House Blasts Press, Local Government

Here's what the recently appointed House Homeland Security chairman Peter King had to say about press coverage of Hurricane Katrina, from NewsMax:

Asked why President Clinton wasn't blamed for natural disasters during the 1990s, King told WMET-Washington fill-in host Steve Malzberg: "The advantage the Clinton administration had was it didn't have so many TV reporters who were geared against the president that they would totally slant the news."

And on the local government response:

"I think the main fault was the state and city of New Orleans - they did a terrible job."
The New York Republican added: "Our response plans are based on the premise that the local first responders will handle the initial onslaught. We were't expecting that the local government would do absolutely nothing."