Politics As Usual
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Tom Shine covers congressional politics for ABC News.
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THEY EDIT TESTIMONY and ASK THEMSELVES QUESTIONS
October 26, 2007 8:52 AM
The other day the Bush administration decided to perform severe edits on the prepared congressional testimony of CDC's director Dr. Julie Gerberding and cut several pages from it.
This morning AL KAMEN writing in the WASHINGTON POST'S "IN THE LOOP" column says on TUESDAY FEMA held a hastily called news conference on the CALIFORNIA FIRES and asking HARVEY JOHNSON, the DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR OF FEMA, the questions were NOT REPORTERS BUT FEMA EMPLOYEES ACTING AS REPORTERS.
Kamen says the real reporters got only 15 MINUTES notice of the pending newser making it nearly impossible to show up in person and the 800 CALL IN NUMBER given out to reporters was "LISTEN ONLY."
So Kamen says such tough questions as "ARE YOU HAPPY WITH FEMA's RESPONSE SO FAR?" were asked by FEMA STAFFERS from the press office, NOT REPORTERS. Kamen says when asked about this, Mike Widomski, the deputy director of public affairs for Fema, said the "STAFF DID NOT MAKE UP THE QUESTIONS and JOHNSON DIDN'T KNOW WHAT HE WAS GOING TO BE ASKED. "We pulled questions from those we had been getting from reporters earlier in the day."
Kamen says parts of the news conference were carried live by the cables and cleverly ends his column this way: "HECK OF A JOB HARVEY."
UPDATE: During the Friday White House briefing, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino told reporters the FEMA incident was "a bad way to handle it" and an "error of judgment." Perino said FEMA has apologized and said the White House would not have condoned the fake news conference.
UPDATE: Below is a statement by FEMA Deputy Administrator Vice Admiral Harvey Johnson released to the media Friday afternoon about its fake news conference on Tuesday:
UPDATE: Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Laura Keehner said to reporters on a conference call:
"This is simply inexcusable and offensive to the Secretary that such a mistake could have been made. We have made it clear stunts such as this will not be tolerated or repeated."
Asked if anyone would be reprimanded Keehner said, "We are looking into that possibility right now ... we are taking it that seriously."
FEMA's goal is 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.
We are reviewing our press procedures and will make the changes necessary to ensure that all of our communications are straight forward and transparent. At FEMA, our focus is disaster operations and, in this case, it means working closely with the State of California to support their response to the devastating fires.
We're committed to being there for the State and being good partners. In working to do so we did not put enough focus on how we communicate to the public.
The real story – how well the response and recovery elements are working in this disaster – should not be lost because of how we tried to meet the needs of the media in distributing facts. We can and must do better, and apologize for this error in judgment.
- Vice Admiral Harvey Johnson, Deputy Administrator
October 26, 2007 in Congress | Permalink | User Comments (63)
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Whats the difference to the white house? everytime Bush and Cheney went to "town hall meetings" they had GOP operatives hand pick the attendees and guide them on what questions to ask.
There were never anything but rehearsed questions and answers to put on TV about their 'town hall meetings' ..whatever.
Posted by: Wakeup | Oct 26, 2007 1:58:29 PM
All of those CAPITAL LETTERS make this article to DIFFICULT TO READ. Will you please QUIT DOING that?
Posted by: KEJ2000 | Oct 26, 2007 2:00:10 PM
Shouldn't they be prosecuted for fraud?
Posted by: don5887 | Oct 26, 2007 2:04:10 PM
Business as usual.
Posted by: April Campbell, MD | Oct 26, 2007 2:15:28 PM
Wow, just wow.
Posted by: jt tate | Oct 26, 2007 2:37:31 PM
Why all the fuss... FEMA pretends to function, so why not pretend to hold a press conference? Going up the ladder, we have a President who pretends to know what he's doing, a Congress who pretends to do anything at all, and a population who pretends to believe either one.
Posted by: Dutch | Oct 26, 2007 3:06:40 PM
If FEMA was really just interested in getting the "facts" out to the people then why the charade? Why didn't they just hold a press briefing and say "these are the questions we've been getting and here are our answers"? No, they are afraid of opening themselves up to questions for which they have no time to prepare or "spin"!
Posted by: Scott | Oct 26, 2007 3:07:58 PM
AMERICA, Land of the free, of and by the people .... R.I.P 1776-2007 thanks to Bush and all our other dirty, currupt, non-righteous, self serving, sleazy politicians...
Posted by: Tommy Darcy | Oct 26, 2007 3:10:18 PM
You GW haters crack me up. Maybe you should cut back on the weed, booze and crack. You all sound like crack heads spewing your ugly hate. GW is a hero. GW is a visionary. GW has saved the world. Dems are weak and powerless even though they took both branches. The normal public prefer GW to the dem ran branches who do nothing. GW has made our country safer. GW and heroically led our troops to the victory that is on going. The excellent plan is working. ;)
Posted by: MarinesCallmeDoc | Oct 26, 2007 3:20:10 PM
MarinesCallmeDoc... open your eyes, Look around... nothing is getting better... NOTHING, this man waves the american flag while he and his administration destroy what it stands for...
