I just sent a long email to ABC News stating point-by-point why their current "most emailed article" on their website is completely false. Also, I mentioned the "unmentioned background" of one of their sources.
I also added a "letter to the editor" version at the end of the diary. Feel free to cut and paste to send to your own representatives and/or media people.
Update [2005-9-7 7:3:45 by bartman]:
In yet another update, it appears the Washington Post is also taking some heat for printing anonymously sourced lies....
Check it out at Media Matters
Continued:
BTW, all the info on the United States National Response Plan is from
Georgia10's Diary
You can read the article I was responding to here
Here is the text of my letter:
I read the article "Who's to Blame for Slow Katrina Response?" by Dan Harris just a few moments ago.
Mr. Harris uses two questionable sources, who have provided misleading, out of context, and in one case blatantly false information.
The first source is "Bob Williams," who is listed in the article merely as being an ex-State Representative in Washington during the time of the eruption of Mount St. Helens. What is not mentioned is that Mr. Williams is currently the President and Senior Research Fellow for the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, which is a conservative Washington State based think-tank. The incorrect and misleading information provided by Mr. Williams is that "if the [comprehensive emergency] plan were implemented, lives would have been saved."
Earlier in the article is an out of context quote from the New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. The article states: "the city ... will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas. Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves" The complete paragraph this quotation was taken from contains the following sentence which was not mentioned in the quote: "Those evacuated will be directed to temporary sheltering and feeding facilities as needed." When this sentence is included, it becomes clear that the citywide network of busses to bring poor and disabled citizens to the Superdome prior to the hurricane making landfall was the action this section refers to. The Mayor followed the plan exactly, and the source used an out of context quotation to push a blatant falsehood at your reporter. The fact that the Mayor set up emergency bussing to get the poor residents to the Superdome undoubtedly saved many lives.
The City of New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan Annex I: Hurricanes can be found at the following URL: http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26
The second questionable source is "an unnamed FEMA official." This official is mentioned in the following statement from the article: "As one FEMA official told ABC News, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco failed to submit a request for help in a timely manner." In fact, the official request for help has been available on the Internet for anyone who has even the slightest inclination to search for it. The official request for help signed by Governor Blanco is dated August 28, 2005 as can be seen on the original document located at http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf
Certainly, a request for help several days prior to the arrival of a hurricane cannot possibly be characterized as "untimely." According to the press release at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050829-2.html "The President today declared a major disaster exists in the State of Louisiana and ordered Federal aid to supplement State and local recovery efforts in the area struck by Hurricane Katrina beginning on August 29, 2005, and continuing."
In fact, the President had already proactively declared a State of Emergency in Louisiana on August 26, 2005 according to the press release at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050827-1.html
Therefore, it appears that the Mayor of New Orleans did follow the portion of the NO-CEMP which your "conservative think-tank president" claimed he didn't. It also appears that the Governor of Louisiana requested federal aid on August 28, and the President promised federal aid on August 29. This proves that attempts to blame the late response on an untimely request by Governor Blanco are patently false, and can be proved false by easily obtainable documents anyone with an internet connection has easy access to.
Finally, although not mentioned in your report, many people have been claiming that several federal agencies were prevented from responding due to the Governor not specifically asking for them. But, according to the United States National Response Plan which can be found at http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interweb/assetlibrary/NRP_FullText.pdf this is also completely untrue. Here are some relevant quotations from the United States National Response Plan:
"All PRESIDENTIALLY DECLARED DISASTERS AND EMERGENCIES UNDER THE STAFFORD ACT ARE CONSIDERED INCIDENTS OF NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE." (NRP, 7) (This is a CRITICAL piece of information which your reporters don't seem to have noticed. In fact, the initial emergency declaration from the White House mentions the Stafford Act by name.)
"When an incident or potential incident is of such severity, magnitude, and/or complexity that it is considered an Incident of National Significance, the Secretary of Homeland Security initiates actions to prepare for, respond to, and recover from the incident." (NRP, 15)
"The President leads the Nation in responding efficiently and ensuring the necessary resources are applied quickly and effectively to all Incidents of National Significance. (NHP, 15)
"The Secretary of Defense authorizes Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) for domestic incidents as directed by the President or when consistent with military readiness operations and appropriate under the circumstances and the law.
"Imminently serious conditions resulting from any civil emergency may require immediate action to save lives, prevent human suffering, or to mitigate property damage.
"When such conditions exist and time does not permit approval from higher headquarters, local military commands and responsible officers from the DOD are authorized by DOD directive and pre-approved by the Secretary of Defense to take necessary action to response to the request of civil authorities." (NPR, 42)
"Standard procedures regarding requests for assistance may be expedited, or under extreme circumstances, suspended in the immediate aftermath of an event of catastrophic magnitude." (NRP, 44)
After reading these quotations from the United States National Response Plan, it should be clear that the Federal Government faced no impediments to action due to paperwork requirements, or lack of communication with state or local officials. The President put into action a plan which allows Federal Agencies to suspend standard procedures regarding requests for assistance.
