FEMA staff portrayed reporters at phony press conference by UncommonSense [Subscribe]
Fri Oct 26, 2007 at 06:28:05 AM PDT
This gives a whole new meaning to the expression "Faux News."
The Bush administration has taken news manipulation to a new low. The Washington Post's Al Kamen reveals that the "reporters" who lobbed softball questions at FEMA Deputy Administrator Harvey Johnson on Thursday were, in fact, employees of FEMA.
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.
One of the faux reporters, Mike Widomski, defended the propaganda pageant, insisting that the FEMA staffers were simply asking the same questions that real reporters had been asking all day.
The Fox "News" Channel model of news manipulation actually seems rather quaint compared to this. Stalin would be proud.