FEMA workers masquerade as reporters

blackredyellowblackredyellow Posts: 5,889
edited October 2007 in A Moving Train
Seriously?!?!?! This department has been proven again and again to be a joke...



FEMA workers masquerade as reporters
Employees asked questions at last minute California wildfire briefing
The Associated Press
Updated: 1:23 p.m. ET Oct 26, 2007

WASHINGTON - One way to get decent coverage in this rough-and-tumble city is to arrange to have your own employees interrogate you at your news conference.

That would seem to be the strategy of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, much maligned for its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina over two years ago.

FEMA scheduled an early afternoon news briefing on only 15 minutes notice to reporters here Tuesday to talk about its handling of assistance to victims of wildfires that were ravaging much of Southern California.

But because there was so little advance notice for the event held by Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy FEMA administrator, the agency made available an 800 number so reporters could call in. And many did, although it was a listen-only arrangement.

At the news conference itself, some FEMA employees played the role of reporter, asking questions of Johnson - queries described as soft and gratuitous.

"I'm very happy with FEMA's response," Johnson said in reply to one query from a person who was an agency employee, not an independent journalist.

Asked about this, Mike Widomski, FEMA's deputy director of public affairs, said, "We had been getting mobbed with phone calls from reporters, and this was thrown together at the last minute."

Johnson issued a statement Friday saying that FEMA's goal was "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," he said. "We can and must do better."

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21490838/
My whole life
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
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  • Seriously?!?!?! This department has been proven again and again to be a joke...



    FEMA workers masquerade as reporters
    Employees asked questions at last minute California wildfire briefing
    The Associated Press
    Updated: 1:23 p.m. ET Oct 26, 2007

    WASHINGTON - One way to get decent coverage in this rough-and-tumble city is to arrange to have your own employees interrogate you at your news conference.

    That would seem to be the strategy of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, much maligned for its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina over two years ago.

    FEMA scheduled an early afternoon news briefing on only 15 minutes notice to reporters here Tuesday to talk about its handling of assistance to victims of wildfires that were ravaging much of Southern California.

    But because there was so little advance notice for the event held by Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy FEMA administrator, the agency made available an 800 number so reporters could call in. And many did, although it was a listen-only arrangement.

    At the news conference itself, some FEMA employees played the role of reporter, asking questions of Johnson - queries described as soft and gratuitous.

    "I'm very happy with FEMA's response," Johnson said in reply to one query from a person who was an agency employee, not an independent journalist.

    Asked about this, Mike Widomski, FEMA's deputy director of public affairs, said, "We had been getting mobbed with phone calls from reporters, and this was thrown together at the last minute."

    Johnson issued a statement Friday saying that FEMA's goal was "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," he said. "We can and must do better."

    URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21490838/

    another example of smoke and mirrors....pathetic.
    You had me worried!
    So worried, that this would last...
    But now I'm learning, learning that this will pass...
  • zackmorris wrote:
    another example of smoke and mirrors....pathetic.


    I just can't understand how someone that was in charge could honestly think that it was a good idea?

    I can understand wanting to get information out, but just make a statement send out a press release with all of the important info, not put together an SNL sketch.
    My whole life
    was like a picture
    of a sunny day
    “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
    ― Abraham Lincoln
  • CosmoCosmo Posts: 12,225
    I guess it's better to pretend you are someone else, than admit to your ineptness at your job.
    Allen Fieldhouse, home of the 2008 NCAA men's Basketball Champions! Go Jayhawks!
    Hail, Hail!!!
  • JaneNYJaneNY Posts: 4,438
    That is so sneaky. I'm starting to think that this agency should be shut down, renamed, recreated, restructured, from the ground up, with an entirely new group of personnel. Doing what they did shows a culture of dishonesty and more concern for image than accomplishing tasks.
    R.i.p. Rigoberto Alpizar.
    R.i.p. My Dad - May 28, 2007
    R.i.p. Black Tail (cat) - Sept. 20, 2008
  • g under pg under p Surfing The far side of THE Sombrero Galaxy Posts: 18,200
    On Tuesday, FEMA staged a fake press conference with agency staffers posing
    as news reporters. One FEMA staffer who pretended to be a journalist has
    since been promoted to become head of public affairs at the Office of the
    Director of National Intelligence.

    The Department of Homeland Security acknowledged Friday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, had staged a fake press conference Tuesday with agency staffers posing as news reporters. Their acknowledgement, as well as an apology from FEMA officials, followed a Washington Post report that exposed the staged event. FEMA had only given reporters 15 minutes notice for Tuesday's press conference. A toll-free telephone line allowed reporters to listen to the proceedings, but not to pose any questions.


    Listen/Watch/Read
    FEMA Admits It Held Fake Press Conference about California Wildfires; FEMA
    Staffers Posed as Journalists
    *We CAN bomb the World to pieces, but we CAN'T bomb it into PEACE*...Michael Franti

    *MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
    .....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti

    *The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)


  • CosmoCosmo Posts: 12,225
    Here's one of the questions they asked...
    "Mr. FEMA Guy...
    You guys did such a magnificent job ever since that Katrina thing... my question is... how can you guys be more awesome? I mean, I think you are at the top of awesomeness... no... here's awesomeness and you guys are, like, this much higher. so, basically... you can't do any better than you're doing, right... because that level of awesomeness doesn't even exist, right?"
    Allen Fieldhouse, home of the 2008 NCAA men's Basketball Champions! Go Jayhawks!
    Hail, Hail!!!
  • Phantom PainPhantom Pain Posts: 9,876
    This is awesome !!


    I would of loved to have been at the meeting for this


    "But I wanna be the camera guy!"
    My drinking team has a hockey problem

    The ONLY thing better than a glass of beer is tea with Miss McGill



    A protuberance of flesh above the waistband of a tight pair of trousers
  • FEMA=Fix Everything My Ass

    I suppose posing as reports is better than posing as people who might actually help someone who needs it. Either way, it's just a costume.
    The Daystar

    "But --you say that Dreams have no power here? Tell me, Lucifer Morningstar...Ask yourselves, all of you...What power would hell have if those here imprisoned were not able to Dream of Heaven?" Dream speaking to Lucifer as written by Neil Gaiman.
  • THCTHC Posts: 525
    I can't wait for this administration to get out of office. at every level there is a corrupt...lying attitude. Misleading the public is what they do...all they know. It seeps down from the top..and has infected everything...
    “Kept in a small bowl, the goldfish will remain small. With more space, the fish can grow double, triple, or quadruple its size.”
    -Big Fish
  • CosmoCosmo Posts: 12,225
    Another question asked at the 'Press Conference':
    Q: "Are we getting paid overtime for this?"
    Allen Fieldhouse, home of the 2008 NCAA men's Basketball Champions! Go Jayhawks!
    Hail, Hail!!!
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