Considering that your news article contains numerous falsehoods, apparently supplied by political operatives in an attempt to deflect blame from the national level to the state and local level, and it is currently listed as THE MOST EMAILED article on your website, I don't believe that a simple retraction is sufficient. I believe that a new story must be published and aired, containing the following points:
- Explain the errors of your original story.
- Describe actions taken against the people responsible for not doing the most basic of fact-checking.
- Explain what you will do to prevent this type of blatant politically motivated propaganda and falsehood in the future.
- Describe the political significance of why there seems to be a concerted effort among some people to deliberately spread lies about the circumstances of this historically tragic event.
If the United States Government is deliberately spreading easily disproved lies about a tragedy of historical significance both directly and through proxy, then it is YOUR job as the Fourth Estate to discover who is doing it, and to uncover the facts. If you allow the government to lie about such basic facts during a time of national emergency, when there is no enemy we need to prevent from obtaining this information, then you have failed in your job, and you have failed our country.
Sincerely,
bartman
(I gave my real name and address when I emailed them.)
Update [2005-9-7 3:9:18 by bartman]:
I didn't mention that I included a PDF of the Governor's request for assistance to the President in my email to ABC News. I can't find a URL for it at the moment (Still searching) although I did find a press release on the FEMA website which mentions the fact that they recieved the request:
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18447
Update [2005-9-7 3:17:1 by bartman]:
The link to the LA Governor's Disaster Relief Request from August 28, 2005 (Thanks to dumbya's diary )
http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf
Update [2005-9-7 6:26:40 by bartman]:
Generic LTE or LTCongresscritter version. Add appropriate greeting and closing sentence depending on who you send it to. Feel free to send it anywhere you want, with or without attribution.
Easily Disprovable Lies About Hurricane Katrina Response
Over the last several days many of us have noticed quite a few “talking points” being disseminated by various people associated with the White House. I understand that spin is just a part of life in political circles. Even so, there are three points which are particularly egregious. These three points are all designed to deflect blame from the federal level to the state and local level, and they are all easily proven to be false.
The GOP is using this strategy to dishonestly assign blame while also saying, “Now is not the time to play the blame game.” Meanwhile, the DNC has suspended political fund raising and given its staff time off to assist relief efforts for the victims of Katrina. Decent people of all political philosophies need to support those who put aside politics in this time of crisis, and condemn those who merely pay lip service to unity as they fan the flames of divisiveness with their deceitful rhetoric.
The three dishonest talking points being spread by the GOP are these:
1) The Mayor of New Orleans did not follow the portion of the New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, which specifies “Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to evacuate themselves.”
If this quote is taken in context, it is clear that it is referring to evacuating people to an emergency shelter within the city, not evacuating people to points outside the city. The Mayor did implement an emergency bussing system that evacuated the city's poor and disabled to the Superdome.
This can be verified by reading the plan at
http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26
2) The Governor of Louisiana failed to request federal help in a timely manner.
The Governor requested help on August 28, 2005 as can be easily seen by viewing her official request at http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf
The official White House response to this request is in the press release at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050829-2.html
In fact, the President declared a State of Emergency in Louisiana on August 26, 2005 that technically made the Governor’s request unnecessary. This can be seen from the official White House press release at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050827-1.html
3) Federal Agencies were unable to respond in a timely manner because the Governor did not request their help.
Actually, once the President declared the State of Emergency on August 26, 2005, it triggered something called “An Incident of National Significance.” According to the United States National Response Plan, this has quite a few consequences, all of which are designed to put the Federal Government in charge, eliminate delays based on paperwork, and eliminate any need for local officials to ask for help. Here are some quotes:
“The President leads the Nation in responding efficiently and ensuring the necessary resources are applied quickly and effectively to all Incidents of National Significance.”
"Standard procedures regarding requests for assistance may be expedited, or under extreme circumstances, suspended in the immediate aftermath of an event of catastrophic magnitude."
The US National Response Plan can be found at http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interweb/assetlibrary/NRP_FullText.pdf
There is quite a bit more, but those two quotes cover the major points. By declaring a State of Emergency, the President officially took charge of the situation, whether he realized it or not. And once it was clear that Hurricane Katrina was an event of “catastrophic magnitude” there should have been no need for FEMA, nor any other Federal agencies to wait until state or local government requested help from them.
These blatant lies are an attempt to discredit the people who are still busy with their heroic attempts to save even more lives in the affected states. Anyone who would knowingly spread these lies (particularly while there are still people trapped in their homes, praying for rescue) has clearly sold their soul to pay for their political agenda. Bearing false witness against someone who is struggling to save the lives of our most helpless citizens is clearly beyond any sin previously committed by either party.
It's still a bit long for a LTE, but I'm not sure how to tighten it up without taking out a bunch of substance. The final sentence about "bearing false witness" is aimed at the fact that I live in a very "Christian," moderately Red county in Oregon.
If anyone has any tips about how to tighten it up more, please let me know.