Williams Hits Bush with Dyson's Charge He's Uncaring 'Patrician' --8/30/2006

1. Williams Hits Bush with Dyson's Charge He's Uncaring 'Patrician'
A night after NBC anchor Brian Williams featured, as his sole expert of the impact of race in the Katrina disaster, left-wing professor Michael Eric Dyson who charged that Barbara Bush's suggestion -- that many victims were better off in their new cities -- "reinforced the reputation of the Bushes as clueless patricians," Williams confronted President George W. Bush Tuesday with the insult, as if Dyson is some sort of authoritative figure. Williams hit Bush with this indictment: "A lot of Americans are always going to believe that that weekend, that week, you were watching something on television other than what they were seeing, and Professor Dyson from the University of Pennsylvania said on our broadcast last night it was because of your 'patrician' upbringing, that it's a class issue." Williams soon demanded to know if Bush has "any moments of doubt that we fought the wrong war?" When Bush replied that "the war came to our shores, remember that. We had a foreign policy that basically said let's hope calm works. And we were attacked," Williams gratuitously retorted: "But those weren't Iraqis." Williams also advocated a tax hike in the guise of a question: "The folks who say you should have asked for some sort of sacrifice from all of us after 9/11, do they have a case, looking back on it?"

2. Lauer: U.S. 'Achingly Divided by Race,' Pushes Katrina Conspiracy
On Tuesday's Today, NBC's Matt Lauer opened by asserting that Katrina was responsible for "laying bare an America still achingly divided by race and class and battering the image of an administration." He soon asked New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to address the conspiracy theory that the levees were intentionally blown up to protect white neighborhoods at the expense of African-Americans. Reciting a question Brian Williams posed in his Monday night special, Lauer quizzed Nagin: "And finally the elephant in the room, if you will, Mr. Nagin. There are still people in the black community, many people, and Brian Williams touched on this in a special last night on NBC, who believe that the day after Katrina struck New Orleans the levees were breached intentionally. That they were blown, if you will, to flood black and poor neighborhoods to spare middle-class white neighborhoods. It would seem very difficult for New Orleans to move forward until that's directly addressed. What do you say about it?"

3. Bush Damned for Spending and for Not Spending Enough on Katrina
One of Rush Limbaugh's many pet peeves with the "drive-by" media's coverage of Hurricane Katrina has been reporters nagging that the Bush administration wasn't doling out money fast enough only to turn around and then complain that much of money has been wasted in various scams. A prime example of this was NBC's Norah O'Donnell filling in for Chris Matthews on Monday night's Hardball. O'Donnell, determined to deny the administration any successes, asked the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson: "A year later and less than half of New Orleans residents have moved back. There have been, according to government watchdog groups, at least $2 billion in fraud and waste, scams, et cetera. Can Bush claim that there's any success in what's happened in the Gulf Coast in the past year?"

4. Oops! From Restroom, CNN Airs Anchor's Girltalk Over Bush Speech
Looking for a "passionate, compassionate, great, great" man? Well, according to CNN midday anchor Kyra Phillips, they do indeed exist. During CNN's live coverage of President Bush's remarks from New Orleans, Phillips was unaware that her microphone was on and picked up portions of an apparent restroom conversation she was having with another woman. At 12:49pm EDT, those listening carefully could hear Phillips praise her husband: "Yeah, I'm very lucky in that regard with my husband. My husband is handsome and he is genuinely a loving, you know, no ego -- you know what I'm saying. Just a really passionate, compassionate great, great human being. And they exist. They do exist. They're hard to find. Yup. But they are out there." Phillips also inadvertently revealed how she feels about her sister-in-law: "Brothers have to be, you know, protective. Except for mine. I've got to be protective of him...Yeah. He's married, three kids, but his wife is just a control freak." AUDIO&VIDEO

Williams Hits Bush with Dyson's Charge
He's Uncaring 'Patrician'

A night after NBC anchor Brian Williams featured, as his sole expert of the impact of race in the Katrina disaster, left-wing professor Michael Eric Dyson who charged that Barbara Bush's suggestion -- that many victims were better off in their new cities -- "reinforced the reputation of the Bushes as clueless patricians," Williams confronted President George W. Bush Tuesday with the insult, as if Dyson is some sort of authoritative figure. Williams hit Bush with this indictment: "You have apologized for the damage, but what about the damage to your presidency? And, Mr. President, here's what I mean. Most of the analysts call it your low point. A lot of Americans are always going to believe that that weekend, that week, you were watching something on television other than what they were seeing, and Professor Dyson from the University of Pennsylvania said on our broadcast last night it was because of your 'patrician' upbringing, that it's a class issue."

