fema's fake press conference

[kickinwang 0]

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Chertoff Rips Phony Press Event

By DEVLIN BARRETT – 2 days ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The homeland security chief on Saturday tore into his own employees for staging a phony news conference at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"I think it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I've seen since I've been in government," Michael Chertoff said.

"I have made unambiguously clear, in Anglo-Saxon prose, that it is not to ever happen again and there will be appropriate disciplinary action taken against those people who exhibited what I regard as extraordinarily poor judgment," he added.

Asked specifically if he planned to fire anyone at FEMA, which is part of his department, Chertoff declined to say, citing personnel rules.

"There will be appropriate discipline," he told reporters at a news conference with New York's governor where they announced an agreement on a driver's license plan.

Chertoff said he knew nothing about the matter until after it happened and that he "can't explain why it happened."

The White House on Friday scolded FEMA for the faux press conference about assistance to victims of wildfires in southern California.

The agency — much maligned for its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina over two years ago — arranged to have FEMA employees play the part of reporters at the event Tuesday and question Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy director.

The questions were soft and gratuitous.

"I'm very happy with FEMA's response," Johnson said in reply to one query from an agency employee.

FEMA gave reporters only 15 minutes notice about Tuesday's news conference. But because of the short notice, the agency made available an 800 number so reporters could call in. Many did, although it was a listen-only arrangement.

Johnson said in a statement Friday 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."

more from the washington post

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.

pat philbin was slated to take over as public affairs director for director of national intelligence mike mcconnell today. keyword, was. it was announced earlier today that he will not. wonder why?

keep up the good work guys

[AURaptor 1,126]

Not only are you about a week late w/ this story, you're well beyond the interest level of the board.

[otterinbham 0]

My interest in this thread at this point is apolitical. Really, it doesn't matter who was in office.

Instead, I'm fascinated how such a boneheaded move was performed in the first place, especially by a government agency under such scrutiny for incompetence under Katrina.

Seriously, under what twisted logic and Alice-in-Wonderland thinking did anyone think this was a good idea?

[kickinwang 0]

Not only are you about a week late w/ this story, you're well beyond the interest level of the board.

wow...my bad....i guess

[CCTAU 3,350]

My interest in this thread at this point is apolitical. Really, it doesn't matter who was in office.

Instead, I'm fascinated how such a boneheaded move was performed in the first place, especially by a government agency under such scrutiny for incompetence under Katrina.

Seriously, under what twisted logic and Alice-in-Wonderland thinking did anyone think this was a good idea?

True. But it may be that the agency had so much mud thrown in their eyes by the media in the past, that they thought they would pull one over on them. Sometimes it's better to not stir up the hornet's nest unless you got a flamethrower. They didn't have one.