Hard to keep up with the media lies…
First the AP issues a misleading story, written by a former 60 Minutes 2 producer, alleging that Bush was warned the levees would fail.
At 10pm on Friday evening, when nobody was looking, the AP issued this correction,
WASHINGTON (AP) _ In a March 1 story, The Associated Press reported that federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees in New Orleans, citing confidential video footage of an Aug. 28 briefing among U.S. officials.
The Army Corps of Engineers considers a breach a hole developing in a levee rather than an overrun. The story should have made clear that Bush was warned about floodwaters overrunning the levees, rather than the levees breaking.
The day before the storm hit, Bush was told there were grave concerns that the levees could be overrun. It wasnâ??t until the next morning, as the storm was hitting, that Michael Brown, then head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Bush had inquired about reports of breaches. Bush did not participate in that briefing.
The Boston Globe editorial page obviously read the correction, yet stuck to the big lie theme anyway, in their Sunday editorial,
The Lie of the Storm
Three days after Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, Bush went on television to defend his handling of the crisis, saying: ”I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees.” That may be technically true. The weather specialist who delivered part of the video briefing only expected some water to wash over the levees, but cautioned that worse was possible.
So how then, three days later, is Boston Globe columnist James Carrrol allowed to publish this?
Bush, lies, and videotape
By James Carroll | March 6, 2006
IF GEORGE W. BUSH were a character in a novel or a play, last week might have been the turning point in the narrative. He was shown on film being explicitly warned, just hours before Hurricane Katrina hit, that the levees in New Orleans were vulnerable.
But everyone knows that after the levees broke, he denied having been warned that such a thing was possible. The broadcast of the film amounted to a terrible epiphany: The president seemed caught in a lie.
Actually James, it is you that’s lying isn’t it. If you read the AP correction, or watched the tape yourself, you would know that. And what about the Boston Globe? Don’t they employ editors? How is a three day old correction from the AP completely ignored on your editorial pages? I’ve asked the omdudsman of the Globe for an answer, and you should too,
E-mail ombud@globe.com or call 617-929-3020.
To leave a recorded message, call 617-929-3022.