Williams soon demanded to know if Bush has "any moments of doubt that we fought the wrong war, that there's something wrong with the perception of America overseas?" When Bush replied that "the war came to our shores, remember that. We had a foreign policy that basically said let's hope calm works. And we were attacked," Williams gratuitously retorted: "But those weren't Iraqis." Williams also advocated a tax hike in the guise of a question: "The folks who say you should have asked for some sort of sacrifice from all of us after 9/11, do they have a case, looking back on it?"

[This item was posted Tuesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

An August 29 CyberAlert item, "NBC Features Leftist on Katrina/Race: Bush 'Clueless Patrician,'" recounted how, on Monday's NBC Nightly News, Williams asked Dyson: "What was your reaction when Barbara Bush said they're really better off?" Dyson retorted: "Yeah, I'm a Christian minister man, so I always try to give love as the first response. But I'll tell you, when Barbara Bush said that, it reinforced the reputation of the Bushes as clueless patricians..."

For the full rundown of Williams' segment with Dyson: www.mediaresearch.org

The Bush interview, conducted outside in front of some newly built houses in New Orleans, led Tuesday's NBC Nightly News, with another segment -- in which Williams asked about Bush's reading habits and how he sees his legacy -- pulled up the rear of the newscast. MSNBC.com has posted a summary of the interview with quotes from Bush, accompanied by video of his which requires MSN software: www.msnbc.msn.com

MSNBC's Hardball (hosted by Norah O'Donnell) led Tuesday night with Williams' Dyson "patrician" shot and Countdown with Keith Olbermann, but anchored by Allison Stewart, ran virtually all of what ran on the NBC Nightly News.

The MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video to provide this transcript from near the top of the August 29 NBC Nightly News:

Brian Williams: "President Bush was here today and again admitted that the government response fell short at all levels, in his words. He spoke at the city's oldest high school. He visited local music legend Fats Domino. He covered a lot of ground, and in the blazing mid-afternoon sun, he took time for a wide-ranging and exclusive conversation with us. And we started with the topic at hand: his handling of the disaster that started with the storm that came ashore here a year ago today."

