Super Blanco to the Rescue!

So I'm reading the page one story in the Washington Post today, and realize that it is the most one sided piece of work I've seen them do in months. The story is on the hurricane Katrina response, and the amount of letters, e-mails, etc, that went out from the day before the hurricane, and the week after.

The AP also has a story out on it, which while still biased to the Governor, also shows the political games played from her end. While the AP story relates Nagins complaint of the Blanco not wanting it to look like the Feds are taking over, the Post glosses that over.

The Post gives lots of weight to Blanco asking FEMA for 500 buses; evidently she didn't bother to ask Nagins if any of his were running, since there is that famous picture of 230 school buses all over the net, and the unaccounted for 300 transit buses from New Orleans. Those alone would have covered her request. Though elsewhere in the article they are happy to call Nagins overwhelmed.

This portion of the AP story is completely ignored by the Post:

For the state's part, Blanco's chief of staff Andy Kopplin e-mailed employees Sept. 4 saying they needed to get national supporters to say "that the federal response was anemic" and asked them to point out budget cuts to levee programs.
While Blanco's office wanted to blame the federal government, the documents show that her staff didn't want it to appear as if the federal government was seizing state power.
When Bush visited New Orleans on Sept. 5 Blanco was initially supposed to visit evacuees in Houston, but Blanco spokeswoman Denise Bottcher didn't like the idea of Bush being in the state when the governor wasn't. "Reinforces the notion that she's not in charge and LA needs to be federalized," she e-mailed Kopplin

Now, I'm not defending FEMA, the were slow, though faster than they were during hurricane Andrew in 1992 (according to Florida records). However, if the Post wants to do a story on the Katrina response, be at least a little objective in it. If you read no other story than this one, you'd come away thinking that Blanco should be wearing a blue spandex suit with a red cape.

Go to Euphoricreatlity for a great rant on the one sided media. Macmind also has some good coverage of this. (thanks for the picture). Booker Rising also has coverage of the Katrina aftermath, including the pullout of FEMA from the 9th ward because of threats against workers.