Posted on 09/21/2005 6:05:41 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
It was one of the most iconic, most agonizing, most rebroadcast moments of TV coverage after Hurricane Katrina. Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, Sept. 4, Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard sobbed as he told of a colleague's mother begging her son, day after maddening day, to be rescued:
"The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything," said Broussard, justifiably upset by the slow federal response. "His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, `Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?' And he said, `Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday.' And she drowned Friday night! She drowned Friday night!"
Horrifying story, viewed worldwide. Trouble is, Broussard's version didn't happen. On Monday, MSNBC.com explained what evidently did.
Eva Rodrigue, 92, did perish--not on Friday, Sept. 2, but four days earlier, on Monday, Aug. 29, the same day levees breached and Louisiana flooded. Big difference: Mrs. Rodrigue didn't die because the feds or anybody else neglected for four days to rescue her. She died because, before the storm surge, nobody forced owners of the notorious St. Rita's Nursing Home to evacuate her and some 30 other patients who died there.
MSNBC asked the woman's son, Thomas Rodrigue, emergency services director for Jefferson Parish, to comment on Broussard's by now legendary story. His reply: "No, no, that's not true. I can't tell you what [Broussard] said that day, why he was confused. I'm assuming he was under a tremendous amount of pressure."
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Even if Russert does come clean on this, it won't stop him from his constant moaning about the Bush tax cuts. He sucks.
Tim Russert is one of the few Democrats that I have any respect for. He is not afraid of opening his eyes and looking at the way thing really are.
No.
I respect Russert too but he really needs to own up to this, he got scammed and he needs to offer a 'correction' on future Meet the Press. Also, make sure it's top of the hour, not bottom.
Mario Cuomo creation Russert is slime. Just because he sucks up to Rush Limbaugh and flatters the occaisional Republican doesn't make him any less poisonous.
Amen BUMP!!
He's an all-star softball pitcher for the liberal left and the anti-Bush crowd.
His exchanges with Couric and Lauer make me want to puke.
We need to all e-mail Russert with this story and ask him when he'll issue an apology.
Doesn't Russert do one tiny bit of research any more?
The Sunday he admits on Meet The Depressed, that this was bogus is when I will think he is not afraid of "opening his eyes."
I have mixed feelings on Russert. I have seen him pitch beach balls to poloticians before but I have also seen him push poloticians for real answers to tough questions in bother parties. I think he tries real hard to play the middle and just be a good journalist.
I am not sure how he votes based on his reporting.
I'll be sure to watch this Sunday's MTP. If it's not addressed on his program, they'll hear from me. Has anyone investigated the other charges? The rejected water and cut communication lines? I saw a segment on NBC (Stone Phillips I think) that was reiterating some of these claims without any investigation as to whether they really happened. It was a totally one-sided blame FEMA piece.
Yeah, but, it made such a great news story. It could have been true. It might have been true.
And people wonder why the MSM is going down the toilet.
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