Topped vs. breached revisited: the AP corrects itself... sort of...

I forgot to post on this earlier. Via Drudge and Wizbang:

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.

And Wizbang includes this amusing point:

Update: Of course it's not as much fun for you the Wizbang reader unless you play along too, so let's have a bit of a challenge. Using The Associate Press Statement of New Values and Principles, lets see how many of those values and principles they had to disregard in their reporting of this story. I'll start you off with a freebie...

When we're wrong, we must say so as soon as possible. When we make a correction in the current cycle, we point out the error and its fix in the editor's note. A correction must always be labeled a correction in the editor's note. We do not use euphemisms such as "recasts," "fixes," "clarifies" or "changes" when correcting a factual error.

So they violated that principle with the first word of their release...

UPDATE: And the left's canards once again rear their ugly, impotent heads. "It was a category 5 hurricane!!!" they caterwaul. "The levees weren't designed for that strength!!! They were designed for category 3 hurricanes!!!" The only problem with this objection is, of course, for the FACT that Katrina's full force didn't hit New Orleans. By the time it made landfall, Katrina had weakened to a category 3 hurricane (source) - a category the levees were supposedly designed to withstand. Furthermore, Katrina hit to the east of New Orleans and turned to the east, so the city never was hit by the strongest winds. As the article states, "winds in the city barely reached hurricane strength." Well, then the Bush Derangement Syndrome sufferers complain, "But the overtopping washed away the levee foundations!!!" While this is true in some cases (and is NOT the fault of President Bush), it was not true in other cases. In fact, please read that whole Popular Mechanics article, which starts here. It puts many of the left's primary canards about the Hurricane Katrina disaster six feet under.

UPDATE 2: Here's a video the media has all but ignored: AP Has Another Video: Gov. Blanco Told White House Levees Weren’t Breached:

“‘We keep getting reports in some places that maybe water is coming over the levees,’ Gov. Kathleen Blanco said shortly after noon on Aug. 29, according to the video that was obtained Thursday night. ‘We heard a report unconfirmed, I think, we have not breached the levee. I think we have not breached the levee at this time.’"

So I guess it's President Bush's fault for not using his psychic powers to see that Blanco was wrong.

Read some laughable leftist spin on the Blanco video here.

UPDATE 3: Here.