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FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 5:08:38 PM

Level

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WASHINGTON - The White House scolded the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Friday for staging a phony news 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 independent reporters Tuesday and ask questions of Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the agency’s deputy director.

The questions were predictably soft and gratuitous.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21490838

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RE: FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 5:57:49 PM

TreasureKY

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Our tax dollars, hard at work.

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RE: FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 6:07:13 PM

farglebargle

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Our National Guard, dicking around in Iraq. :(

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RE: FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 6:12:10 PM

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Yes. I see things like this, and wonder, what is wrong with these people???

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Fake the heat and scratch the itch
Skinned up knees and salty lips
Let go it's harder holding on
One more trip and I'll be gone

~~ Stone Temple Pilots

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RE: FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 6:49:03 PM

GoddessDustyGold

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I've been waiting for this topic! LOL
My solution: Just disband FEMA.
In fact, lets disband most things Federal.
That should solve most of these problems.

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Don't blame Me ~ I didn't vote for either of them
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RE: FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 7:07:20 PM

DomKen

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FEMA is an important and necessary federal agency. The present leadership needs to spend some quality time in the unemployment line.

What I can't figure out is why anybody thought this would work. No reporter prefaced his questions with his paper/network. No hard questions were asked. No reporter who only got to see the podium and hear the softballs heard the voice of a reporter they knew.

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RE: FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 7:09:17 PM

batshalom

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Mm. That was the PR dude's idea. In fact, most PR people are trained journalists - at least that's how I went through the program, even though I am nearly choking with shame to admit it.

Ohhhhhhhh, a self-directed humiliation scene ... !

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RE: FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 7:23:47 PM

GoddessDustyGold

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How did we get along without a FEMA prior to 1979?
I guess it takes less than 30 years (one generation?) for something like this to become an important and necessary Federal Agency.
I think, as I already said, that it could be an excellent idea to disband most things "Federal". So I guess we will just have to agree to disagree.

< Message edited by GoddessDustyGold -- 10/26/2007 7:24:38 PM >

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Dusty
They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety
B Franklin
Don't blame Me ~ I didn't vote for either of them
The Hidden Kingdom

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RE: FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 7:36:47 PM

DementedGirl

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quote:

ORIGINAL: GoddessDustyGold

I've been waiting for this topic! LOL
My solution: Just disband FEMA.
In fact, lets disband most things Federal.
That should solve most of these problems.

I think if we just take the heads of FEMA and have an open execution, then it will set an example.

Maybe with that fear in the back of their minds, they will act accordingly.

Ahhhhh to dream..............

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Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. - Helen Keller

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RE: FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 8:31:18 PM

TheHeretic

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        This is probably the most positive sign I have seen that FEMA might be getting fixed. They found an innovative and pragmatic way to solve a problem and do what had to be done. That displays the critical (and previously lacking) sense of MISSION required in an agency with their task.

      How to make their announcements without the press conference turning into Center Ring of the media circus? How to say what they had to say about what they will be doing in an immediate crisis, without a barrage of loaded questions to feed the talk-show comparisons to Katrina? How to get this necessary but total pain in the ass job done?

     I love it. Fake reporters who won't ask a single snarky question. Thinking like that might have lessened the nightmares on the Gulf Coast a few years back. If the head of the agency does the Sunday talk shows in the wake of this story breaking, and DOES face those hard questions, I'll even back the play this time.

     I say we find the guy, probably some lowly staffer, who thought this jewel up and promote that motherfucker. Then move his ass over to water distribution or something else actually mission critical, because no matter how exigent the circumstances, playing with the press like that is a no-no.

    Really, that kind of , make it happen, approach to obstacles is exactly what FEMA needs.

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RE: FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 9:04:02 PM

Bufotenin

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quote:

ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

This is probably the most positive sign I have seen that FEMA might be getting fixed. They found an innovative and pragmatic way to solve a problem and do what had to be done. That displays the critical (and previously lacking) sense of MISSION required in an agency with their task.

How to make their announcements without the press conference turning into Center Ring of the media circus? How to say what they had to say about what they will be doing in an immediate crisis, without a barrage of loaded questions to feed the talk-show comparisons to Katrina? How to get this necessary but total pain in the ass job done?

