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Olbermann DeliversAnti-Bush Diatribe Pegged to Chertoff Slip
By Media ResearchCenter
September 7, 2005
Olbermann's arrogant hypocrisy. On Tuesday's Countdown, MSNBC's Keith Olbermannmisidentified Tom DeLay as the House "Minority" Leader, an error forwhich he soon conceded that "I'd like to give you a good explanation forit, but there wasn't one. I just kicked it." But the night before,Olbermann had launched a five-minute diatribe which pegged great meaning toSecretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff's miscue that "Louisianais a city that is largely underwater." Olbermann thundered: "Well,there's your problem right there. If ever a slip of the tongue defined agovernment's response to a crisis." Olbermann soon provided ridicule:"Anybody seen the Vice President lately, the man whose message this timelast year was 'I will protect you, the other guy might let you die'? I don'tknow which 'we' Mr. Bush meant. For many of this country's citizens, the mantrahas been, as we were taught in social studies it should always be, whether ornot I voted for this President, he is still my President. I suspect anybody whohad to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week."Olbermann also suggested Bush looked "like a 21st century MarieAntoinette."
During an interview of former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerick on the September6 Countdown, Olbermann queried: "I have to ask you, before we go, a bigpicture question on the overall emergency response. The House Minority Leader,Mr. DeLay, said today that disaster response is, quote here, 'designed from theground up,' the implication of that being that whatever the shortcomings of thelast week have been, the responsibility began in New Orleans. Do you, with yourexpertise in this area, agree with that?"
Returning from a subsequent ad break, Olbermann acknowledged his error:"Let me correct and apologize for the verbal typo in the last segment. TomDeLay is, of course, the House Majority Leader, not the Minority Leader. I'dlike to give you a good explanation for it, but there wasn't one. I just kickedit."
He wasn't so forgiving with Chertoff on Monday night. He teased his September 5program: "And what did the administration know, and when did it know it?The Director of the National Hurricane Center says he warned them -- the headof FEMA, the head of Homeland Security -- that the levees could break. And thathead of Homeland Security, did he sum up how well the government handled thecrisis with eight words?"
Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security Secretary, at a press briefing:"Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater."
Olbermann: "'Louisiana is a city.' This is Countdown. Good evening. TheDirector of the National Hurricane Center has told the newspaper 'The NewOrleans Times-Picayune' that FEMA director Michael Brown and Homeland SecuritySecretary Michael Chertoff both listened to electronic briefings beforeHurricane Katrina, during which the Hurricane Center warned that the stormcould overtop the levees or even breach them. 'It's not,' said Dr. MaxMayfield, 'like this was a surprise.' Secretary Chertoff and President Bushboth continue to insist it was."
At about 8:40pm EDT, Olbermann unleashed his vitriol, as checked against thevideo by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth:
Olbermann undermined himself by beginning with the claim that he normallyavoids commentary: "This is not typically a newscast of commentary. I canrecall only twice previously offering such perspectives. But something thatHomeland Security Secretary Chertoff said at his news conference Saturday madethis necessary."
Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security Secretary: "Louisiana is a city thatis largely underwater."
Olbermann: "Well, there's your problem right there. If ever a slip of thetongue defined a government's response to a crisis. Forget the history ofslashed federal budgets for projects that might have saved the levees. Drop theimagery of the government watching 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' while NewOrleans drowned. Ignore the symbol of bureaucrats like Mr. Chertoff using onlythe future tense in terms of relief that they could have supplied last Mondayand Tuesday. We no longer need the President sounding like he's on some sort offive-day tape delay to summarize this debacle. We now have Mr. Chertoff'sindelible announcement that Louisiana is a city.
"Politician after politician, Republican and Democrat alike, has paradedbefore us, unwilling or unable to shut off the I/me switch in their heads,condescendingly telling us about how moved they were or how devastated theywere, congenitally incapable of telling the difference between the destructionof a city and the opening of a new supermarket somewhere. And as that sorryrecital of self-absorption dragged on, I have resisted editorial comment. Thefocus needed to be on the efforts to save the stranded. Even television'smeager powers were correctly devoted to telling the stories of the twindisasters, natural and government-made. But now, at last, it has stoppedgetting exponentially worse in Mississippi and Alabama and New Orleans andLouisiana -- the state, not the city. And having given our leaders what we nowknow is the week or so they need to get their acts together, that period ofeditorial silence I mentioned should come to an end. No one is suggesting thatmayors or governors in the afflicted areas, nor the federal government, shouldbe able to stop hurricanes. Lord knows, no one is suggesting that we shouldever prioritize levee improvement for a below-sea-level city ahead of $454million worth of trophy bridges for the politicians of Alaska.
"But, nationally, these are leaders who won reelection last year largelyby portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping this country safe. Theseare leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report thereopening of a school or a power station in Iraq and which regularly defies itscitizens not to stand up and cheer when something like that is accomplished.Yet, they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastatedby infrastructure collapse in New Orleans, even though the government had heardall the chatter from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers andsome group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern, a group calledthe U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
"Most chillingly of all, this is the 'law-and-order-and-terrorgovernment.' It promised protection, or at least amelioration, against allthreats -- conventional, radiological or biological. It has just proved that itcannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called 'standing water.' Mr.Bush has now twice insisted that, quote, 'We are not satisfied,' unquote, withthe response to the manifold tragedies along the Gulf Coast. I wonder which'we' he thinks he's speaking for on this point. Perhaps it's theadministration, although we still don't know where some of them are. Anybodyseen the Vice President lately, the man whose message this time last year was'I will protect you, the other guy might let you die'?
"I don't know which 'we' Mr. Bush meant. For many of this country'scitizens, the mantra has been, as we were taught in social studies it shouldalways be, whether or not I voted for this President, he is still my President.I suspect anybody who had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doingso last week. I suspect, also, a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to '08,are wondering how they can distance themselves from the two words which willdefine his government, our government: New Orleans. For him, it is a shame, inall senses of the word. A few changes of pronouns in there and he might nothave looked so much like a 21st century Marie Antoinette. All that was neededwas just a quick 'I'm not satisfied with my government's response,' instead ofhiding behind phrases like 'No one could have foreseen.' Had he only rememberedChurchill's quote from the 1930s. 'The responsibility of government for thepublic safety,' Churchill said, 'is absolute and requires no mandate. It is, infact, the prime object for which governments come into existence.' In forgettingthat, the current administration did not merely damage itself. It damaged ourconfidence in our ability to rely on whoever is in the White House.
"As we emphasized to you here all last week, the realities of the regionare such that New Orleans is going to be largely uninhabitable for a lot longerthan anybody is yet willing to recognize. Lord knows when the last body will befound or the last artifact of the levee break dug up. Could be next March.Could be the year 2100. By then, in the muck and toxic mire of New Orleans,they may even find our government's credibility somewhere in the 'city' ofLouisiana."