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(CNSNews.com) -- Critics of the Bush administration have promoted video of an Aug. 28, 2005, teleconference between emergency management officials and the president as proof that the White House was warned that levees around New Orleans would likely fail against Hurricane Katrina. But a closer examination of the recording and transcript shows no mention that the Crescent City's levees would be breached.

The Associated Press (AP) broke the story on Wednesday, claiming that "federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees."

The next day, Media Matters for America (MMFA), a liberal advocacy group that criticizes news outlets for their alleged conservative bias, took two of the country's largest newspapers to task for their coverage of the video. MMFA declared as fact that, "on the day before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, President Bush was warned -- and expressed concern -- over the possibility that the levees in New Orleans would be breached by the storm."

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) joined the chorus of Bush critics later Thursday, claiming that, "During the briefing, National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield told the President that the integrity of the levees was 'a very, very grave concern,' which the President appears to have ignored."

The "grave concern" quote appears to have been taken from the Aug. 29 transcript of the meeting.

"I don't think any model can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped, or not," Mayfield is quoted as saying. "But, that's obviously a very, very grave concern."

Further comparison of the video to the transcript by Cybercast News Service indicates that Mayfield's quote, which was not transcribed accurately, came from a discussion of the possibility that water from Katrina's storm surge might flow over the tops of the levees, not that the levees might fail.

"The big question's going to be, 'Will that top some of the levees?' And, the current track and the forecast we have now suggests that there will be minimal flooding in the City of New Orleans, itself," Mayfield said. "But, we're, we've always said that the storm surge model is only accurate within about 20 percent. If that track were to deviate just a little bit to the west, it makes all the difference in the world.

"I do expect that there will be some of the levees overtopped even out here in the western portions here where the airport is," Mayfield continued. "We've got valleys of ten feet that can overtop some of those levees.

"The problem that we're going to have here, remember the winds go counterclockwise around the center of the hurricane, so, if the really strong winds clip Lake Ponchartrain that's going to pile some of that water from Lake Ponchartrain over on the south side of the lake," Mayfield concluded. "I don't think anyone can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped, or not. But, that's obviously a very, very grave concern."

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