FEMA Meets the Press, Which Happens to Be . . . FEMA
FEMA has truly learned the lessons of Katrina. Even its handling of the media has improved dramatically. For example, as the California wildfires raged Tuesday, Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy administrator, had a 1 p.m. news briefing.
Reporters were given only 15 minutes’ notice of the briefing, making it unlikely many could show up at FEMA’s Southwest D.C. offices. They were given an 800 number to call in, though it was a “listen only” line, the notice said — no questions. Parts of the briefing were carried live on Fox News, MSNBC and other outlets.
Johnson stood behind a lectern and began with an overview before saying he would take a few questions. The first questions were about the “commodities” being shipped to Southern California and how officials are dealing with people who refuse to evacuate. He responded eloquently.
He was apparently quite familiar with the reporters — in one case, he appears to say “Mike” and points to a reporter — and was asked an oddly in-house question about “what it means to have an emergency declaration as opposed to a major disaster declaration” signed by the president. He once again explained smoothly.
FEMA press secretary Aaron Walker interrupted at one point to caution he’d allow just “two more questions.” Later, he called for a “last question.”
“Are you happy with FEMA’s response so far?” a reporter asked. Another asked about “lessons learned from Katrina.”
“I’m very happy with FEMA’s response so far,” Johnson said, hailing “a very smoothly, very efficiently performing team.”
“And so I think what you’re really seeing here is the benefit of experience, the benefit of good leadership and the benefit of good partnership,” Johnson said, “none of which were present in Katrina.” (Wasn’t Michael Chertoff DHS chief then?) Very smooth, very professional. But something didn’t seem right. The reporters were lobbing too many softballs. No one asked about trailers with formaldehyde for those made homeless by the fires. And the media seemed to be giving Johnson all day to wax on and on about FEMA’s greatness.
Of course, that could be because the questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters. We’re told the questions were asked by Cindy Taylor, FEMA’s deputy director of external affairs, and by “Mike” Widomski, the deputy director of public affairs. Director of External Affairs John “Pat” Philbin asked a question, and another came, we understand, from someone who sounds like press aide Ali Kirin.
Asked about this, Widomski said: “We had been getting mobbed with phone calls from reporters, and this was thrown together at the last minute.”
But the staff did not make up the questions, he said, and Johnson did not know what was going to be asked. “We pulled questions from those we had been getting from reporters earlier in the day.” Despite the very short notice, “we were expecting the press to come,” he said, but they didn’t. So the staff played reporters for what on TV looked just like the real thing.
“If the worst thing that happens to me in this disaster is that we had staff in the chairs to ask questions that reporters had been asking all day, Widomski said, “trust me, I’ll be happy.”
Heck of a job, Harvey.
Research editor Alice Crites contributed to this column.
© 2007 The Washington Post
The only thing better than friendly press reporters is making your own press reporters. This episode may have been sort of an accident, but I’ll bet its play-out isn’t forever lost on the Dana Perino shop.
Sounds like something ole’ Turd Blossom would recommend. Wonder how much they rehearsed it before they performed?
Does this really surprise anyone? I mean, this is George W Bush’s Amurika. The question is, will this be allowed to stand? What, if anything, will the media the Congress and the American people demand of this miserable adminstration?
Will this be allowed to stand? What makes this any different from all the rest of their staged productions? They’ve got bigger and better writers, directors, and producers than Hollywood. And who’s going to have any of their demands met at this late date? Just asking.
Brownie was a horse judger…Johnson also seems very familiar with Dog and Pony shows…and can shovel the manure with the best of them
Pitiful! Absolutely pitiful! This shows such contempt for the average citizen! People in the White House really consider the average American to be supremely stupid! This goes way beyond insulting!
Why going to press conference or giving them a podium, we couldn’t care less of their rhetoric, Stop paying attention to these con artist and write your articles on fact, not press conferences.
This is pathetic as it actually impacts lives — and so comedic because these idiots think they are actually carrying this off successfully! Damn! This is not only bad, boring theater — it’s worse — it’s a dumb show starring stupid finger puppets that pretend to talk to each other and the world. They just wiggle and wave on a hollow stage.
While we’re watching — their pick pockets in black, business suits and mercenaries in black uniforms work the crowd. Hold on to your wallets and watch your backs!
Didn’the White House do something like this a few years ago? This administration? In White House press briefings when reporters were supposed to ask the Press Sec or the Prez questions?
False reporter who turned out to be a bit of a scurrilous character?
Jack London wrote a hundred years ago in IRON HEEL: “You have forgotten the editors. They draw their salaries for the policy they maintain. Their policy is to print nothing that is a vital menace to the established. The press of the United States? It is a parasitic growth that battens on the capitalist class. Its function is to serve the established by moulding public opinion, and right well it serves it.”
Hoa binh
And people laughed at Baudrillard as a crack pot for writing about simulation. I guess the joke is on us!
I hope this is on the front page of the Post, above the fold, with a banner headline.
Sounds like this press conference was taken from a “How to” book written by Joseph Goebbels
At first I thought “Is it April Fool’s Day already?” then I realized it’s April Fool’s Day every day with this administration. Between Perino and stories like this, it’s a wonder we get anything done for all the laughing we’re doing. Hey Press Corps: Somebody get on these liars, cheaters and fabricators already!!!!
re since1492
my friend danny first recommended “iron heel” to me, and your seconding it finally moved me to get my own copy. it’s pretty bleak (will it really take centuries for the pendulum to swing back the other way?) but hopeful at the same time. it also has some practical advice, especially about what we’re likely to face and what tactics are unlikely to work.
