FEMA Fakery: How Not to Treat the News Media
October 29, 2007The news cycle has come and gone, but it’s remarkable how little outrage there was over the fake press conference the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) threw during the Southern California fires.
The agency, widely reviled for its horrendous performance during Katrina, gave 15 minutes notice of an upcoming press conference. When reporters couldn’t attend with such little notice, they had FEMA staffers play the part.
Keith Olbermann treats it as a joke . I don’t agree, but because the Bush administration has already credentialed a fake but syncophantic reporter, “Jeff Gannon“, better known for gay porn than any journalistic credentials, you could say a fake press conference is par for the course.
The staffers asked predictably lame questions, like “What kind of commodities are you shipping to California?” Then there was the more ominious ‘obey Homeland Security/blame-the-victim’; “There are reports that people were not heeding evacuation orders. Can you comment?”
Parts of the ‘news conference’ were carried live on MSNBC, Fox and other outlets, according to the Washington Post, which noted,
“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 (fake) 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.”
Dana Perino, the White House Press Secretary, was compelled to go to call it “an error in judgement.” Michael Chertoff, head of Home Security, which includes FEMA, said “I think it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I’ve seen since I’ve been in government.”
But is all the contrition only because they were caught by one of those vanishing ‘real journalists’?
Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the agency’s deputy director.