Fox's Hume, Wilson take cue from conservative blogs, repeat unfounded claim that Bush "pleaded" with New Orleans mayor to evacuate city
On the September 5 edition of Fox News' Special Report, host Brit Hume claimed that New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin had ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city on August 28 after President Bush "pleaded" with him. During the same show, Fox News correspondent Brian Wilson repeated the claim, reporting that Nagin had proceeded with the mandatory evacuation "only after President Bush insisted that he do so." But while numerous conservative weblogs had earlier made nearly identical claims, news reports indicate that Bush called Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco -- not Nagin -- on the morning of August 28 to ensure that such precautions would be taken. Moreover, Blanco stated that Bush called "just before" she and Nagin held a press conference to announce the mandatory evacuation, casting doubt over Hume and Wilson's suggestion that Bush's phone call triggered the decision to evacuate.
The August 28 press conference began with Nagin's statement that "a mandatory evacuation order is hereby called for all of the parish of Orleans." Following Nagin's remarks, Blanco commented on the grave situation facing the city:
BLANCO: I want to reiterate what the mayor has said. This is a very dangerous time. Just before we walked into this room, President Bush called and told me to share with all of you that he is very concerned about the citizens. He is concerned about the impact that this hurricane would have on our people. And he asked me to please ensure that there would be a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans.
Later that morning, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that Bush had called "shortly before" the press conference began:
The governor also said that President Bush had telephoned shortly before the 9:30 a.m. press conference began. She said Bush said he was "very concerned about the storm's impact" and urged Blanco and Nagin to order the evacuation.
The Associated Press reported that Blanco said that Bush had called and "personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation," but the AP omitted Blanco's report that he called "just before" the press conference began:
Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.
Four days later, on September 2, the conservative weblog Power Line highlighted the August 28 AP article under the headline "Why Was New Orleans Evacuated?" The blog entry claimed that Bush had "prompted the evacuation order" and concluded that "New Orleans and its residents owe the President a profound debt of gratitude." Several other conservative bloggers soon picked up on the story and proceeded to further embellish President Bush's effect on the decision to evacuate:
- On National Review Online's group blog The Corner, editor Kathryn Jean Lopez linked to the Power Line entry and wrote that Blanco had said she ordered the evacuation "only after" the president's phone call.
- In a post at Blogcritics.org, David Flanagan claimed that the order was the result of a "special request" from Bush.
- Redstate.org excerpted the AP article under the headline "Bush Pleaded with Nagin, Blanco to Evacuate N.O." and wondered, "God knows what would have happened had the President not interceded with Gov. Blanco to order a mandatory evacuation of the city."
The Power Line entry and the AP article continued to circulate throughout the conservative blogosphere over the weekend. On the Monday night edition of Special Report, however, despite no further evidence that Bush had spoken directly with Nagin or that his phone call had prompted the evacuation order, Hume informed millions of viewers that the president had "pleaded" with the New Orleans mayor to evacuate the city, and Wilson reported that the order had come at President Bush's insistence:
HUME: New Orleans' local newspaper, the Times-Picayune, says every FEMA official should be fired for their, quote, "feeble response to Hurricane Katrina." And the paper's editors say the aftermath is, quote, "ultimately the president's failure." But the paper has had nothing but praise for the performance of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, finding no fault with his failure to enforce the mandatory evacuation order he issued last Sunday. That order was issued only after the director of the National Hurricane Center called Nagin at home on Saturday night and after President Bush pleaded with the mayor the next day to evacuate New Orleans in a mandatory way.
[...]
WILSON: In times of natural disaster, government is supposed to work from the bottom up. Back when Katrina was a Category 5 hurricane roiling in the Gulf of Mexico, city and county leaders across the Gulf Coast were calling the shots. Mayor Ray Nagin ordered the mandatory evacuation of New Orleans just 24 hours before the hurricane hit, but only after President Bush insisted that he do so.
In reading the CNN transcript, the Gov of La. and the Mayor of N.O. seemed to be following the accepted procedures. The transcript never said anything about shrub pleading with the Mayor to order an evacuation. The Gov. got a call from shrub, but there was never any mention of pleading. I'm sure if there was anyone who watched CNN in that timeframe will tell the same thing. So for the conservative press to "distort" this is, well... Par for course... Not relieving the Gov or Mayor of any responsibility (sounds like they took more of the lead) but this catastrophe was something that needed more than just local and state co-ordination. Again, that's what I thought was the whole purpose of having the DHS etc.. Something massive like this was supposed to have a co-ordinated response. The local and state personnel did what they could but they could have used the Feds help a lot more quicker than how things played out.
CYA indeed and agreed!
