The Associated Press Friday evening published a clarification of its March 1 story regarding a controversial video of a White House briefing before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. At this point, I can find no actual link to this article. However, both the Drudge Report and Power Line have reported similar findings. The following comes directly from NexisLexis:
“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 wasn'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.”
Isn’t that wonderful? For the past three days, the press have been in full dudgeon concerning this issue, and Democratic leaders have asked for an independent investigation. Now, late Friday evening, the AP does an Emily Litella telling Americans, “Never mind.” Meanwhile, as it’s now the weekend, most of the citizenry will likely not hear about this mistake, and, instead will retain an opinion on this matter without all the facts.
One can only hope that the AP is going to do a full investigation into this matter, and fire those that are responsible for this pathetic error.
