Fox Starts Blaming NC Governor (Yep, he's a Democrat) for Potential Hurricane Ophelia Problems
Reported by Melanie - September 14, 2005
The first segment of Your World today (September 14, 2005) was a live report by Jamie Colby from Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. Colby was standing near the beach, getting buffeted by wind and rain as she reported on Hurricane Ophelia.
Live reports from hurricane sites haven't, traditionally, included a political slant, but this one did. Colby said, "The governor spoke in the last hour and even admitted himself - Governor Mike Easley - that he underestimated this system and I'm just hoping that doesn't cause problems here." With all the flooding, "and it is tremendous already, I'm not sure how they're going to get everything to the people here effectively, though they say they will."
Colby continued, "It sounds to me, after that press conference with the Governor ... if he didn't know yesterday what the rain and the surge could potentially be, when the National Hurricane Service has said how serious Ophelia could be, and how long she could hang around, did he prepare properly?"
Comment: This sounded exactly like GOP spin in the wake of Katrina; claim that Louisiana's governor and the mayor of New Orleans, both Democrats, were unprepared. I scratched my head, went to the web, and checked the party affiliation of the governor of North Carolina. Sure enough, he's a Democrat. Now we know what lesson the GOP learned from Katrina: if a disaster happens in a state with a Democratic governor, start playing the blame game, early.
