FEMA workers play role of reporters
FEMA workers pretended to be reporters and asked softball questions to Harvey E. Johnson, FEMA's deputy director. FEMA blames it on "error in judgment."
The White House scolded the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Friday for staging a phony news conference about assistance to victims of wildfires in southern California.Link (Thanks, Sponselli!)The agency — much maligned for its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina over two years ago — arranged to have FEMA employees play the part of independent reporters Tuesday and ask questions of Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the agency's deputy director.
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I didn't think the government would have decided the people it's supposed to serve were superfluous this quickly. I figured we had at least a couple more disasters before we got to this point.
I hear the bottled water is already being delivered to the Superdome, so hey, that's an improvement.
Nice job.
So… the big story at FEMA is that they’re screwing around in the office, pretending to be something they’re not.
It is a crucially important issue, of course. The government posing as the press is a terrible manifestation of tyranny and irresponsibility. An abrogation of the defense of our liberties that they swore an… um… that they…
…
…Does anyone smell smoke?
What really surprises me about this current disaster is that we still trust the Red Cross...they proved they couldn't be trusted with the money donated for 9/11, they proved they couldn't be trusted with the Katrina money...so WHY are people still running to give them money to pay their 6 figure salaries? Your money would be just as well spent if you drove up to the fire area and pitched the money at a burning tree.
reg
When the $%#@ did we become the $%#@ing Soviet Union?
Instead of earnest attempts to be straight-up and do things right for a change, we get this stage-managed ass-covering spin.
The Ron Paul campaign should be paying Bush and company to keep it up; they're a perfect example of corrupt, dishonest, and incompetent government.
(No, I'm not a Ron Paul groupie.)
Does this mean that REAL reporters get to do FEMA's job since they're clearly not doing anything useful?
From the article,
FEMA gave real reporters only 15 minutes notice about Tuesday's news conference . But because there was so little advance notice, the agency made available an 800 number so reporters could call in. And many did, although it was a listen-only arrangement.
WTF. The people who are entrusted to deal with national disasters don't even know how to set up a quick moderated phone conference? Give me a break. This stuff is trivial to do, even on that short notice.
WTF!!?? This is COMPLETELY ridiculous and NOT reasonable in a democracy, and furthermore . . .
Oh wait, they say it's "an error in judgment"?
Never mind, I'm satisfied.
This is no surprise to me. As a reporter for The Hamilton Specator I questioned a senior FEMA official at Ground Zero five days after 9-11. Because our town had been through a horrific 3 day plastics fire not long before I was keenly aware of all the chemical disasters such catastrophic events unleashed and asked the official about the likelihood of a heavy burden of toxins have been unleashed on lower manhattan and in the harbour and rivers there.
He brushed me off with a platitude. I pressed the issue asking if he wasn't concerned about the risks to rescuers and others.
He got so angry at my (relatively mild) questions he attacked me verbally and he practically had to be physically restrained. Other reporters kind of edged away from me, like maybe they were afraid of shrapnel or something. It was a bizarre display of anger and pig headedness I suppose I should feel better that they finally figured out a safe way to avoid awkward questions...
Bill
Alright what left wing nut is going to play a ridiculous Orwell card first? I don't know why you think this is a bad idea. This is simply another example of Bush's more efficient style of government. It skips the middleman. Why pay someone to ask questions when you can ask yourself for free? This follows a history of good decisions. In a system such as ours the rich get richer right? If you put in socialist programs to benefit the poor they end up buying more things which makes money flow to the rich. It's much simpler and more efficient to simply give all the money to the rich to begin with. And besides, they already have the accounts and knowledge to put that money to good use making more money. The poor would just blow it all on food, shelter and basic medical care.
I do however think this program needs to be expanded. Right now they give the press conferences and ask the questions, but they still make us the audience. It would be much cheaper, faster and easier for the people if they simply filmed their press conference, asked themselves the questions, and then, on closed circuit tv, viewed the press conference themselves there in the room on projected screens in real time. That way we wouldn't even have to listen to them. And best of all...we would all learn exactly the same amount of information that we would have if we had actually watched the conference.
Now really, Delaney. You'll give these people ideas...
A public relations Potemikn Village.
It's so sad to see what this administration has done to FEMA. What was once a great example of how good a government agency could be, has become just another "never trust the government" joke.
Ever see X-Files: Fight the Future, Thorzdad?
There was a brief scandal in 2005 during the Katrina aftermath where FEMA used firefighters to do PR. Looks like they really didn't learn from that.
to Thorzdad (#12):
First off, I completely agree with you. But excepting the Clinton administration this is pretty much par for the course for FEMA, which has long been the federal equivalent of the city sealer's office. Admittedly this is a little more reprehensible than usual, though.
Clinton was as far as I know the first (and only) president to actually appoint a FEMA head that actually had experience in disaster response, and who ran the department accordingly (and was loved by the FEMA rank-and-file for it). Under every other administration (again as far as I know), the department has been an epitome of patronage staffing (read: incompetent and wasteful). Michael Brown worrying about his wardrobe was not so much an egregious gaffe as it was par for the course.
If it was up to me I'd make it a criminal offense to appoint people here, the department most responsible for being on the front lines and saving people in disasters, on the basis of which of your cronies are most deserving of a plum (as long as people aren't dying), fat-paying government job, but then I'm not in charge of things. Republican administrations are worse, as the lives FEMA saves tend to belong to people who don't vote Republican, but neither party has much incentive to make things better, as the people saved don't really contribute to campaign funds either.
BlackAndy@15
What do you mean by appointing someone who has experience is disaster response as FEMA head? Isn't that something you can learn on the job? I mean look at Micheal Brown. Remember, he did a 'heckuva' job. Now look where he is...got his own disaster company (don't know if he causes them or fixes them...maybe both), and was recently in California talking disaster. Seems to have worked out well for him.
: )
I think the problem at FEMA is that it inherits a quasi-military mindset from Homeland Security. Someone gave the order to have a press conference NOW, and instead of questioning the timeline, they held a press conference. FEMA needs to really empower its people to be problem solvers and THINK, not just follow orders.
JenJen, FEMA existed long before Homeland Security was invented. It would take some doing for them to inherit a mindset from a much younger department.
From the Washington Post, Oct. 27
"'It was absolutely a bad decision. I regret it happened. Certainly . . . I should have stopped it," said John P. "Pat" Philbin, FEMA's director of external affairs. "I hope readers understand we're working very hard to establish credibility and integrity, and I would hope this does not undermine it.'"
And later in the story,
"Philbin's last scheduled day at FEMA was Thursday. He has been named as the new head of public affairs at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, ODNI spokeswoman Vanee Vines said."
Q #4: "When the $%#@ did we become the $%#@ing Soviet Union?"
A: I think it was back around 2001 or so? If you were distracted it's understandable. Nobody else would blame you for not seeing it happen.