BTW, i have a working understanding of the phrase “dinky dow” (sp?) but “hoa binh” is unfamiliar. i’d consider it a favor if you’d advance my education once again.
Piece of Propaganda pie anyone?
Maybe they just wanted to show that they can be equally incompetent and uncaring in serving rich white people with expensive homes as they can be in serving poor black people. Democracy in action. Equal opportunity.
Surprise surprise. Floods happen. Fires happen. Especially if we pave their way. Who would have thunk it?
Hazmat - Hoa binh means peace.
Hoa binh
“If the worst thing that happens to me in this disaster is that we had staff in the chairs to ask questions that reporters had been asking all day, Widomski said, “trust me, I’ll be happy.”
Making a complete mockery of fundamental American ideals while undermining the credibility of the Executive Branch and illegally forcing Fed employees to engage in policy PR while simultaneously lying to the public makes Widomski happy.
Wonder if any of the fake reporter/staff members were also gay hooker drug dealers?
Which press outlets knew about this? Presumably not the Post, but how about the others? It’s especially hard to believe Fox Opinion didn’t know.
And of course, who at FEMA knew, and why do they still have jobs there? And here they wanted to trumpet how much better they’re handling the fires. Um, no…no credit when you have to slap your own back.
Hey, griken1, this kind of stuff has been going on since 2001, and the media has bought into it hook, line and sinker - - even to the point that they avoid at all costs doing much, if anything, in the way of researching anything that might tend at all to smudge the credibility of the greatest crap producing machijne since your aforementioned Goebbels. Sometimes it seems as though Herr Joseph has been reincarnated in the very “Land of the Free” thinkers!
Publish as written - - has not been written before!
George:
Yeah, I wonder why one (or more) of the MSM decided to break the code of silence and leak this one out. Was it someone else, perhaps?
What I find totally incredulous about this story is not that it happened, but that the way it is described it would have been totally ridiculous for FEMA to been able to get away with it. The whole story is unbelievable. Did they honestly think they’d get away with it?
Or is something else afoot here:
* They do this all the time, but someone leaked it this time around.
* Even the MSM is getting fed up with the Bush administration. They were selected to get the oil in Iraq, and they’ve done a miserable job at it — and have possibly trashed the future of our economy as well. Perhaps even the MSM is worried about loss of profits at this stage?
Something doesn’t quite compute in this story. I think we’re missing a large piece of it.
#1 This was reported by one of many CFR controlled disinfo papers. Nice to see a few comment on such a “non-story”.
#2 FEMA, Halliburton, KBR & GE have built 600+ of the so-called “FEMA Camps” around the USA on military bases. GE bought an entire railraod Co. that has tracks into most. A few images and stories about them have surfaced on the net. The scariest part is they can house MILLIONS of people. This is “old news”, by the way. For those who are unaware or think it’s a joke, welcome to the grid, ladies & gentlemen.
This is serious stuff…Gross incompetence. Total disregard for the citizens of the United States and the press. This is an insult to our collective intelligence and a social brush off. I resent it and I want this problem fixed. We, as citizens, are to be respected and are deserving of real candor and honesty. The longer this administration is in power, the worse things get. I am all for impeachment, if for nothing else but to clear the air.
So, did the President actually meet with Governor Schwarzenegger or was that just another FEMA employee?
Is Mahmoud Ahmedinejad a FEMA employee?
What about Osama bin Laden?
Russian President Vladimir Putin?
Well, it IS a Disaster Agency! Eh, Brownie?
FEMA’s budget is partly hidden from your curious eyes. This Enron-style showboat fraud of a news conference is simply Monday through Friday behavior at most Federal Agencies, a big broken set of smoke and mirrors, preserve funding at all costs. The good news is, that if you do have a nice job with General Dynamics (deep in FEMA do-do) or are a public servant with FEMA your needs are getting met and the type of real emergencies that the poor or disenfranchised see daily in this country won’t be of any concern.
Kim Jong Il couldn’t have done it better. And to think, Fox news was sly enough to air it. I thought they said that the press didn’t show up?
Un fucking believable.
Why do they need to do that when they have Fox, NewsCorp, CNN, and a host of other “mainstream” media to do the same job?
Within each governmental department there must be a department of disinformation. If any legitimate information is about to be exposed the white house simply edits out the truth and leaves a skeleton of news. Sorry, that’s all you get. Why even bother to have such departments as the one that Julie Gerberding runs? Global Warming could actually affect the lives of individuals is a non-issue. Why bother to pay people who are supposed to look out for our best interests when they have to do those jobs while in shackles?
You’re geniuses, AlexLawyer and annabelle; I’m putting FEMA on the list of media I can’t trust; who knows what scenario they’ll invent next.
The Bush regime seeks to control every bit of news and information that goes out to the American public, and this is just another example of that. They’ve been known for manufacturing “news” and feeding it to the gullible mainstream media, and now they are taking it to another level by creating their own press conferences.
I’m still trying to figure why the FEMA people thought no one would fucking notice that the “reporters” were FEMA staffers? How dumb do they think we are (very dumb, obviously)?
Fascists are usually good at staged self congratulations.
It is an open shamelessness on the part of the government agency, which is supposed to help the citizens who are in need.
Do the US government and its agencies represent the Common American citizens and exist for the latter’s welfare?????????????????????