I am not a reporter in real life, I only play one while working for FEMA

or
what if FEMA gave a press conference and only FEMA showed up…..

The Chimpy administration hits another new low…no not in poll numbers but in journalistic integrity….

FEMA gave a press conference Tuesday on how things were going in Southern California..only the reporters weren’t reporters — they were employees of FEMA! asking softball questions

if this wasn’t in the middle of a tragedy i would be laughing my ass off….second thought i am laughing my ass off

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.

[…]

“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.”

[…]

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.

here is the Washington Post story, and it is all over the INTERNETS
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/25/AR2007102502488.html

but to FEMA and the Bush administration, this was all “an error in judgement”

STATEMENT IN REGARDS TO FEMA’S TUESDAY PRESS BRIEFING

FEMA’s goal is to get information out as soon as possible, and in trying to do so we made an error in judgment. Our intent was to provide useful information and be responsive to the many questions we have received. We are reviewing our press procedures and will make the changes necessary to ensure that all of our communications are straight forward and transparent.

At FEMA, our focus is disaster operations and, in this case, it means working closely with the State of California to support their response to the devastating fires. We’re committed to being there for the State and being good partners. In working to do so we did not put enough focus on how we communicate to the public.

The real story — how well the response and recovery elements are working in this disaster — should not be lost because of how we tried to meet the needs of the media in distributing facts.

We can and must do better, and apologize for this error in judgment.

Me thinks the Bush adminstration is an error in humanity