Only problem? Most of what he said was categorically untrue. And since he was there on the ground from the beginning (as he humbly reminds us), he has no excuse. He is either a liar or incompetent.
He claims that people were in the Superdome (where HE sent them, by the way) watching hoodlums kill and rape each other. Only problem? That didn't happen. (And, by the way, if it had happened, it was his responsibility as mayor to stop it.)
This man is a piece of work. And Oprah is falling all over him--instead of asking any serious questions, like, say, "How do you know that people are being killed?" Or the tougher one, "Well, you're the Mayor, what are you doing about it?"
Okay, so we don't expect 'tough reporting' from Oprah. But, now that the hysteria is over, it turns out that there are a lot of things that were reported that just were not true.
Powerline calls for a Congressional Investigation to ask the mainstream media some tough questions--questions they should be asking themselves, in order to restore any shred of credibility that they may still possess.
It's time for some accountability here. The conventional wisdom is that no one performed particularly well in the aftermath of Katrina--not local, state or federal authorities, and not considerable numbers of private citizens. But it now appears clear that the worst performance of all was turned in by the mainstream media. Congress should promptly investigate, and try to get to the bottom of the following questions:* How did so many false rumors come to be reported as fact?
* Do news outlets have any procedures in place to avoid this kind of mis-reporting? If so, why did their procedures fail so miserably?
* To what extent were the false rumors honest mistakes, and to what extent were they deliberate fabrications?
* To the extent that the false reports were deliberate, did the press pass them on through sheer negligence, or did some reporters participate in deliberate fabrication?
* Did the widespread breakdown in accurate reporting stem only from a failure to follow proper journalistic standards, or did it also reflect a deliberate effort to damage the Bush administration by passing on unconfirmed rumors as fact?
* In deciding what stories to report, did the news media consider the likelihood that passing on false rumors would damage the rescue effort?
It is vitally important to get to the bottom of these questions, so that future natural disasters are not similarly mis-reported.
Check out great stuff at Michelle Malkin on this topic.
I nominate the term 'investigative reporting' as the newest oxymoron.
UPDATE: Read Jonah Goldberg's post on this topic.
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