Fun With Headlines I
"Video Shows Bush Warned Before Katrina Hit" - AP.

The AP uncovered video footage of a briefing that showed Bush knew that Hurricane Katrina was going to cause a disaster. Except it doesn't. To quote from the article:

"My gut tells me ... this is a bad one and a big one," then-federal disaster chief Michael Brown told the final government-wide briefing the day before Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29.

The president didn't ask a single question during the briefing but assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."

The footage — along with seven days of transcripts of briefings obtained by AP — show in excruciating detail that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster.

A top hurricane expert voiced "grave concerns" about the levees and Brown, then the Federal Emergency Management Agency chief, told the president and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that he feared there weren't enough disaster teams to help evacuees at the Superdome.

"I'm concerned about ... their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe," Brown told his bosses the afternoon before Katrina made landfall.

This is a non-story for so many reasons. First, the President doesn't personally manage desaster response. Regardless of what he was told by administration officials, I don't see how this would have changed the President's response to the incident. He would have basically told FEMA and DHS to, you know, "Get ready for the storm!" This footage doesn't change anything.

Second, this is hardly a warning. People were concerned about the Hurricane hitting New Orleans and whether the levees would survive the attack. (Duh!) There was much uncertainty at the time. (Base10 recalls reading the headline "New Orleans Saved!" imediately after the storm when it was discovered that the storm had missed the city but before the storm surge had caused the levees to breach. So Bush didn't wring his hands?

This is yet another example of the dissemination of blatant misinformation by the mainstream media.
- posted by Base10 @ 10:45 AM