Posted by: Tommy Darcy | Oct 26, 2007 3:33:03 PM
This is all about Washington cronism. The President has steadfastly refused to appoint anything but yes men to head things at a time when the US in under severe stress. OH yeah-HIllary will soon fix it-----about as quick as she will show up and fix my flat tire! People get your heads out of the sand and stop this nonsense-America is in the balance and it is not Gore's "Balance."
Posted by: rockychance | Oct 26, 2007 3:37:01 PM
Hey MarinesCallmeDoc, did you know that a year after the Iraq invasion, bush and his administration tryed to have solgiers pay cut as well as doing away with danger pay and cut benefits to solgiers families, Do you remember when our men and women in the armed forces were fighting and dying in Iraq GW made a joking video about not finding weapons of mass distruction... yeah great GW!
Posted by: Tommy Darcy | Oct 26, 2007 3:48:43 PM
msarinescallmedoc: sixty-six percent of the normal, working, intelligent people of this country DISapprove of your ersatz hero. Are you still going by the "Mission Accomplished" sign for your cue on the "victory" thing? He's not a visionary - he said he's the "decider" - how 4th grade.
Posted by: fresh air | Oct 26, 2007 3:51:35 PM
The media are supposed to serve their readers and viewers interests not push their personal political agendas so a pox on all you partisans taking advantage of this disaster to push your group of Government Gangsters against "their" Ggroup of Government Gangsters. Hilary or Barak would have done no better or no worse than GW. That is not the point. The point is who prevented local communities from suppressing the underbrush etc and caused it to get so thick---they should have to pay. Send the Bill to the Sierra Club and the other "Greenie" Socialit failures who are once more "planning" the enviroment instead of managing it. Withdraw ALL Government Insurance and other post fire (or flood) help on Houses built in such unsuitable , heavily wooded areas or on beaches and flood plains. People will soon quit building there if they have to pay for it themselves. FEMA should be closed, like all Government Agencies it is corrupt and inept, no matter who runs the Government. If a disaster happens and people really need immediate help the local Governor can call in his national guard and DoD can send some troops to maintain law and order and transport essentials in the short-term, but leave it to the people and their Insurance companies to rebuild.
Posted by: Cedric T | Oct 26, 2007 4:02:23 PM
LOL! The Bush administration is a joke. But you know what? We the people are even dumber for allowing all of this nonsense to go on. Our government runs us, we don't call the shots. When is everyone going to wake up and smell the coffee?
Posted by: Erika | Oct 26, 2007 4:10:22 PM
Anybody shocked?
Posted by: Ron | Oct 26, 2007 4:18:04 PM
Fire the Turkey!
Posted by: Paul | Oct 26, 2007 4:19:11 PM
This story was written by Al Kamen a Washington Post reporter who is known as a Bush heating ultra liberal who has a history of writing foolish, stupid, outlandish, and untrue stories. I am betting that by tomorrow morning it will have vanished into thin air with no mention of it anywhere including ABC news. For those of you who really don’t care if it is true or not - hammer away if it makes you feel better.
Posted by: Johnny | Oct 26, 2007 4:22:14 PM
Heckuva job, FEMA...remember, that staged press conference Bush had with the troops back in 2005 - very similiar...it's all about image and PR, instead of actually getting the job done...smoke and mirrors...
Posted by: TruthHurts | Oct 26, 2007 4:23:20 PM
If I performed my job in the same manner as these people do I would be fired, simple as that... there is no accountability what-so-ever... I'm sick of our government, both the republicans and democrats.
they play with our lives and money like it's nothing, they all disgust me!
Posted by: Tommy Darcy | Oct 26, 2007 4:37:31 PM
Stop supporting War. It IS possible to make this country safer without killing and pillaging. In my opinion, it's a vastly superior method. We have disasters at home that needs the attention of our soldiers. Natural disasters that are nearly impossible to presdict and even harder to end than a useless war....
Posted by: postingcomms | Oct 26, 2007 4:50:05 PM
par for the course. yawn...
Posted by: a.copley | Oct 26, 2007 5:14:07 PM
well just remember after a car accident the news always says alcahol may have been involved they never say it may not have been Involved
Posted by: dz | Oct 26, 2007 5:24:27 PM
So the lesson here is that forest fires may or may not be alcoholics and the media is letting them off easy on thier blatent disregard for the lives of us mortals....
Posted by: scrotasius | Oct 26, 2007 5:27:26 PM
For a good lesson in past history of this soet of fraud then go back to watch "Flags of our fathers" It just never ends.
Posted by: Chris Horne | Oct 26, 2007 5:31:41 PM
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