At this point, Hume could come on the air and say "the sky is blue," and I would still have to look out the window to verify it. He has the same credibility as Limbaugh or Hannity. Technically, he's the anchor of what pretends to be a news show, but in reality he's just another entertainer, nothing more.
The governor mentioned the president's call to give more weight to the evacuation order. Whatever the designation, the evacuation was still voluntary, as the city did not have the capability to enforce a mandatory evacuation. There aren't enough police in the entire Southeast to go door-to-door in the city. There was no way for thousands to leave the city -- not enough shelter in the city for all of them.
we would not even be having most of these discussions about the hurricane preparations if the levees had not failed. since bush said it wasn't "anticipated" they would fail, that means they took no steps to ensure they wouldn't. on meet the press, michael chertoff said he was "surprised" they failed after the storm because he had seen the papers that said new orleans had "dodged a bullet". leadership determined by newspaper headline. including 9-11, we have had major parts of two american cities destroyed, and thousands dead, because we have people who think reality is what they want it to be, and they ignore any contrary warnings.
>> ...michael chertoff said he was "surprised" they failed after the storm because he had seen the papers that said new orleans had "dodged a bullet".
I guess he missed the part that said the storm was 400 miles wide.
Next time a hurricane approaches, lets put all the Republican political operatives on boats in the Gulf. They can all spin clockwise, and try to cancel out the storm. Seems like it'd be a better use of their particular talents.
New Orleans, 9th Ward, 2 p.m.
Wes McDermott, from the office of emergency preparedness in New Orleans, said officials have fielded at least 100 calls from people in distress in the Lower 9th Ward and eastern New Orleans.
People report they are waiting on roofs and clinging to trees, he said. But McDermott said the city cannot send rescue crews out until the wind drops below 50 mph.
Angela Chalk, a lieutenant with the community emergency response team in New Orleans, said her niece, Brandi Hyde, is one of those people stranded and awaiting rescue. She said her niece is stranded on a roof of a three-story apartment building on Bundy Road, along with other tenants.
Meanwhile, City Hall confirmed a breach of the levee along the 17th Street Canal at Bellaire Drive, allowing water to spill into Lakeview.
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But Chertoff said on Thursday that "It was on Tuesday that the levee -- may have been overnight Monday to Tuesday -- that the levee started to break. And it was midday Tuesday that I became aware of the fact that there was no possibility of plugging the gap and that essentially the lake was going to start to drain into the city."
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[link to www.nola.com]
9 AM Monday, August 29: “Hurricane Katrina’s eye is poised to pass to the east of downtown New Orleans at 9 a.m. with top winds of 135 mph, at the low end of a Category 4 storm, which may help reduce damage in the city, Metairie, the River Parishes and western parts of St. Tammany Parish.”
At 11 AM on Monday, August 29 “the NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE reported that a levee BROKE on the Industrial Canal near the St. Bernard-Orleans parish line.” (Emphasis added.) At 2PM the very same day “City Hall confirmed a breach of the levee along the 17th Street Canal at Bellaire Drive, allowing water to spill into Lakeview.”
I think what we have seen is the right-wing echo chamber at full force. It really is a comment on how well coordinated the "Republican Noise Machine" is at spinning and distorting events. First, some bloggers pick up the story and distort its assertions, other conservative bloggers then repeat and link back to the initial posting and then the Bush-loyalists at Fox News present the myths for mass public consumption.
The Reich-wing is so adamant about not "politicizing" this event but what are they doing? Spinning to protect the president, how is THAT not political?!
I read somewhere that if Bush had taken care of the people of NOLA as well as he is taking caring of himself right now (with all of this CYA), we wouldn't have this colassal mess.
They are in full protection mode.
To bad the citizens of the country don't garner the same respect.
It was Howard Dean!
"Based on today’s reports, it seems clear that President Bush’s visit today is just another callous political move crafted by Karl Rove. It’s just appalling to see how quickly President Bush and Karl Rove have mobilized a political strategy in their own defense, but simply failed to mobilize a swift response to either keep the people in the Gulf Coast region safe in the first place or aid the victims in the aftermath of the storm.
That is what I call hitting it out of the ballpark!
It won't matter you see, the right wing runs it all and again I am forced to watch this administration do what it does best: DEFLECT THE BLAME
OMG...this is unbelieveable....totally unbelievable...so this is the GOP tactic of CYA? Damn...shame on them all....shame...
[link to www.whitehouse.gov]
Q One more, one more. Did the President have -- call Mayor Nagin personally or through intermediaries to urge him to evacuate the city?
MR. McCLELLAN: The President has stayed in close touch with Mayor Nagin. In terms of --
Q Did he suggest to him that it was time to evacuate?
