CNN Just Aired "What Went Wrong" - A Modified Version of Major Garrett's Story

CNN TV | 9/10/05

[Stajack]

Three days later, CNN just ran a modified version of the the Major Garrett story that broke earlier this week. The CNN caption was "What Went Wrong". It aired around 4:30 PM (CST). The segment discussed how Governor Blanco resisted the proposal to federalize the relief effort. It even aired the same footage of Mayor Nagin criticizing the Governor for wanting 24 hours to think over the proposal. The segment also contained commentary by Jamie McIntyre (CNN's Pentagon correspondent) and Donald Rumfeld. Rumsfeld's major point was that for the federal government to enter a state's territory over the objections of an elected Governor would amount to a dangerous breach of the Constitution and the law. The one thing I didn't hear was any mention of the State of Louisiana blocking the Red Cross and Salvation Army from delivering relief supplies to the stranded evacuees. Also, there's a fresh story on the Drudge Report about new revelations of friction between Governor Blanco and the White House during the crucial period last week. Stay tuned.

[Mount Athos]

Thanks for posting a good description of the story.

[mtbopfuyn]

This from CNN? Surely, you jest.

[Bommer]

CNN - The Copying News Network - Think of us as a Xerox for news already broken and too big to no longer cover up....thanks to F'ng Fox News.....ratings bastards!

[Reagan Man]

Liberals are always late when it comes to the truth, if they come at all.

[livius]

Impressive! Maybe the story has gotten too big to hide - or the Dems have decided to cut Blanco loose and let her swing. I read (here, I think) last week that she had been in consultation with Dem party bigwigs even before she met with the President. I bet they advised her to refuse federal help because it might make Washington look good, and now they're all frantically trying to cover their posteriors.

[p23185]

The Communist News Network would allow a story like this? Not surprising they omitted the part about Red Cross and Salvation Army supplies waiting to be delivered - doesn't fit their agenda!

[LdSentinal]

Of course, CNN airs it on Saturday.

[Bobkk47]

I wonder if this will be reported on Bill Mahr's show.

Yeah, Right. Who am I kidding?

[stocksthatgoup]

They do this on a Saturday so they will never have to cover it again. Now comes a full court press..."see Bush let Brown go!" "The Federal Aid was withheld" "It's all Bush's Fault" "Global warming and hurricane Katrina" etc

[atomicpossum]

The Drudge report refers to a New York Times story that seems to be claiming its all the Feds' fault...

[BushisTheMan]

Well, Stone Phillips seems to still think it is all Bush's fault still. His special about the storm was naseating.

By the way, does he have AIDS? He sure looks like it.

[digger48]

Now I know why we've again been hearing about Delay and Rove and Texas in the past day or so. Even maybe get to hear Cindy in the Fabulous San Fran with Feinswine and Boxer Face.

Maybe Celine will have a song especially appropriate for this moment.

[stylin19a]

That "Drudge" story is from the NYT.

[Caramelgal]

Winston Churchill. ... “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

Let us hope that the truth ultimately wins.

[TexasCajun]

Wonder why Drudge even bothered posting the NYSlime piece it was so biased, as usual.

[stylin19a]

You all are too quick. There were no replies when I started reading this thread, then went to look at the Drudge article, then come back here and whammo...

[Hildy]

I can't imagine ANYONE watching Bill Maher's show. He's just so unappetizing.

[Enchante]

"she had been in consultation with Dem party bigwigs even before she met with the President. I bet they advised her to refuse federal help because it might make Washington look good, and now they're all frantically trying to cover their posteriors"

I'll bet if a few 'Rats and Rocks are turned over there will be LOTS of sordid info about the politicization of this catastrophe by GOVERNOR BLANKHEAD. I'll bet she had the Begalas and Deans of the world whispering in her ear, saying don't do anything that would allow the Bush administration to look good!

btw, is anyone on top of why she didn't have the entire LA NG within the state ready to go before, during, and after the storm??? I remember that "Sid Vicious" Blumenthal came out with one of the first Bush-bashing columns, I think it was even before the storm hit, his favorite talking point was that because 3,000 of the NG from LA was over in Iraq the state could not handle the post-hurricane situation..... when in fact the Governor had something like 8,000 other NG available in-state and did not bother to invoke the multi-state compact until nearly a WEEK after she learned of imminent hurricane disaster for her state.... did she fail to cooperate with the feds and put up barriers for political reasons? Would she really put at risk and sacrifice citizens of her state in order to make the Bush administration look bad?????

Do I even need to answer these questions????

