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  2. It's Not Called Management, It's Called Lying

It's Not Called Management, It's Called Lying

By mikethemadbiologist on October 27, 2007.

Welcome to the world of Potemkin press conferences. FEMA held a press conference...with itself (italics mine):

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."

....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.

So, if you hold a press conference with yourself, will you go blind?

Tags
Authoritarianism
Conservatives
Propaganda

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It's like they aren't even pretending to care anymore that everyone thinks that they are a bunch of lying scum. I expect most of this administration will spend the next fifteen months sending out resumes.

I expect most of this administration will spend the next fifteen months sending out resumes.

If they do so whilst supposedly working, and/or do so using government equipment (computers, faxes, et al.), can they be nailed for that? Sending out resumes is not what they are being paid to do, nor is that the purpose of the equipment.

On the other hand, given a choice between them sending out resumes when they should be "working", and continuing with the current "work", perhaps they should be encouraged to send out resumes?

I'd like to think all those resumes will be binned on receipt (so I hope they are sent electronically and not on dead trees), but realise there are fools out there who would actually consider the fools...

You missed your chance Mad Mike. You could have thrown in a reference to Jeff Gannon and had the man himself visit your blog, like he did for the denialism blog!