MR. McCLELLAN: I'd have to go back and look at the facts during that time. There was close coordination going on between DHS, FEMA and the state and local authorities. And, of course, you have to look at the track of where the hurricane was and when the determinations were made that it was turning and heading towards the specific area, the specific region. That's why he pre-positioned assets, to get them in place so that they can quickly -- wait -- so they can quickly deploy to the area that is actually hit and the areas that are hit the hardest. You're not sure several days out exactly where that hurricane is going to hit.
But those are all issues to look at in part of the after-action analysis. Right now we've got to stay focused on the immediate priorities and the long-term response efforts that are underway.
Q There is a story that says the President personally called Mayor Nagin to suggest that it was time to evacuate.
MR. McCLELLAN: Let me double check that. The President was in touch with officials leading up to when the hurricane occurred, but I don't know what report you're referring to. But I'll be glad to double check and look into it.
"I'd have to go back and look at the facts during that time" = We have absolutely no facts whatsoever that would support that story. McClellan is truly a teflon coated spinmeister of the highest order. Or maybe he has been implanted with the latest 'Babelfish 2005' chip that only allows him to answer any question with rambling, roundabout, obfuscating, evasive BS.
"I'd have to go back and look at the facts during that time" = "I have to check what our story was that day."
These guys are pathetic.
If he hadn't already been exposed as a fraud, one might be inclined to suspect that the nameless reporter asking these very manipulative questions goes by the name Jeff Gannon...
Seems to me that if someone asked the reporter in question to take a blood test, they'd find chlorophyll instead of hemoglobin. Sounds a lot like a "plant" to me!
This is typical of FOX. I am 46 years old and for the first time I am ashamed of my country. It is time to people to rise up and tell the the truth. This is not about left vs right. It is about competency. Hume is a total shill. In all the discussions about FEMA's Brown, has anyone on FOX pointed out his horse show judge background. NO!! Now FOX is pushing Major Garretts's "investigation" of the New Orleans Evacuation plan website. What a joke! And yesterday Hume was shocked that people were upset by Barbara Bush's comments about the Astrodome. What a horriffic mess! It will take the USA 20 years to recover from these clowns!
And I'm shocked - shocked! - that Hume is shocked that Barbara Bush thinks she's Queen of the United States.
Throughout the day, including an MSNBC interview with the head of the Evergreen Foundation, this statement about Bush pleading with Blanco for evacuation order remains uncontested by interviewers in MSM.
fightingliberalismonceagain - Wednesday September 7, 2005 05:19:30 PM EST -
The Governor declared a state of emergency on Aug 26 and asked for help from FEMA, declaring a disaster on Aug 28 ([link to gov.louisiana.gov] Once it is federalized that gives Bush all the authority he needs to use the National Guard in Louisiana however he chooses. What the Governor turned DOWN was the federalizing the Louisiana national guard. She wanted to keep control of HER states National Guard.
Wow this makes no sense at all. You are talking about quotes regarding a meeting that happened after the hurricane. How could they be talking about evacuation that would have been before the hurricane? Whatever they are talking about (and I susspect it was about federalization of the Nation Guard units) it was not the evacuation of New Orleans. Nice try though. It was just vague enough to almost work
I found this quote from a timeline related to this article...
--Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation. The President’s call came just prior to the news conference and occurred after the decision had already been made.--
Timeline is here: [link to rightwingnuthouse.com]
Everyone got that? His call came AFTER the decision had already been made. Just like his appearance for this national disaster, his "leadership" was late.
Thank you MMFA for pointing this out. There was no "pleading" and even if there was, the decision had already been made for mandatory evacuations. There is plenty of blame to go around. When will the party in power, the GOP, finally accept some?
Thanks jlegato, for bringing this obviously non partisan website to our attention;
link to rightwingnuthouse.com]
So how is this timeline false? Point out the errors here, or send them in as the website says you can do. This seems to be the only way anything is handled by the right wing noise machine, if the message is said by someone who has an alternative view, dispute the messanger, not the message. Try and deal with the content. If you can show this timeline is false, I will dismiss it. If you can show this website to be full of lies, I will aslo dismiss it. If you can say something other than, " Oh they are from x political group so this must be false", I will be amazed.
i think gov. blanco was right not to put her national guard under federal control. considering the things we see reported, firefighters sent to atlanta for sexual harrassment seminars, others doing nothing but told to stand next to bush for photo-ops, she might have thought they should actually be doing something that had to do with rescue operations. the bush administration froze, just like 9-11 when bush kept reading a book, then chatted with reporters on the school sidewalk, and flew off to spend hours in an underground bunker.