[aynrandfreak]

When is the LA GOP going to organize a recall petition?

[TheDon]

I bet they advised her to refuse federal help because it might make Washington look good, and now they're all frantically trying to cover their posteriors.

A darker spin would be that they told her to refuse the help so that they could make President Bush look bad because he was "late with help" and "President Bush is a racist".

[savedbygrace]

They've figured out that the pubbies are going to hold some real hearings and reveal the truth, so they're doing a 180 now, before they're made to look like idiots. (Alright, I hear you saying, "Too late." Wise guy.)

[syriacus]

I think someone should check to see if the folks in Lousiana were deliberately feeding misinformation to the Feds, the folks of New Orleans, and the whole world.

They kept out the Red Cross, they kept out the Salvation Army. Who else did they keep out? Did they only allow newspeople into designated areas?

Terry Ebbert, the New Orleans chief of Homeland Security, misinformed everyone when he said that the levee break would be repaired within a few hours and that the water was rising very slowly in New Orleans.

How many people drowned because they thought the levee was going to be repaired quickly?

[TheDon]

Did they play Gov. "Whitey" Blanco accepting full blame for NO not being evacuated before the hurricane? She keeps stating that only she, as the Gov., has the ability to enforce a mandatory evacuation.

[mylife]

The truth always comes out

[ohioWfan]

NO WAY!

(They're going to lose the 13 viewers they have left if they start telling the truth......)

[Mr. Jeeves]

I hope she decides not to go down without taking some senior Democrats with her...or blurts out at a press conference, "Howard Dean told me to keep the Feds out so Bush wouldn't get a win on the issue!" ;)

[Pirogue Captain]

"This from CNN? Surely, you jest."




I know I was shocked watching CNN last night, when two blond female reporters were talking about the importance of the 2nd Amendment... as if they knew it really does mean inviduals can own firearms and use them for self defense. They will probably get called on to the carpet for that. Unfortunately before they could get too deep into the conversation, some nerd from somewhere became available for an interview, so they had to change subjects.

[p23185]

I've been wondering that also - probably waiting for "dust" to settle.

[Enchante]

"She keeps stating that only she, as the Gov., has the ability to enforce a mandatory evacuation."

That's a key issue that needs to be thoroughly investigated in relation to the timeline of Sat.-Sun.-Mon-Tues. as the hurricane approached and passed through.... so the Mayor supposedly announced a "Mandatory Evacuation" of the city late on Sunday morning -- but according to Governor Blankhead's comments this week he had no authority to do such a thing. So attention needs to be intensely focused (for the first time) on what the Governor knew and when she knew it.... why didn't SHE order the mandatory evacuation and commandeer the 1,000-2,000 buses that would have been required? Her own post-hurricane emergency order shows she had the statutory authority to commandeer all buses in the state, for she does exactly that several days AFTER the storm. Why didn't she act BEFORE the storm when it could have made all the difference? Why didn't SHE ensure that existing emergency plans for both city and state were carried out?

[shadeaud]

Agree, we watched in amazement last night and too many times to count I found myself asking why the whole story wasn't included.

[syriacus]

A darker spin would be that they told her to refuse the help so that they could make President Bush look bad because he was "late with help"

Just last year, during a press conference about a hurricane in Florida the MSM was badgering Bush about slow FEMA response during Hurricane Andrew, which had occurred 12 years earlier.

Q There was some consternation after Andrew that the federal aid didn't arrive soon enough. Can you promise that there will be a more expeditious response this time?

THE PRESIDENT: It's happening now --

Q Sir --

THE PRESIDENT: Hold up for a second. We're moving a lot of aid very quickly and, again, you can ask the governor whether or not he's satisfied with how fast the aid is moving. All I can tell you is that FEMA was on the ground yesterday morning and there's a lot of supplies surging this way. [snip]

Q What about what happened in '92, with Hurricane Andrew? ....

The press has been trying to paint Bush as someone who is incompetent during crises, even when the crises are handled well.

[Bush gal in LA]

Didn't see it, but I assume by modified, you mean, CNN gave minimal blame to local authorities( Blanco and Nagin) and gave most or all of the major blame to Bush. Right?

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Arguing over who has authority to order a mandatory evacuation is a turf battle of egos as people are drowning.

[Arizona Carolyn]

At this point Blanco is her own worst enemy. The story here today that she was supposed to show up at a shelter in Baton Rouge they were all excited about her coming) and sent her underlings instead and the people were ticked -- especially when the people she sent had zero answers for them.

