[Orion27]

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.

[mojo2]

Originally Posted by Orion27

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.

I think Broussard took 'literary licence' in relating the event to make it more 'fable-like.' The essential part is that the man's (Rodrigue) mother DID die in the nursing home when something COULD have been done to prevent it. And THAT's the beauty of what he did and HOW he did it.

There are some people who chide bloggers for politicizing disaster, even while the disaster is still happening. It's hard to find a better example of why bloggers and the general public have become so cynical these days.

And HERE is an example of yours truly, exercising retraint whilst thinking, "this seems too well packaged to be true."

The problem with his making a statement like this is that it will stick in people's minds. He was leveling his deck gun at the Federal government and giving those who already dislike the present administration, a story they can understand and make use of THEMSELVES to attack the government or at least one they can cling to in their minds and hold dear.

When a court jury is directed to ignore a witness' or an attorney's utterance, you CAN'T UN-SAY it so that the jury isn't affected AT ALL by the statement.

Even with this correction I can just imagine some liberal thinking to him or herself, "I don't care WHAT they say, I KNOW in my HEART that what Broussard said is TRUE!" And how many people will even REALIZE that NBC has corrected the story to reflect Broussard's politicking in the face of disaster?

Bottom line? He gets away with it with a slap on the wrist, MAYBE! And next election time he can say, I was caught up in the horror of the moment. Facts and rumors were flying. And he was tryingg to get people on the federal level to do more and to do it faster. Excuse him if he exaggerated a little.

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mojo2
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09-05-2005, 04:09 AM

On one of the Sunday morning news shows, NBC's Meet the Press, I think, Jefferson Parish President (!!), Aaron Broussard told the story of his and his crews' efforts during the past week and at the end of his interview he concluded with a compelling story of a worker whose own mother called every day asking for someone to rescue her and he replied, "someone is coming to get you momma," until the last day when she drowned. At this point Broussard broke down into tears and sobs.

I don't think ANYONE has the gall to accuse him of lying or of using that heartbreaking story for purposes of manipulating the press or spinning the news.

However, I wonder how Broussard, his office, his leadership and his jurisdiction will fare when all the dust settles. Will he be found to have done everything he should have in preparing for and in preventing the impact on people in Jefferson Parish?

He certainly seems to be a decent and earnest man. I have seen him on every network now and as is always the case, certain figures remain in our minds after a prolonged news story and I think he will be one of those who does so in this one.