Williams, to Bush: "You have apologized for the damage, but what about the damage to your presidency? And, Mr. President, here's what I mean. Most of the analysts call it your low point. A lot of Americans are always going to believe that that weekend, that week, you were watching something on television other than what they were seeing, and Professor Dyson from the University of Pennsylvania said on our broadcast last night it was because of your patrician upbringing, that it's a class issue."
George W. Bush: "Dyson doesn't know, I don't know Dyson, and Dyson doesn't know me, but I will tell you this, when it's all said and done, the people down here know that I stood in Jackson Square, and I said we're going to help you, and we delivered."
Williams: "When you take a tour of the world, a lot of Americans e-mail me with their fears that, you know, some days they wake up and it just feels to them like the end of the world is near, and you go from North Korea to Iran to Iraq to Afghanistan, and you look at how things have changed, how Americans are viewed overseas, if that is important to you, do you have any moments of doubt that we fought the wrong war, that there's something wrong with the perception of America overseas?"
Bush: "Well, those are two different questions. Did we fight the wrong war? And absolutely I have no doubt. The war came to our shores, remember that. We had a foreign policy that basically said let's hope calm works. And we were attacked."
Williams: "But those weren't Iraqis."
Bush: "No, they weren't, they weren't, no, I agree they weren't Iraqis, nor did I ever say that Iraq ordered that attack, but they are part of, Iraq is part of the struggle against the terrorists. Now, in terms of image, of course I worry about American image. We're great at TV, and yet we're getting crushed in the PR front."
Bush: "I personally do not believe Saddam Hussein picked up the phone and said to al-Qaeda, 'Attack America.'"
Williams: "The folks who say you should have asked for some sort of sacrifice from all of us after 9/11, do they have a case, looking back on it?"
Bush: "Americans are sacrificing. I mean, we are, we are, you know, we pay a lot of taxes. Americans sacrificed when they, you know, when the economy went in the tank. Americans sacrificed when, you know, air travel was disrupted. American taxpayers have paid a lot to help this nation recover. I think Americans have sacrificed."
Williams: "Mr. President, I know how much you love deep psychological examinations of yourself. While you were at Kennebunkport this last weekend, people talked about your relationship with your dad. People mentioned that former President Clinton has been a guest at Kennebunkport more often in the last few years than you have been."
Bush, laughing: "Yes."
Williams: "And there was a lot of speculation, your spokesman Tony Snow recently all but said it's because of the way your father chose to end the first Gulf War that bin Laden saw weakness enough to strike the United States."
Bush: "I'm trying to figure out where you're going here."
Williams: "Is there a palpable tension when you get together with the former President who happens to be your father? A lot of the guys who worked for him are not happy with the direction."
Bush: "I know. Listen, my relationship is adoring son."
Williams: "Do you talk shop?"
Bush: "Sometimes. Yeah, of course we do, but that's a really interesting question. I mean, it's kind of conspiracy theory at its most rampant. My dad means the world to me, as a loving dad. He gave me the greatest gift a father can give a child, which is unconditional love. And, yeah, we go out and float around there trying to catch some fish and chat and talk. But he understands what it means to be President. He understands I have oftentimes have information that he doesn't have. And he also understands how difficult the world is today. And I explain my strategy to him, I explain exactly what I just explained to you down there about how I view the current tensions, and he takes it on board and he leaves me with this thought: 'I love you, son.'"

Lauer: U.S. 'Achingly Divided by Race,'
Pushes Katrina Conspiracy

On Tuesday's Today, NBC's Matt Lauer opened by asserting that Katrina was responsible for "laying bare an America still achingly divided by race and class and battering the image of an administration." He soon asked New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to address the conspiracy theory that the levees were intentionally blown up to protect white neighborhoods at the expense of African-Americans. Reciting a question Brian Williams posed in his Monday night special, Lauer quizzed Nagin: "And finally the elephant in the room, if you will, Mr. Nagin. There are still people in the black community, many people, and Brian Williams touched on this in a special last night on NBC, who believe that the day after Katrina struck New Orleans the levees were breached intentionally. That they were blown, if you will, to flood black and poor neighborhoods to spare middle-class white neighborhoods. It would seem very difficult for New Orleans to move forward until that's directly addressed. What do you say about it?"

Nagin responded that "we still have not found any evidence to support that," and that Katrina, "impacted white neighborhoods, black neighborhoods, Hispanic neighborhoods and Asian neighborhoods. So this is a storm that did not discriminate but if we find any evidence we'll follow up on it." Nagin didn't completely knock down the theory but what on Earth is a so-called responsible news network asking the question in the first place? It would be like Lauer asking the head of NASA if the moon landing was faked.

[This item, by Geoff Dickens, was posted late Tuesday morning on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters: newsbusters.org ]

Tuesday's Today was full of Katrina bias, beginning with Lauer's introduction at the top of the show:
"Good morning, it was a once in a lifetime storm. One year ago she slammed into the Gulf Coast with 150 mph winds. Devastating a great American city ripping at the hearts and the souls of a region, laying bare an America still achingly divided by race and class. And battering the image of an administration."
George W. Bush: "I want to know what went right, what went wrong."
Lauer: "Lauer: "Now we'll return to a region still in tatters. Hurricane Katrina, The Long Road Back, today, Tuesday, August 29th, 2006."

Lauer then portrayed the Michael Brown as the fall guy for the administration in numerous teases for the Brown segment.

