Ed Lavandera:

CNN has a journalist named Ed Lavandera and while filming the flooding. He kept rolling, kept reporting as an elderly man was removed from his home. He kept reporting while pulling the elderly man onto a boat. He then pulled the family's dog on, still reporting. Then he paused, as he relayed the message to the studio that the man's wife was bring brought out, he said "Give us a minute. She has Alzheimer's and we don't know what condition she is in. It was a rare moment of compassion in a field where a photo or a sound byte is everything. Moments later, the woman was filmed, but he demanded the cameraman put down the camera and help, reassuring the woman "you look great,"

Forget that this reporter was putting himself in harm's way, doing more than he was sent to do. Forget he showed basic human decency by assisting in rescues. In the height of the madness, when people don't think straight and most reporters would be thinking about their careers, possible awards, prestige, Mr. Lavandera stopped and thought, I assume, about the women in his life, maybe people he knows, and showed a level of compassion we all need. Despite what some may think, he proved, he and those like him are not our enemy, but one of us, with a job to do and on this day, he went above and beyond "doing his job." He showed empathy. People who call him an enemy could learn a thing or two from this man.