AP Gets it Wrong? But Why?

[MDM4AU 336]

AP gets is wrong?but why?

By Al Ruechel | 03-08-06

It is so hard being in the media these days, especially on the TV side. People expect all of us to get it right and when we don?t they have a right to scream. So why aren?t more people screaming about the latest flap by the Associated Press?

AP released some video they claim came from a ?confidential? briefing between the President, FEMA, state and local disaster officials and others one day before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. In their print story they claimed this ?new? video showed more ?evidence? President Bush was aware of the impending disaster. They claimed the video was in conflict with White House statements that no one knew how bad the situation could become if the levees around the city broke. AP reported that Max Mayfield, head of the National Hurricane Center had warned the President and emergency managers about the levees breaching and the disaster that would follow.

I don?t fault AP for all the misinterpretation from those trying to twist the story. All of the major networks reported the story as it was written by AP. Most went beyond the video to suggest it proved President Bush was not telling the truth about what he knew before the storm. They claimed he ignored Max Mayfield?s warnings that the levee had been breached. Mr. Bush?s enemies carried it a step further claiming the President was obviously asleep at the wheel, out of touch, was lying to cover up his incompetence. You can bet come the mid-term elections you will see this video used to discredit the President.

Now comes the truth, two days after the President?s enemies were jumping around gleefully claiming they had the smoking gun. I should tell you up front only one network bothered doing their homework.

This was not a confidential meeting. The room was filled with more than a dozen cameras from every major network. You could plainly see them on the cover shots. My TV station used some of the video provided by one of those network cameras. AP got it wrong.

Nothing was held in secret. Within two weeks of the meeting a full transcript was available to anyone upon request. AP got it wrong.

A full review of Max Mayfield?s comments indicates he said nothing about the levee breaching. He uses the words ?over topping? not breached. For the functionally illiterate that means water running over the top of the levees not under, around, or through which you would expect with a breach. AP got it wrong.

Michael Brown repeats warnings of potential disaster and continues to beg for resources. He was not fidgeting with his tie and worry about press avails. AP got it wrong.

Well, what does it matter? The most important revelation is that government officials and the President were over confident in their preparations. We know that from history, we know that from their own mouths, we know that from congressional hearings. AP?s big story that day tired to convince us all it was something new, incompetence all caught on tape, the ?proof? we all knew existed.

Baloney. It was old news. I want to know why AP decided on this particular day to release the videotape as if it was something new. I want to know the motive behind the stories on the wire that day. I want to know why only one network, FOX, even bothered to check the validity of the video in context with the rest of the story. I want to know why AP reporters didn?t question the President?s critics who jumped all over him for things that didn?t happen on the tape. I want to know why AP misquoted Max Mayfield when they had the stupid tape in their own hands to listen to if they wanted.

I?m not alone in my outrage. I know that in reporting stories it?s easy to get the numbers wrong, especially as a story changes from hour to hour. You can screw up spellings and locations and even get the names wrong. These are all things that can be corrected in short order. But when you ?manufacture? a story from past events and try to claim it is something new and try to raise questions that have already been vetted, you have lost your credibility.

What makes it even more tragic is that nearly every TV station and radio station in this country uses Associated Press news services. We take stories directly from the wires and repeat them as if fact, in Boise, Des Moines, Akron, LA, Chicago, and a thousand other cities. We?ve done it that way for years. It?s only when we get caught or AP screws up big time we realize how lazy and how manipulated we have let ourselves become.

LINK