Friday, March 03, 2006

Gotcha Journalism Backfires

From DrudgeReport, this correction from the Associated Press.
AP FRIDAY NIGHT CLARIFICATION ON BUSH/KATRINA VIDEO
Fri Mar 03 2006 19:48:29 ET

Clarification: Katrina-Video story
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) _ 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.

Associated Press writers Ron Fournier and Lara Jakes Jordan contributed to the original misleading story. Notice the time of the correction. After 7p.m EST.

PowerLine on it. They were the first to write how faulty the reporting was. Blogger Wizbang had more including a byline for the story that included MARGARET EBRAHIM and JOHN SOLOMON. Ebrahim appears to have been a former CBS news producer for 60 Minutes II.

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