Media gave Bush free pass for repeating false "dodged a bullet" claim about New Orleans levees

The assertion that the president relied on news reports to apprise himself of the situation in New Orleans -- rather than the National Weather Service, which reported the first levee breaches before and shortly after Hurricane Katrina passed through New Orleans -- is an incredible one. But in fact, many in the media were not reporting that New Orleans "dodged a bullet," as Media Matters for America has noted. For example, 12 hours before the time when Bush claims to have heard the "dodged a bullet" news reports, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that the levees had been breached. Moreover, while Bush did not indicate from which "airwaves" he had heard the "dodged a bullet" reports, other newspapers in addition to the Times-Picayune reported on the morning after the storm that there had already been breached levees and significant flooding. For example, on August 30, the Los Angeles Times reported that a levee break had occurred by late morning August 29, with water from the break "spill[ing] through the area, flooding the town's two main shelters and swamping the local National Guard armory, leaving even public safety officials homeless."