Lauer at the top of the show: "We'll also catch up with the person who became fairly or unfairly the poster boy for the administration's slow response to this disaster, former FEMA Director Michael Brown. He says he sounded the alarm but no one was listening." Lauer again at 7:22am: "And still to come on today the man who took the fall for the federal government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, former FEMA Director Michael Brown. We'll get his thoughts, one year later."

Lauer repeatedly pushed Brown to blame the administration in his interview. The following is the full transcript of the segment in the 7:3oam half hour:

Matt Lauer: "And back now to more of our special coverage of Katrina: The Long Road Back. One year ago today FEMA Director Michael Brown was faced with a catastrophe of a lifetime when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. In a sound bite for the ages President Bush initially praised him for his work."
George W. Bush: "And I want to thank you all for, and Brownie you're doing a heckuva job. The FEMA director is working 24-"
Lauer: "But as the relief effort fell apart so did Michael Brown's reputation. He resigned under fire two weeks after Hurricane Katrina. Michael Brown, good morning, good to see you."
Michael Brown: "Thank you, Matt."
Lauer: "This is the anniversary of the day Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, so a year ago today were you confident as that storm approached the federal government's plan was adequate to deal with anything that storm could deliver?"
Brown: "What plan? Matt, there wasn't a plan. There was no plan."
Lauer: "You were FEMA director, what was your plan?"
Brown: "Well the plan was that three years ago we should have started doing catastrophic disaster planning and Homeland Security Secretary Ridge and Chertoff, for that matter the administration, would not give me the money to do that kind of planning."
Lauer: "However you went in front of the television cameras, Mr. Brown, and you said, 'Hey we're okay, we got the agencies in place, we'll get the need, we'll get the help to where people need it.' Why did you say that if you didn't think there was a plan?"
Brown: "Because those were the White House talking points and to this, and to this day I say that was my biggest mistake."
Lauer: "You should have gone off to the mountain top and said, 'We got trouble right here in River City?'"
Brown: "Absolutely."
Lauer: "The day after the storm, the levees breached and, and pardon the expression, all hell broke loose. We started seeing images of people running for shelter of last resort, going to their rooftop, going into trees. You were getting emails from your people on the ground saying this is beyond critical here."
Brown: "Right, right."
Lauer: "You warned the President and no help arrived."
Brown: "And in fact by Friday there's an email where I was still mailing, emailing the President and my staff..."
Lauer: "Well forget Friday, I'm talking about the day after the storm struck."
Brown: "But, but my point is all the way through from Monday until Friday I'm still screaming, where's the 82nd Airborne? Where's the Army? Where the hell is the help?"
Lauer: "Here's what was so frustrating for people and I think infuriating for the general public. Television cameras were showing one set of images."
Brown: "Right."
Lauer: "We're seeing people in the, in the Superdome screaming that conditions were unbearable."
Brown: "Right."
Lauer: "We're seeing people stranded on their rooftops and that the officials kept coming out saying this response is working, it's efficient. What were your thoughts when you were seeing those same images the rest of the country was seeing?"
Brown: "That, that this thing was not working and that's why I think my biggest regret to this day is, is not, instead of following those talking points and sitting with Governor Blanco talking about how great things are is leveling with the American public. I think all of these people want to hear from politicians the truth. They want to hear just honest opinions and I didn't do that."
Lauer: "But, but Michael, I mean were you protecting the government talking points, as you said a second ago, or were you protecting your own butt? I mean the fact is you would have had to go out there and say, 'We don't have a plan and the response is not working and I'm the guy who's in charge of putting this plan together.'"
