Some days you just feel like phoning it in, and this is one of those days. On such days it’s nice to have something to write about that is so absurd, so monumentally outrageous, that it practically writes itself. I know, you’re probably saying that’s been the case since January 20, 2001, but some days are extra special.
Today, we hear once again about the folks at heckuva job FEMA. Not content with totally blackening their reputation during Katrina, they have decided to take the Administration’s penchant for press manipulation and manufactured news to new heights. Tuesday, FEMA deputy chief Harvey Johnson held a press conference. The Washington Post reports:
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.
As the Carpetbagger Report notes:
There were no tough questions, no skepticism, and nothing that strayed from the FEMA line. Just softball after softball. Why were the assembled reporters so pathetic?
Because they weren’t reporters at all. FEMA hosted a press conference with questions from FEMA staffers pretending to be reporters.
There is, of course, a perfectly good reason for this piece of fakery:
Asked about this, [deputy director of public affairs Mike] Widomski said: “We had been getting mobbed with phone calls from reporters, and this was thrown together at the last minute.”
But the staff did not make up the questions, he said, and Johnson did not know what was going to be asked. “We pulled questions from those we had been getting from reporters earlier in the day.” Despite the very short notice, “we were expecting the press to come,” he said, but they didn’t. So the staff played reporters for what on TV looked just like the real thing.
Well, there’s no reason not to top off a performance like that with a truly Bush league pack of transparent lies.
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