QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:50 P.M. ET:  Norah O'Donnell, the new CBS White House correspondent, and someone who makes Katie Couric look politically neutral, gives her assessment of President Obama's response to Hurricane Irene, as reported by RealClearPolitics:

CBS White House correspondent Norah O'Donnell said President Obama displayed his engagement to the federal government's response to Hurricane Irene by returning a day early from vacation and meeting with the head of FEMA. O'Donnell says the administration wanted to make sure no comparison to the government's handling of Katrina was made.

"I think it's important to note too that the Obama administration was really determined to avoid any comparisons to the failed federal government response to Hurricane Katrina. So, President Obama made a very public display of his engagement on this issue. He returned from his vacation a day early. Yesterday, he went to the headquarters of FEMA where he talked not only with the head of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security, but also all the Governors and state and local officials. So, that was key certainly for this President," O'Donnell reported.

COMMENT:  That is a classic example of what too often happens in "journalism" – a reporter reports in accordance with an approved "narrative" that becomes fact regardless of the truth.  We see it most dramatically in foreign-affairs reporting that casually mentions the United States "losing" the Vietnam War, which was simply not the case.  We withdrew because of domestic political pressure.  We never lost one battle in Vietnam.

In O'Donnell's case she accepts the "narrative" of a "failed federal government response" to Katrina.  It has become the accepted party line of the mainstream media.  In fact, it was a far more complex picture.  Most of the failure was at the local and state level.  The federal response, especially in its early stages, was remarkably good.  The projected death toll in Katrina was about 10,000.  The actual death toll was about 1,100.  Yet, not a single reporter, to the best of my knowledge, has investigated that gap.  The low death toll was largely due to the fact that President Bush ordered federal assets to New Orleans as soon as Katrina became a major threat to the city.  Most of those assets were in the form of the Coast Guard, which did remarkable lifesaving work.  Yet, you never hear of it. 

FEMA came in for severe criticism after Katrina, some of it deserved.  But that very same FEMA, just a year before, had handled five hurricanes in Florida and acquitted itself quite well.  The difference?  Florida had a real governor in Jeb Bush.  Louisiana had an inadequate governor in Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans had a borderline clown named Ray Nagin as mayor. 

The approved narrative is wrong.  It won't be changed. 

August 29, 2011