Brown: "Yeah I think, I have to confess I think it was a little bit of both. I mean you, you want to protect the President because you're a political appointee and so you're torn between wanting to tell the absolute truth and following those stupid talking points."
Lauer: "Yeah but those stupid talking points should be thrown out the window when people are dying."
Brown: "Amen!"
Lauer: "1700 people died on the Gulf Coast."
Brown: "That's right and that's my, to this day, that's my biggest regret."
Lauer: "You did an interview three days after the storm and you were asked about the people who were gathered in miserable conditions at the convention center and you said, 'You know what the federal government just found out about those people today.' It was alarming and infuriating because TV crews were walking to the convention center."
Brown: "Right, right."
Lauer: "They were driving in vans, rent-a-cars to the convention center and the federal government couldn't have found out about that? Why?"
Brown: "Well we had found out about it and again one of the mistakes I made was one, not getting enough sleep. I went through about a 36-hour period without any sleep and when all of those newscasters kept asking me I said, yeah we kept, we learned about it today. Well today for me was Wednesday morning after it had started Tuesday night."
Lauer: "But if you learn-"
Brown: "I misspoke-"
Lauer: "But if you learned-"
Brown: "-three times in a row."
Lauer: "But if you learned about it Wednesday morning, I mean the question that's been asked so many times over the last year is, okay the minute you learned about it, get on your walkie-talkie, get on your cell phone, get on something and say, 'I need helicopters with water.'"
Brown: "Right."
Lauer: "'I need helicopters with MREs. I need helicopters with medicine and let's get these people some help.' It didn't arrive."
Brown: "It didn't arrive. But I can tell you that's exactly what I did was I started screaming at my military aides and others to get that stuff in there but to this day it, I mean it was like, where was it? Where was it?"
Lauer: "Do you think that you have been handled, handed all of the blame for this situation? Should the President share the blame?"
Brown: "Yes."
Lauer: "Should Mayor Nagin share the blame?"
Brown: "Yes."
Lauer: "Should Governor Blanco share the blame?"
Brown: "Yes."
Lauer: "So why do you think you were the scapegoat?"
Brown: "I'm the low man on the totem pole. You just mentioned three elected officials and one political appointee."
Lauer: "So you think the President let the people of this country down in terms of his handling of Hurricane Katrina?"
Brown: "I think, look the President is a cheerleader and has the bully pulpit and the thing that bothered me the most, particularly in hindsight was the fact that he flew over New Orleans. If he had, if he had landed and stood next to me at that podium and said, 'I want everybody in the federal government to give Mike Brown everything he needs,' you and I wouldn't be talking today about this."
Lauer: "And what about the criticism of the President that he put Mike Brown in a position that he simply wasn't qualified to handle?"
Brown: "That's just baloney. Look I spent more time in my career in, in, in local government and in state government and emergency management experience and the most important thing is I handled 160 presidentially declared disasters successfully."
Lauer: "Do you wish you had never taken the job as FEMA director?"
Brown: "Well there are days, yes, but to have an opportunity to serve your president is an incredible opportunity but I think what I regret the most-"
Lauer: "You don't seem to feel that same way about that now."
Brown: "Well look it still is, it's a great opportunity but the thing I regret is I let myself down, I let the American public down because I'm a, I'm a fighter. I'm the kind of individual who will stand up and just tell the truth and for some reason in Katrina, with all of that crashing in on me I didn't do it, Matt."
Lauer: "Former FEMA Director Michael Brown. Mr. Brown, thanks for coming in today, appreciate it."

