Fake Facts

The Daily Howler (scroll down to The Joy of Fake Facts) thoroughly trashes the meme that Michael Brown didn't even know there were people at the Convention center until 24 hours after the networks were covering it live:

Don't you guys watch television?” [Koppel] scolded. “Our reporters have been reporting about it for more than just today.” But in fact, Ted’s reporters had not been reporting it until that day; according to the Nexis archives, ABC’s first mention of the Convention Center occurred at 2:30 that afternoon (9/1), in a George Stephanopoulos “Special Report.” Before that, the Convention Center had never been mentioned on Nightline. It had never been mentioned on World News Tonight. It had never been mentioned on Good Morning America. According to Nexis, ABC viewers first learned about the Convention Center at mid-day Thursday—just like Brown, who Koppel scolded in his latest inaccurate report.

This is why I hesitate to pontificate on Katrina. Events have overtaken me. Even as I was watching the coverage, I could tell there was confusion and gaping holes in the storyline. Much was unknown. Now, even things I thought I knew are turning out to be, well, at least inaccurate, if not outright false.