The purpose of a press conference is to answer questions the press has. If they only wanted to answer questions they'd written careful answers to they could have... oh, I dunno... issued a press statement? Instead of wasting time, energy, and tax dollars on faking a press conference?

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RE: FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 9:29:09 PM

TheHeretic

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Bufotenin

The purpose of a press conference is to answer questions the press has.

Under ideal or normal circumstances, I'd probably go along with that, but as you may have noticed, things haven't been ideal or normal in Socal lately. The purpose here was the mandatory 'show of the flag' and to present basic information to the people they are supposed to be serving. Nowhere in their mission statement does it say, "make sure Nancy Grace has something easy to be a whining c*** about."

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That's why people with no sense of humor have such an inflated sense of self-importance.

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RE: FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 9:39:50 PM

Bufotenin

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quote:

ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bufotenin

The purpose of a press conference is to answer questions the press has.

Under ideal or normal circumstances, I'd probably go along with that, but as you may have noticed, things haven't been ideal or normal in Socal lately. The purpose here was the mandatory 'show of the flag' and to present basic information to the people they are supposed to be serving. Nowhere in their mission statement does it say, "make sure Nancy Grace has something easy to be a whining c*** about."

Which is why I ask why they didn't just issue a press statement, written or pre-recorded, instead of going through the trouble of faking a press conference. The information presented would have been one and the same anyway, and by not faking a conference they could have avoided the embarassment of being chided by the Feds and the media.

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RE: FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 9:43:51 PM

mnottertail

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Fair enough, so long as the shitbreather Rush Limbaugh doesnt inflame the retards and say see? We are doing what needs doing. Because they are retards. You shouldn't let people like that think they are sailing when nothing is being done, but a couple fly bys.

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RE: FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 9:49:59 PM

TheHeretic

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Bufotenin

Which is why I ask why they didn't just issue a press statement,

Because that wasn't good enough for the severity of the situation. They had to get out in front of the cameras. Realpolitik.

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If you lose one sense, your other senses are enhanced.
That's why people with no sense of humor have such an inflated sense of self-importance.

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RE: FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 9:53:41 PM

mnottertail

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RealpolitiK is where we actually raze fucking Iraq. Spinning is rumplestiltsKin
Be the difference grasshopper

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RE: FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 9:59:03 PM

Bufotenin

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quote:

ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bufotenin

Which is why I ask why they didn't just issue a press statement,

Because that wasn't good enough for the severity of the situation. They had to get out in front of the cameras. Realpolitik.

They could have made a live press statement in front of the cameras, sans planted reporters and a fake Q&A. Do you honestly believe there was some net PR gain made by pretending to interact with reporters, vs simply saying what they wanted to say? Especially considering how unlikely it was that something like that would go unnoticed?

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Post #: 17

RE: FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 10:12:33 PM

UtopianRanger

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Level

Yes. I see things like this, and wonder, what is wrong with these people???

Nah.....Not much damage at all. It just further undermines/erodes the people's trust in government.

- R

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RE: FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 10:17:36 PM

brightspot

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For me it's going to be interesting to watch how much faster the "better off white folk" in California get help, while most of New Orleans and it's people are still in ruins.

Missy.

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RE: FEMA holds fake news conference - 10/26/2007 10:35:29 PM

TheHeretic

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       Did you miss the part where I indicated this wasn't acceptable pratice? Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the difference between day-to-day and exigent circumstances.

      My point is that an agency which has failed badly in the past is showing signs that at least some people in the organization have a willingness and ability to come up with novel approaches in time of crisis. You know, those moments when the snarky get told to STFU and get out of the way.

       I'm well aware of the implications of this sort of thing in a free society. Like I said, this is the kind of thinking I want in departments other than media relations.

        Personally, I'd have liked a press conference that started with, "That was then, this is now. Only questions relative to immediate operations will be entertained at this time." Then I'd say promote that fucker, right where he is.

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If you lose one sense, your other senses are enhanced.
That's why people with no sense of humor have such an inflated sense of self-importance.

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