Dina Temple-Raston, NPR's counterterrorism correspondent, and Steve Inskeep got their talking points down, stating that Janet Napolitano claimed "the system worked" because the attack failed and the bomb did not go off. That's just plain false. Transcripts follow:
Here's what Napolitano actually said in her conversation with Candy Crowley:
NAPOLITANO: What we are focused on is making sure that the air environment remains safe, that people are confident when they travel. And one thing I’d like to point out is that the system worked. Everybody played an important role here. The passengers and crew of the flight took appropriate action. Within literally an hour to 90 minutes of the incident occurring, all 128 flights in the air had been notified to take some special measures in light of what had occurred on the Northwest Airlines flight. We instituted new measures on the ground and at screening areas, both here in the United States and in Europe, where this flight originated.
Here's what Inskeep and Temple-Raston turned that into (my transcript from the recorded broadcast):
STEVE INSKEEP: They started out saying the system worked. It sounds like the now acknowledge that maybe it didn't. DINA TEMPLE-RASTON: That's right. The Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano backtracked yesterday. Over the weekend she said this all worked because the attack wasn't successful and finally yesterday she said well in fact the explosives got on the plane so somethings wrong and we're checking into our systems.
Obviously, Ms. Temple-Raston has absorbed the Village conventional wisdom and not bothered to actually read the real quote. If you'd like to submit your views on this to NPR, their contact page is here.
