Brian Williams On Katrina: Fact or Fiction?
Brian Williams or Paul Bunyan?
After NBC News Anchor copped to fibbing about being on a Chinook under fire in Iraq, watchdogs began to question more of the anchor’s tallest tales.
Louisiana’s Hayride is on the Hurricane Katrina beat and has serious doubts about the veracity of Williams’ claim that he saw a dead body floating down the street:
But we have another question about things Williams has said. What about the “seminal” event in his journalistic career, in which Williams alleges he saw a body float past his French Quarter hotel window during Katrina?
Certainly the assertion there were floating bodies in New Orleans streets is potentially true. But in the French Quarter?
Wikipedia says “The famous French Quarter dodged the massive flooding experienced in other levee areas.” Also…
As with other parts of the city developed before the late 19th century and on dry land predating New Orleans’s levee systems, the French Quarter remained substantially dry following Hurricane Katrina. It is 5 feet (1.5 m) above sea level. Some streets had minor flooding, and several buildings suffered significant wind damage. Most of the major landmarks suffered only minor damage. In addition, the Quarter largely escaped the looting and violence that occurred after the storm; nearly all of the antique shops and art galleries in the French Quarter, for example, were untouched.
So if there was no major flooding in the Quarter, how does Brian Williams spot a dead body floating past his hotel window?
You need a good 18 inches of standing water to float a body, if not more. If there was 18 inches of flood water in the Quarter, we’d all know about it.
And a good point they make. But given the current state of network news, we’d be shocked if any repercussions followed Brian Williams’ Paul Bunyanesque reporting.
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Comments
Saving Private Brian is getting harder and harder as the truth – that awful concept which is like Kyptonite to liberals and Democrats (like Private Brian) – is Swift-Boating (or Swift-Helo) little Brian big time.
The popcorn tastes especially good when a smug lefty like Williams gets what he deserves.
Maybe it was Chuck Norris doing a low crawl. LOL!
Do they know which hotel he was in? It would then be easy enough to contact that hotel and ask about the water levels in Katrina.
It’s not just the water level, but was he even close to where the deaths occurred. The answer is no, if he was in the main part of the quarter. I’m surprised he was in the quarter and not one of the big hotels, but I guess that is what is being said. But the hotels were above the floods too, and even further from the bodies.
But even the waters that came up toward the Superdome advanced slowly through levee breaks after the storm. The 1000 deaths were from a huge storm surge that filled the whole of NOLA East up like a bowl while the storm was passing. CNN later showed waters flowing OUT of that part of the city into the canal. Brian probably saw pictures of bodies, and thought it would make a good story.
This image looks south, with water flowing out of the ninth ward on the left, into the industrial canal, after the surge. In back is the river. Looking upstream to the right out of the picture is where Brian sat comfortably at his hotel high and dry.
I worked in all these areas. I have friends that lost homes in the other parts of New Orleans to the west, but not in the quarter. (I moved before Katrina) I remember CNN reporting on the levee breaks, but they were clueless about the devastation to the east till later. I recall screaming at the TV as they reported this picture saying the water was breaching the levee and flowing IN to the community. I was like “no, look where the bridge is nimrod” lol
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FEMA_-_18177_-_Photograph_by_Jocelyn_Augustino_taken_on_08-30-2005_in_Louisiana.jpg
He’s a scummy little bastard, isn’t he?
It’s fascinating that instead of just telling us things that are actually happening, we have “reporters” who have to “Oprah-phy” the news with fictions in which they play a role.
It would be wonderfully interesting to somehow take Katrina…the whole deal…reported without all the politicization and racial bullshit, and compare it to what we were fed instead.
But there was a President to destroy and a narrative to be stoked, so we got phantasms floating past Williams’ window…kind of like the Marley scene in “A Christmas Carole”.
“After NBC News Anchor copped to fibbing about being on a Chinook.”
No. “Fibbing” isn’t the word. It’s LYING. Why be polite? Tell it like it is. Fibbing makes it seem like it is just a funny little event. It was not. It was a major LIE – insulting to all the military people who were in situations in Iraq day after day – and embarrassing to all 10 year olds who grow out of that kind of thing by the age of 18.
How could it be that with a camera crew they didn’t film the body, even if they didn’t plan on showing it on the news?
I don’t know any camera news people but what I read is they would turn the camera on for anything slightly newsworthy.
How is it possible the camera guy just watched the body go by without turning on the camera? Or was he being intimidated by the gangs in the hotel?