It took until the seventh paragraph, but Washington Post reporters Peter Baker and Spencer S. Hsu uncovered the Big Truth about the AP's newly released Hurricane Katrina meeting video:These video releases weren't about providing new facts or shedding light on a story. It was about shaping emotions. And even in that, all the videos did was shed light on the AP bias against the Administration, question the AP's motives, and bring sharp focus onto the fact that the Adminstration was deeply concerned about the situation, which counters what the Left has repeatedly stated was the case (saying the President was on vacation at his ranch while this crisis was in its formative stages).In its substance, the video reveals nothing that was not already known from previously released transcripts and government investigations. But in politics, images carry a power far beyond written words, and the video, played again and again on cable television, instantly provided new fuel for an emotional debate.
What we see from these videos is that the Administration was working quite vigorously to get the information straight - and wasn't helped by inaccurate reporting from Gov. Blanco, who herself hedged that she couldn't be completely sure of the accuracy of her information when she said that the levees had not been breached after the hurricane passed through the NOLA area. The meetings before Katrina came ashore spoke of worries about overtopping of the levees, not breaches, and the threats were lessening as the eye of the hurricane tracked away from New Orleans towards the Mississippi coastline.
There were multiple failures involved here, and some of them predate the Bush Administration by decades. The levees were not up to snuff. Corruption at the local level meant that the levees were not properly maintained and money that was meant for flood control was siphoned off for other purposes. The local governments failed to evacuate in a timely fashion. The state failed to press the localities to evacuate and provide the necessary support. The federal government failed to press the state government to act even more and the ongoing problems with FEMA is a troublesome and potentially deadly fault that has not been adequately addressed, though moving 100,000 people into the damaged areas within 3 days to provide rescue, relief and recovery is a major success.
One thing that can be taken away from the Katrina response is that communications is still deficient at the state and local levels, and considering that we're 4.5 years after 9/11, that is simply unacceptable.
UPDATE:
Generation Why? deconstructs the video kerfuffle.
So a full 3 hours after the first reported breach, Governor Blanco was still assuring the Bush administration that the levees were in tact. Was Bush supposed to recognize her incompetence and immediately send in the troops? Afterall, it was Blanco who made this promise while she was trying to get elected:
Well first we would organize the office of emergency preparedness, a very terrifically professional operation; we would then encourage everyone—wherever we can determine where this hurricane will be landing—to begin evacuation processes immediately.
Technorati: flood aid; hurricane katrina; katrina aid; kanye west; impeach bush; slidell; biloxi; gulfport; pascagoula; nagin; blanco; barbour.
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