It's unfathomable. Chertoff's response to Russert should have been "Tuesday morning, I opened newspapers and saw headlines that said "New Orleans Dodged The Bullet," which surprised me, because I knew the headline was dead wrong."
And that brings us to the second thing that is wrong with his statement.
The amazing thing about the Internet is that you can check things like a headline. One question the media had following Chertoff's interview with Russert was "Which newspaper?" No one could figure it out.
The reason? Well, consider that Newseum has 477 archived front pages from Aug. 30 — and none of them have anything close to "New Orleans Dodged The Bullet."
I gave Chertoff the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he read the headline on-line. Or maybe he, like the president, gets a daily briefing gathered by a staffer, which would include print-outs from the Internet of stories around the country.
Sure enough, following a Google search, I found a couple of headlines that fit the bill. The conservative website World Net Daily ran a story on Aug. 29 — that would be Monday, not Tuesday — with the headline, "Hurricane slams ashore, N'Orleans dodges bullet."
Then there was the Grenada (as in the island) Daily Star, which ran an Associated Press story on Aug. 29 — again Monday, not Tuesday — under the headline, "Big Easy dodges bullet."
I found one other headline, from a story filed at 11:37 a.m. central time, in QuickDFW, the on-line version of a free weekly for residents of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, under the headline,"New Orleans dodges another bullet." But clearly this story and headline shouldn't have run — the levee had broken 10 hours earlier.
Now, to find even these obscure stories, I had to search through several dozen choices on Google, and use two searches — one with the words "Katrina" "Dodged" "Bullet," and another using "Dodges" instead of "Dodged."
Even giving Chertoff the benefit of the doubt — that he didn't "open newspapers," but instead either went on-line, or received a briefing that had a summary of the headlines of the day — are we to believe that Chertoff actually found these headlines? And furthermore, that he would believe those headlines, having received no other information from FEMA Director Brown, other emergency personnel, or by simply watching television news coverage?
Article comments
1 - Bennett
Great job researching this post, Mark.
Once you peel away the outer layers of the onion, the eyes begin to weep a bit, eh?
Damn, I hate to be lied to by these bastards. On a daily basis it seems.
2 - Georgio
I believe if it wasn't for CNN the government would not have known anything..maybe they should hire CNN to advise them when there are catastrophes
3 - Dave Nalle
Not if it's a tasty Texas 1015 Onion, Bennett.
Dave
4 - Temple Stark
>>First, are we to believe that the person in charge of managing the federal response to Katrina got his information from newspaper headlines?
I'm sorry, but that's EXACTLY what I've been thinking. since I heard that.
Newspaper headlines are good - but they reflect (or are supposed to reflect if you prefer) what people and experts are telling the reporters.
done. Temple
5 - David R. Mark
If in fact there was a plethora of headlines with the same theme, this would make sense. But go check out Newseum -- there's nothing close to this, let alone any kind of consensus.
6 - Liberal
Well, you are talking about a guy who apparently thinks Lousiana is a city. What can you expect from the Party that believes that trees cause air pollution?
7 - Dave Nalle
You know, I find it endlessly fascinating how Republicans can never make a misstatement or a mistake which they might later correct or reconsider. They can only lie or be incompetent.
It must be comforting to live in a simplistic world of all black and all white. Fashionable too.
Dave
8 - ukexpat
Same old story -- if you repeat a lie enough times, people believe it's true...
9 - David R. Mark
Dave -- they haven't corrected themselves on this. In fact, as stated in the article, they have repeated the lie several times. Rumsfeld repeated it on Tuesday on Sean Hannity's show.
But hey, why let little facts get in the way of empty charges that you can't back up with anything other than your own opinion?
10 - Liberal
Hey Dave,
Can you say, "subliminable"? How about "Nukular"? Will we be putting food on the families of the victims? Do you think, after this hurricane, that human beings and fish can coexist peacefully? Do you think we will have the same peaceful relationship with Japan that we've had for the last century? How about those Harkin "tragsactions"? And that Iraq "intelligy" - still "darn good intelligy"?
Morons are morons, whatever their political philosophy.
11 - Dave Nalle
Liberal, you're axing me too many questions which are none of your bidness.
Dave
12 - Jewels
Chertoff's a pasty faced weasel. At least Michael Brown's been sent back to the barn.
13 - Scott
That's Grenada, as in a small town in north central Mississippi, not the island med school.
14 - Nancy
I didn't pick up on it being a different Grenada, because I knew we had already invaded & annexed it years ago. ;) The island, that is. Dave - LOL! Funny response.