April 28, 2006

News the AP Way

This article about a senate probe into the failures after Katrina via AP is entitled " Katrina Report Again Rips Bush Admin." Note the first two paragraphs (all emphasis mine):

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Senate inquiry into the government's Hurricane Katrina failures ripped the Bush administration anew Thursday and urged the scrapping of the nation's disaster response agency. But with a new hurricane season just weeks away, senators conceded that few if any of their proposals could become reality in time.

The bipartisan investigation into one of the worst natural disasters in the nation's history singled out President Bush and the White House as appearing indifferent to the devastation until two days after the storm hit.

Further in:

It said the Homeland Security Department either misunderstood federal disaster plans or refused to follow them. And it said New Orleans for years had neglected to prepare for large-scale emergencies.

"The suffering that continued in the days and weeks after the storm passed did not happen in a vacuum; instead, it continued longer that it should have because of - and was in some cases exacerbated by - the failure of government at all levels to plan, prepare for and respond aggressively to the storm," concluded the report.

And this paragraph is near the end:

Though the new report singles out officials from New Orleans to Washington for blame - and lambastes Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in particular - it gives Bush a mixed review for his performance. It credits the president for declaring an emergency before the hurricane's landfall, but faults him for waiting until two days after it hit to return to Washington and convene top officials to coordinate the federal response.

In other words, there was plenty of blame to be passed around, and Bush didn't completely bungle things. Isn't it interesting, though, the way the article is crafted? Casual readers may not have even bothered glancing beyond the headline, let alone the first two paragraphs. "RIPS BUSH ADMINISTRATION" says it all, doesn't it?