Lord help those who rely for their news on the mainstream media and their inferior imitators around the country. A mere two days after its outrageously misleading reporting on the warnings given to President Bush before Hurricane Katrina hit, the AP has issued this:

Clarification: Katrina-Video story

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) _ In a March 1 story, The Associated Press reported that federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees in New Orleans, citing confidential video footage of an Aug. 28 briefing among U.S. officials.

The Army Corps of Engineers considers a breach a hole developing in a levee rather than an overrun. The story should have made clear that Bush was warned about floodwaters overrunning the levees, rather than the levees breaking.

The day before the storm hit, Bush was told there were grave concerns that the levees could be overrun. It wasn't until the next morning, as the storm was hitting, that Michael Brown, then head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Bush had inquired about reports of breaches. Bush did not participate in that briefing.

John's more or less authoritative deconstruction of the AP story (linked above) was posted here within hours of its distribution. Assuming its goal is accuracy rather than political effect: What an utterly pathetic performance by the AP, both in its original reporting and its Friday night clarification. And megadittoes for the media shills that parroted the AP's pathetic performance. We await the Democrats' correction of the related misrepresentation circulated yesterday. Or does the AP speak for the Democrats?

JOHN adds: I think it's reasonable to assume that the AP's "clarification" is, at least in part, the result of our dissection of their incredibly lame story. I think this highlights, though, how hard it is for truth to catch up to error. Hundreds of newspapers printed the AP's misinformation, and it was the basis for television news on all of the broadcast networks. The correction (or "clarification") will never catch up to most of the tens of millions of people who heard the original story. The news business is all about impressions, and corrections, days after the fact, never take away the impression that the original story falsely created.