NY Times Parrots Giuliani's 9/11 Defense
Firefighters' criticism deemed "factually questionable"
7/13/07
When the International Association of Fire Fighters, the nation's largest firefighters union, released a video on July 12 challenging the portrayal of former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as a hero of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, New York Times reporter Marc Santora rushed to put out the anti-Giuliani fire. His July 12 story's lead cast doubt on the accuracy of the group's claims, calling the video "at times factually questionable."
But besides quoting Giuliani partisans--who predictably differed with the firefighters--Santora offered little evidence that the video was "factually questionable"; in fact, that phrase could more plausibly be applied to Santora's story. For example, the reporter challenged the video's claim that the Giuliani administration's failure to provide proper radios led to firefighters' deaths on September 11, when they couldn't hear orders to evacuate the towers. (The city had been trying to replace the radios since their poor performance during the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, just before Giuliani first took office-- see Extra!, 5-6/07 .)
In an attempt to shoot down this charge, Santora wrote that "there is no dispute...that there were communications failures on September 11. But the video highlights the hand-held radios, whereas the central problem, most experts agree, was the failure of a device meant to boost the signal so that it could reach the high floors of the towers."
This is a puzzling claim, since the New York Police Department did, in fact, have radios that were able to function in the towers. As FDNY safety chief Alexander Santora said in the video, "Not a single cop was lost in that building. Why was that? Because they had gotten the word to get out. Our radios weren't working." continued →
7/13/07
When the International Association of Fire Fighters, the nation's largest firefighters union, released a video on July 12 challenging the portrayal of former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as a hero of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, New York Times reporter Marc Santora rushed to put out the anti-Giuliani fire. His July 12 story's lead cast doubt on the accuracy of the group's claims, calling the video "at times factually questionable."
But besides quoting Giuliani partisans--who predictably differed with the firefighters--Santora offered little evidence that the video was "factually questionable"; in fact, that phrase could more plausibly be applied to Santora's story. For example, the reporter challenged the video's claim that the Giuliani administration's failure to provide proper radios led to firefighters' deaths on September 11, when they couldn't hear orders to evacuate the towers. (The city had been trying to replace the radios since their poor performance during the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, just before Giuliani first took office-- see Extra!, 5-6/07 .)
In an attempt to shoot down this charge, Santora wrote that "there is no dispute...that there were communications failures on September 11. But the video highlights the hand-held radios, whereas the central problem, most experts agree, was the failure of a device meant to boost the signal so that it could reach the high floors of the towers."
This is a puzzling claim, since the New York Police Department did, in fact, have radios that were able to function in the towers. As FDNY safety chief Alexander Santora said in the video, "Not a single cop was lost in that building. Why was that? Because they had gotten the word to get out. Our radios weren't working." continued →
posted by 911truthnc at 8:10 AM
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