Emergency.Blog

Allegations Surface of Fake FEMA News Conference

Friday, October 26, 2007

FEMA Meets the Press, Which Happens to Be . . . FEMA

By Al Kamen, Page A19

FEMA has truly learned the lessons of Katrina. Even its handling of the media has improved dramatically. For example, as the California wildfires raged Tuesday, Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy administrator, had a 1 p.m. news briefing.

Reporters were given only 15 minutes' notice of the briefing, making it unlikely many could show up at FEMA's Southwest D.C. offices.

They were given an 800 number to call in, though it was a "listen only" line, the notice said -- no questions. Parts of the briefing were carried live on Fox News (see the Fox News video of the news conference carried on the Think Progress Web site), MSNBC and other outlets.

Johnson stood behind a lectern and began with an overview before saying he would take a few questions. 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.

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...(article continues at URL below)

References

FEMA Meets the Press, Which Happens to Be . . . FEMA, by Al Kamen: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/25/AR2007102502488.html

White House Scolds FEMA - Video: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2007/10/26/VI2007102601479.html

DHS rips FEMA's propaganda presser as 'inexcusable.'

Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Laura Keehner said that FEMA's staged press conference is "inexcusable to the secretary." FEMA is part of DHS. Keehner described the incident as a lapse in judgment, but said "stunts such as this will not be tolerated" and noted that "the senior leadership of the department is taking this very seriously." "This is offensive, inexcusable," she told USA Today. -- Posted 19:15 pm - 26 Nov 2007

http://thinkprogress.org/207/10/26/fema-softball-presser/