Posted on 09/19/2005 1:23:20 PM PDT by MRMEAN
On Sunday, September 4, Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, La., appeared on NBC's Meet the Press. He broke down as he told the story of a woman stranded in a nursing home who kept calling her son for help, day after day, until she finally died on September 2, ostensibly because the federal reaction to Hurricane Katrina was too slow. Broussard's heart-wrenching story was a major moment in the anti-Bush media frenzy that followed the hurricane.
Only it turns out Broussard's story was untrue. NBC has now issued a correction:
New details and interviews with the son whose mother died in the flood show that the tragedy unfolded from Saturday through Monday, Aug. 29 — not Monday through Friday, Sept. 2 as recounted by Broussard. The owners of the nursing home were indicted Tuesday for the deaths of more than 30 residents, which officials say occurred on Aug. 29.
So the patients at St. Rita nursing home died the same day the hurricane struck New Orleans. The purportedly slow federal response had nothing to do with it.
It's a little hard to understand how Broussard got his facts so wrong. He didn't just make a mistake on the date; he told the story in elaborate detail. Only every detail was false:
The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. 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.
RUSSERT: Mr. President...
BROUSSARD: Nobody's coming to get us. Nobody's coming to get us. The secretary has promised. Everybody's promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences. For God sakes, shut up and send us somebody.
Here is what really happened:
Rodrigue said he didn’t see or hear Broussard’s comments on Meet the Press. When told of the sequence of phone calls that Broussard described on Meet the Press, Rodrigue said “No, no, that’s not true.”
“I contacted the nursing home two days before the storm [on Aug. 27th] and again on the 28th of August,” Rodrigue said. “At the same time I talked to the nursing home I also talked to the emergency manager for St. Bernard Parish,” Rodrigue said, “to encourage that nursing home to evacuate like they were supposed to and they didn’t until it was too late.”
This is the nursing home whose owners refused to evacuate, and are now under indictment due to the deaths of 34 patients and staff. The eager retailing of false reports like Broussard's is an important reason why early public opinion polls placed substantial blame for the catastrophe on the administration. Congratulations to the bloggers who were skeptical of this story and ultimately forced the correction.
Via InstaPundit.
Occam's razor says it's because he's a liar.
That is so funny. I saw the guy, and believe me I'm usually such a sucker for these things and I thought, this is total crap. If the head of emergency services can't figure out how to save his own mom, he must be really incompetent.
Liquor enhanced and fantasy enhanced
"Cracked actors" ....... drama queens and kings
That's a great graphic...and a hard choice.
Sheehan definatly takes the honors, but the other two are reeeeeeeal close!
LOL! Simpering fools.
BUMP
Good pics, but don't forget Geraldo's "It's a Baby", sniff, sniff.
I won't ever leave, while you want me to stay
Nothing you can do, that could turn me away
Hanging on anyway
Believing the things you say, being a fool
You've taken my life, so take my soul
That's what you said and who are we to know
I want to be with you
as long as you want me to
So don't move away
That's what you said
That's what you said
Ain't that what you said?
Liar, Liar, Liar
May I see no light
May I see no day
Nothing you can do, that could turn me away
You can believe in me
I won't be leaving, I won't let you go
That's what you said
that's what you said
Ain't that what you said?
Liar, Liar, Liar
Liar, Liar
MSNBC link in story has video of Broussard.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9368952
I seen this, and turned the channel....this guy is so full of crap he could float....
ANYTHING to bash Bush...I just hope the majority of the American people can see thru the lies, after lies, after lies....
And if thunder thighs gets anywhere near the WH, we'll hear more lies, after lies, after lies....
Aren't you tired of lies????? And more importantally, aren't you tired of clinton this and clinton that?????
Not for me, I look to see if their lips are moving, a sure sign of them lying.
What irks me is the MSM won't make the effort to get the real story out. They'll just let people go on about how the fed (read president Bush) is at fault.
MSM: "Broussard's story was fake, but accurate! BUSH'S FAULT!"
A mind is a terrible thing to lose. Or it's terrible not to ever have one.
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