[jackbill]

The one thing I didn't hear was any mention of the State of Louisiana blocking the Red Cross and Salvation Army from delivering relief supplies to the stranded evacuees.

You ain't ever going to see that on CNN, PMSNBC, NBC, CBS or ABC. Ever.

[Arizona Carolyn]

I don't know, I did have to laugh at the NOLA site (the pet section)... there is so much panic over this stupid cop shooting the dogs when rescue groups are being held back from getting them while still alive ... anyway they are trying to get the Whitehouse, anyone to stop this jerk...and everyone starts saying email CNN... and the next person: YES, CNN .... quick, everyone CNN.

What I learned is cajungirl is right. The mindset in LA is this is -- drum roll please -- Bush's fault... and since Bush and FOX news are considered one and the same they say call CNN.

[Arizona Carolyn]

It's pretty easy... Monday the 28th she went on CNN Larry King and basically indicated things were fine, the President was great, FEMA was wonderful... etc., it's all in the transcript from CNN.

[msnimje]

CNN - The Copying News Network - Think of us as a Xerox for news already broken and too big to no longer cover up....thanks to F'ng Fox News.....ratings bastards

Fantastic! Right on the money!

[kayak]

FYI

[Eva]

Now, the left may be claiming that fema was slow during the response to hurricaine Andrew, but I remember cancelling my subscription to the Seattle Post Intelligencer after reading a front page story on the hurricaine in which they claimed that the only reason that Bush was visiting Florida was because he had relatives there and that states that were disaster prone, like California, Florida and those along the Mississippi, should
not be eligible for disaster funds, anyway.

[Steely Tom]

Winston Churchill. ... “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

Maybe so, but these days once the truth gets it's pants on, it sits down at its computer and logs onto FreeRepublic.

(steely)

[EternalHope]

If CNN failed to mention Governor Blanco blocking delivery of the Red Cross and Salvation Army relief supplies, then they are still covering up for her. This action of hers was so outrageous that the MSM simply cannot allow the information to become widely known. It would destroy their whole attack against President Bush all by itself.

As for the NYT article linked on the Drudge Report, it treats the search for busses as a critical example of FEMA failure, but never mentions the school and transit busses that New Orleans failed to use. For FEMA to be damned for failure to instantly have busses, but the unused busses in New Orleans to merit no mention at all, is a deliberate omission sufficient to prove the purpose of the story was to slime FEMA (and therefore President Bush), and not to report the true story.

Naturally, the NYT article take a number of other cheap shots as well, such as repeating the discredited charge that the inadequate National Guard response was due to troops deployed to Iraq. No mention that they were under the control of Governor Blanco, etc.

All in all, the "Get Bush" drumbeat continues, along with the necessary lies and coverup of Blanco incompetence that this requires. But perhaps a few cracks are starting to show.

[Yellow Rose of Texas]

Louisiana had nowhere to house the folks from New Orleans. That is why TEXAS had to step in and get them out of that mess.

The governor and mayor had to be aware of that little fact.

[livius]

Do I even need to answer these questions????

Too true. I read that LA has something like 6500 NG, of whom about 3000 are in Iraq. That left her with 3500.

I read that the first group she called up was only about 500 for the entire state, and only 200 of them were assigned to NO. She never actually activated all of the Guard and she did not ask for help from the other states until it was clear that things were totally out of control. Even then, she never gave it all over to the Feds, and dithered on the whole thing, even refusing the requests of the idiot mayor.

[SCHROLL]

Bush should simply pickup the phone and ask each network if they want a transcript of his meeting with Blanco and if that's not good enough, how about an audio tape of the conversation? They'd turn on her in a minute to save their own hides.

[pointsal]

As I said earlier in the week, who has access to the phone records?

This wreck was scripted for MSM to smear Bush.

[livius]

I hope she decides not to go down without taking some senior Democrats with her

She's the type of person who might very well blurt out the whole thing. I think the Dems are going to be sorry that they ever trusted this ditz to be their Joan of Arc.

[TomGuy]

I caught the HSD/FEMA presser today. Jefferson Parish president was on it. It was funny. He was saying how inspirational it was that the Admiral in charge came up with the concept of using the mighty Mississippi River to help with the recovery efforts.

Parish Pres indicated he'd have never thought of that---using the Ole Mississippi. They guy went on and on and on about it.

[I wouldn't believe what I was hearing. I wondered whether the Parish Pres was a Homer Simpson in disguise. I would like to find a video of the presser -- it is a keeper, for sure.]

[aculeus]

Never forget Major was fired by CNN then hired by Fox.