CNN Wins! Anderson Cooper and his posse narrowly edged out CBS' Kelly Cobjella to reach Haiti first, according to the Los Angeles Times' tally sheet entitled, "Media Hustle to Get to Haiti."

Cooper had cinched his win by hitching a ride on a government helicopter from the Dominican Republican. Cobjella made slower progress on the treacherous Haitian "highways" (if you have ever been to Haiti, you know why that word is in quotes).

The media mantra was "The First Shall Not Be the Last," though it's not clear that other key journalistic tenets survived the trek to Port-au-Prince.  

But did the journalists racing to Haiti (as well as their colleagues at Fox who were criticized for sitting behind their desks) miss the real point in Haiti coverage?

When I received word of the earthquake in Haiti, my heart was crushed.  I have spent a lot of time there and still have many friends in Port-au-Prince and other parts of the country.  

I made the decision to become a journalist during a trip to PAP, while I was standing on the rooftop of a house which is now in ruins. That's also where I lost my faith in religion and ultimately God.

The decision about God was and still is a struggle, but the journalistic aspiration was simple.  I believe that reporters can do good in the world and make a difference in the lives of people like the Haitians with whom I rubbed elbows.

Isn't that why we board planes in the middle of the night and head to distant lands to report from the thick of tragedy?  

But the reports coming from many of the journalists in Haiti, including the dashing Anderson Cooper, seemed to be motivated by other priorities--namely, covering affliction without unduly afflicting the comfortable.

For example, some of the initial stories of the disaster detailed Haiti's lack of food, water and medical supplies. But that has been a fact of life in Haiti for years now, and this crisis has simply magnified a mass of suffering that most American news consumers and media companies have long chosen to ignore.

Then the focus of the reporting turned to fighting, looting and general bad behavior. Few journalists framed these events as acts of desperation by people who were trying to grab hold of anything they could just to survive. And no one in the media business pointed to the illogical thinking of relief forces who thought they could drop aid out of a helicopter and expect anything less than chaos.

Writing for Religion Dispatches, theologian Paula Cooey argued that journalists must address the tragedy on "[Haiti's] own terms, and in relation to the needs of those still suffering."

Cooey concluded her article with a challenge for journalists to "respond by doing anything and everything one can, corporately or alone, to minister to the dead, the dying, and the survivors quarantined with them."

Many wondered whether CNN's Cooper and medical reporter Sanjay Gupta overstepped their bounds as journalists when they got personally involved in the stories they were covering by lending a hand to the Haitians.

But in the face of tragedy, how can you be a good reporter and not be moved to act? Curiosity without empathy is nothing more than voyeurism.

That may seem like a naïve sentiment, but Haiti's tragedy allows reporters a chance to rekindle those starry-eyed beliefs in the possibilities of their profession. Public service, social conscience, speaking truth to power--remember those?

John Adams is a second-year grad student at USC Annenberg, where he is working toward a master's in online journalism. He was a pastor for 12 years before leaving his church and heading to grad school.  He is now focused on sports journalism and is the co-founder of thesportsunion.com.