods – that it was us, their victims. It’s just not fair. Show us you know wrong when you see it. You have the data and power to verify or disprove the Corps conspiracy. Please don’t give them the pass they feel they demand.
Dear Mr Amoss:
I am a subscriber to the newspaper because unfortunately in our local vernacular
..”dats all we got Padna..” otha den News on Wheels and all …know what Ah mean?
Your comment here ironically reveals precisely the problem with your coverage and your newspaper and not simply re the issues in the letter by Sandy Rosenthal to you re the items enumerated there.
You state:
The notion that either James or I or anyone in our news operations would deliberately withhold information lest it upset the Corps is both preposter…ous and deeply offensive. Therefore, please forgive me if I choose not to respond to or engage in dialog with the person who is spreading those allegations.
You refuse to speak with the source of a story…a newspaper editor refuses..to do what you and others in your quickly dieing irrelevant industry demand and expect every day under the moral righteous of ..the people have a right to know …the people deserve the truth…
You acknowldege precisely the problem Mr Amoss. You carefully remove yourself and your newspaper from the very principles under which you and others wish us to read stories every day and under which…you even publish …
How can a newspaper editor refuse to speak with the source of a story that you say is alleged? Absurd.
Your comments therefore are absurd…
Were it not for this “source” spreading..
“allegations “of a lot of other issues that this source pursued on her own and with the help of citizens… for the last 4 years..not the least of which is the founding and sustaining of an organization that continues to pursist in uncovering and promoting the truth..you and your convenient approach to the news would not have had a basis or even a clue re most of the stories you thrust here before us to promote your paper.
I know ole Harry Thomson would not at all like the letter one more Blue Jay wrote
in response to the search for truth.
Shame on you.
Correction persist not pursist…
Sorry…heat of da moment and all dat….