MSNBC prints correction of Broussard's story

Jefferson Parish Mayor Aaron Broussard provided us with a tearful account of how nobody went to rescue a colleague's mother, which resulted in her ultimate drowning. Problem is, the timelines don't jive.

WASHINGTON - The Jefferson Parish president's emotional retelling of a mother's desperate calls from a New Orleans nursing home included details that conflict with the timeline of the tragedy.

The story, of a colleague's mother begging her son for rescue as flood waters rose after Hurricane Katrina, came to prominence on Sunday, Sept. 4, when Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans, was interviewed by Tim Russert on NBC's Meet the Press. (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.)

New details and interviews with the son whose mother died in the flood show that the tragedy unfolded from Saturday through Monday, Aug. 29 — not Monday through Friday, Sept. 2 as recounted by Broussard. The owners of the nursing home were indicted Tuesday for the deaths of more than 30 residents, which officials say occurred on Aug. 29.
www.msnbc.msn.com...

I must say, I didn't fall for his alligator tears. The thrust of his argument was that the feds were slow to react to cries for help.

I think it's pretty obvious he was trying to deflect blame from himself...why didn't he order the police to evacuate these people, that's certainly not the job of the Feds

Apparently the woman in question died the same day the levees broke and never called her son for help...it's amazing how many people lapped up this bogus story since it fit their agenda. :shk:

The week after Hurricane Katrina hit, the president of Jefferson Parish (search) outside New Orleans, Aaron Broussard (search), complained on national TV that the federal response was taking too long. He broke down in tears as he said, "[A colleague's] mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day [after the storm] she called him and said, 'Are you coming, son?'" Broussard said that each day, the son promised his mother, "Somebody's coming to get you." Then, Broussard said, "She drowned Friday night," four days after the hurricane hit.

But it now turns out that, according to new reports, the mother never called her son for help, and, what's more, she died the day the hurricane hit.

www.foxnews.com...

Fox News was the only place on TV that I had heard this reported. And that was tonight.

The first time I heard/saw Broussard, I wondered why her son didn't respond to her first phone call, and rush out there to save his mother.

And I never saw his "colleague". It would have been nice to question him.

When he said this:

I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything.

How would the head of emergency management in such a big parish not be able to commandeer something to save his mom? And if she were in such dire straights, how did she have access to a phone?

But in Mr. Broussards defense, he may have been relayed the story and misunderstood it. He seemed like a pretty stand up guy in every interview I happened to catch.