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FEMA Sorry for Faking News Briefing

Posted by Zonk on from the if-you-want-a-job-done-right-do-it-yourself dept.

theodp writes "The Federal Emergency Management Agency's No. 2 official apologized Friday for leading a staged news conference Tuesday in which FEMA employees posed as reporters. All the while, real reporters listened on a telephone conference line and were barred from asking questions. In the briefing, Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson Jr., FEMA's deputy administrator, called on questioners who did not disclose that they were FEMA employees, and gave replies emphasizing that his agency's response to this week's California wildfires was far better than its response to Hurricane Katrina in August 2005."

2 of 403 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Devistating, but no Katrina by mikelieman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What are the CRIMINAL penalties for this Fraud? I would think that 18 USC 371 would apply, as FEMA engaged in this deception in part to deprive Congress of it's lawful role in oversight?

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  2. FEMA's lesson from Katrina by brit74 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So, I guess this means that FEMA's lesson from Katrina was that they needed better press coverage?

    Anyway, besides Jeff Gannon, we've seen this before. Here's another case:
    March 29, 2005
    Despite a rising chorus of condemnation from journalists and media critics, the George W. Bush administration shows no signs of abandoning its distribution of taxpayer-funded "news" to U.S. newspapers, radio and television stations.

    Free press advocates are up in arms about what they say is the covert dissemination of propaganda by government agencies.

    In one case, the administration -- seeking to build support among black families for its education reform plans -- paid a prominent African American pundit, Armstrong Williams, 240,000 dollars to promote the "No Child Left Behind" law on his nationally syndicated television show and through his newspaper column, and to urge other black journalists to do the same.

    Two other nationally known journalists, Maggie Gallagher and Michael McManus, have also admitted accepting thousands of dollars to endorse government programs.

    Since 2001, the Army and Air Force Hometown News Service has fielded 40 reporters, producers and public affairs specialists to create "good military news" to be beamed to home audiences via local news stations. The service's "good news" segments have reportedly reached 41 million Americans via local newscasts -- in most cases, without the station acknowledging their source.

    More than 20 different federal agencies used taxpayer funds to produce television news segments promoting Bush administration policies. These "video news releases," or VNRs, were broadcast on hundreds of local news programs. without disclosing their source....
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0329-12.htm