It’s being widely reported that while touring the destruction in Southern Louisiana, Mitt Romney asked Gov. Jindal, “Did the water come from the sky, or the rivers, or the ocean?” This is leading to some dubious reporting.

CBS, for example:

Jindal lauded the contributions of the Red Cross, Salvation Army and other organizations amid a scene of downed trees, high water and National Guard troops. Romney expressed concern about the welfare of the 5,000 residents, some of whom had evacuated. He then asked, according to a journalists’ pool report of the visit: “Did the water come from the sky, or the rivers, or the ocean?”
The comment brought to mind another observation about the natural wonders that Romney made during the primaries, when he returned home to Michigan and remarked, “I love this state. The trees are the right height.”

Except there’s one problem. According to the AP, Romney did not speak to reporters:

Romney didn’t speak to reporters as he toured Jean Lafitte on Friday. A Romney spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment on whether Romney would support additional funding for the region’s levee system.
Jindal did explain the issue to Romney as they climbed into the Republican nominee’s SUV and began their tour.
“It (the levee system) performs well, but the areas here — the other areas …” Jindal said, trailing off because Romney jumped in.

You see what the AP did there? They are reporting on snippets of conversations they’ve overheard, and as in the CBS example above, using the dialogue to make Romney look silly. We have no idea what preceded Romney’s question, nor what came after.

To the credit of the Times-Picayune, they at least write that they only overheard part of the conversation, but still reported it anyway:

Jindal talked about the contributions of the Red Cross, Salvation Army and other organizations. Romney inquired how many people had been evacuated and asked, “Did the water come from the sky, or the rivers, or the ocean?”
Reporters could not hear the entire conversation.

Now, let’s put Romney’s question in geographic context. Here’s a map of Lafitte, where Romney was meeting with Jindal:

Romney asked did the water come from the “sky, or the rivers [that’s the Mississippi river over there to the right] or the ocean [to the south]. Why is that a dumb-sounding question? The answer is, it’s not, but the media gets their kicks making it sound like one.