President's Katrina briefing

Our liberal media

This struck me today, as it did Media Matters, in reporting about the newly released video of the dire briefing President Bush received prior to Hurricane Katrina:

MEDIA MATTERS: On March 2, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today reported on newly released video footage and transcripts documenting how, on the day before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, President Bush was warned -- and expressed concern -- about the possibility that the levees in New Orleans would be breached by the storm. But none of these reports mentioned that these new tapes further contradict the claim Bush made on ABC's Good Morning America several days after the storm hit that ``I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.''

Heavens, the statement the president made about no anticipation of breach was always obviously untrue. But no attempt to hold him responsible for that is in evidence here, despite the new video evidence proving what was written here and in many other blogs at the time.

It is almost as if the professional journalists are trying to get us to forget what President Bush and other administration officials say immediately after they say it. Tuesday this week, the day before the video came out, Bush was telling Elizabeth Vargas of ABC News:

Listen, here's the problem that happened in Katrina. There was no situational awareness, and that means that we weren't getting good, solid information from people who were on the ground, and we need to do a better job.

Must've been the talking point of the day, ``the media [had] better situational awareness than the government''. But if you look at all the media reaction to the video proving the president should have had great ``situational awareness'' on Katrina, you can't find mention of the contradictory statement Mr. Bush was giving just one day earlier. I think the story should be that Bush was fully briefed about the disaster but just didn't care, as he continued his vacation that week. But the liberal media does not shine its light on that.