Bush Damned for Spending and for Not
Spending Enough on Katrina

One of Rush Limbaugh's many pet peeves with the "drive-by" media's coverage of Hurricane Katrina has been reporters nagging that the Bush administration wasn't doling out money fast enough only to turn around and then complain that much of money has been wasted in various scams. A prime example of this was NBC's Norah O'Donnell filling in for Chris Matthews on Monday night's Hardball. O'Donnell, determined to deny the administration any successes, asked the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson: "A year later and less than half of New Orleans residents have moved back. There have been, according to government watchdog groups, at least $2 billion in fraud and waste, scams, et cetera. Can Bush claim that there's any success in what's happened in the Gulf Coast in the past year?"

[This item, by Geoff Dickens, was posted Tuesday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

Later O'Donnell posed the question again to former FEMA Director Michael Brown: "One year later, less than half of the residents of New Orleans have moved back. Billions of dollars in waste, billions in some of the money that was handed out to people, used on all kinds of weird, disgusting things, if you will. Fraud, massive fraud, so not only was there a failure to help those in need at the beginning, but now we discover that there has been failure and fraud and scams, et cetera, for the past years in terms of doling out the money. What is going to be done about this? I know you are no longer in government, I know you're no longer in government, but you've been in there. What can possibly be done?"

During the August 28 interview with Brown, O'Donnell also pressed the former director to repeatedly claim the administration asked him to lie:

O'Donnell: "You have recently given an interview to Playboy Magazine, in which you admitted that it was a mistake for you to play along with the White House message during Katrina and you said that, that message was a lie. What was the lie?"
Michael Brown: "The lie was that we were working as a team and that everything was working smoothly. And how we could go out, and I beat myself up almost daily for allowing this to have happened, to sit there and go on television and talk about how things are working well, when you know they are not behind the scenes, is just wrong."
O'Donnell: "So let me get this clear. Someone in the White House was telling you to lie?"
Brown: "Well, yeah, they give you the talking points. Whenever you go out to do any interviews they always have the talking points. Here`s what the message for today is and here`s how we are going to spin everything. That`s just the way Washington, D.C. works and that`s just wrong."
O'Donnell: "Did you, do you work for the White House or do you work for the American people?"
Brown: "Exactly I work for the American people."
O'Donnell: "Then why did you lie? And then if you say that they told you to lie, why did you carry that out?"

Oops! From Restroom, CNN Airs Anchor's
Girltalk Over Bush Speech

Phillips also inadvertently revealed how she feels about her sister-in-law: "Brothers have to be, you know, protective. Except for mine. I've got to be protective of him...Yeah. He's married, three kids, but his wife is just a control freak."

[The MRC's Megan McCormack on Tuesday afternoon posted on NewsBusters blog item on the incident, with audio/video which will be added to the CyberAlert version of this article. In the meantime, to watch the Real or Windows Media video, or to listen to the MP3 audio, go to: newsbusters.org ]

A Tuesday evening Hollywood Reporter dispatch distributed by Reuters, "CNN sorry for Bush speech gaffe," recounted:
"CNN apologized Tuesday after an open mike transmitted an anchor's bathroom conversation with another woman live over the network as it was carrying President Bush's speech in New Orleans.
"Live From anchor Kyra Phillips had apparently left the set around 12:48 p.m. EDT Tuesday for a bathroom break while the news channel carried Bush's speech marking the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Phillips' wireless microphone was turned on and picked up about a minute and a half of a muffled conversation she had with an unidentified woman where she apparently talked about her husband, laughed and talked about her brother."

For the story in full: news.yahoo.com

The audio of Phillips' conversation could be heard overriding President Bush's remarks approximately ten minutes into the President's speech. While the President could be heard during the exchange, Phillips's gaffe was very distracting:

"Assholes. Yeah, I'm very lucky in that regard with my husband. My husband is handsome and he is genuinely a loving, you know, no ego. [unintelligible] you know what I'm saying. Just a really passionate, compassionate great, great human being. And they exist. They do exist. They're hard to find. Yup. But they are out there."
Unknown woman: "We'll see. He's going to come, you know, he's set for an extended visit [unintelligible]."
Phillips: "I mean, that's, that's how you figure it all out, those extended visits. [laughter]"
Unknown woman: "Yeah, but my mom, I think she really likes him."
Phillips: "Mom's got a good vibe? Good."
Unknown woman: "Yeah, my brother's the one that [unintelligible]."
Phillips: "Brother, of course, brothers have to be, you know, protective. Except for mine. I've got to be protective of him."
Unknown woman: [unintelligible]
Phillips: "Yeah. He's married, three kids, but his wife is just a control freak."
Second unknown female voice: "Kyra."
Phillips: "Yeah, baby?"
Second unknown female: "Your mic is on. Turn it off. It's been on the air."

Seconds later, Daryn Kagan stumbled through this awkward transition: "Alright, we've been listening in to President Bush as he speaks in, uh, New Orleans today. This is the one year anniversary of Katrina making land shore there. President Bush saying if another natural disaster hits, our country. We must, uh, react better than that. Let's listen in once again to President Bush."

-- Brent Baker