Should We Impeach the Associated Press Now?

Six months after Hurricane Katrina struck, the Associated Press still can't get the story straight.

The AP is issuing a correction of its latest story attacking President Bush over the response to Hurricane Katrina.  Actually, the AP calls it a "clarification," but since it admits that the whole premise of its original story was wrong, I think I'll stick with the term "correction."

On March 1st, the Associated Press reported that federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees in New Orleans, citing confidential video footage of an Aug. 28 briefing among U.S. officials.

The Army Corps of Engineers considers a breach a hole developing in a levee rather than an overrun.  The AP now admits that the "story should have made clear that Bush was warned about floodwaters overrunning the levees, rather than the levees breaking."

As many have since pointed out, there is a huge difference between water overrunning (or more accurately stated, overtopping a levee) -- which can be a small or large problem depending on the degree of overrun -- and a breech of the levees, which is a disaster.

Captain's Quarters further dissects the latest AP "clarification" with AP Plays Emily Litella.  (For those who did not get to watch Gilda Radner on Saturday Night Live, here's Wikipedia's explanation of "Emily Litella," the hard-of-hearing news commentator who went on regular tirades based on what she had mis-heard.  When the error underlying her entire tirade was finally pointed out to her, she always concluded with a smile and said "Never mind!")  JunkYardBlog notes that late Friday after the close of business, when nobody is paying attention to the news, is a rather convenient time for the AP to issue its correction of its smear of the president.

Since the Associated Press has had six months to get the story straight and still failed, and the whole point of its latest story was that President Bush failed by not delivering massive amounts of relief to New Orleans within a few hours rather than a few days -- the only serious failure we have documented here is by the Associated Press.

Somebody needs to resign, and it isn't President Bush.

Related Posts:

• Another Breach in the Levy of Leftist Katrina Coverage
• More Fake Breaking News Attacking President Bush Over Katrina

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Update:  More reaction and commentary on the AP's late Friday retraction of the inaccurate story it peddled during the regular news cycle:  RedState, Laura's Miscellaneous Musings, Newsbusters