Our friends over at the AP who never tire of using any excuse to Bush-bash are at it again in style.
In another of their rollicking “Newsviews,” Ron Fournier shouts, “Rhetoric Not Matching Relief.” Already implying that the nation is fingering Bush for the pain, suffering and death in New Orleans, Fournier goes on to accuse him of far worse:
Bush got himself in trouble by trying to put the best face on a horrible situation. The strategy is so common in Washington that operatives have a name for it, "spin," and the Bush White House has perfected the shady art.
In AP’s time-honored tradition, Fournier fixes his opinion in advance and then piles on poorly contexted quotes to support it:
"It's impossible to defend something like this happening in America," said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. "No one can be happy with the kind of response which we've seen in New Orleans," said Republican Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.”
Which response were these Republicans upset with? New Orleans PD? Louisiana’s emergency relief plan? The Mayor? The Governor? The looters? We don’t know because they are dropped into Fournier’s piece simply to imply that Bush is the villain.
The AP’s urgency to blame President Bush for the NOLA tragedy is taking on comedic proportions. In an unbelievable leap, Fournier writes:
In one interview, Bush said, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." In fact, many experts predicted a major storm would bust New Orleans' flood-control barriers.
And many media-watchers predicted that the AP would lead the charge to blame the results of an act of God and poor state-level emergency planning on President Bush.
