FEMA staff portrayed reporters at phony press conference

[FourScore]

FEMA staff portrayed reporters at phony press conference
by UncommonSense
Fri Oct 26, 2007 at 06:28:05 AM PDT

This gives a whole new meaning to the expression "Faux News."

The Bush administration has taken news manipulation to a new low. The Washington Post's Al Kamen reveals that the "reporters" who lobbed softball questions at FEMA Deputy Administrator Harvey Johnson on Thursday were, in fact, employees of FEMA.

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.

SNIP

"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."

SNIP

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.

One of the faux reporters, Mike Widomski, defended the propaganda pageant, insisting that the FEMA staffers were simply asking the same questions that real reporters had been asking all day.

The Fox "News" Channel model of news manipulation actually seems rather quaint compared to this. Stalin would be proud.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/10/26/92544/223

[spanone]

1. please tell me you are kidding.....

[Zambero]

30. It's "Morning in Amercia" again

Everything's coming up roses, thanks to FEMA and Dear Leader who makes it all possible...

[rodeodance]

2. sometimes i just have no words when crap like this takes place

[rodeodance]

3. now PASS to all you know!

[rodeodance]

4. and a REC

[spinbaby]

5. Oh, send this one to Olbermann

Unbelieveable.

[annabanana]

6. Breathtaking....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/25/AR2007102502488.html

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.

Asked about this, Widomski said: "We had been getting mobbed with phone calls from reporters, and this was thrown together at the last minute."

[Dhalgren]

7. The American People are rubes, simpletons, dimwits, yokels,

hayseeds, dupes, pre-programmed knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers. At least that is how the Bush regime views them. Is the Bush regime wrong?

[Ezlivin]

14. The Bush Team knows its demographics

It has cynically misused the power of its office and corrupted the press in order to present a false image of what's really happening in this country.

And the coverups never seem to end...

[Dhalgren]

17. The thing that just constantly "gets" to me is how this shit just keeps

on going. No one steps up and says, "This is all a pack of lies!" And if someone does say it, they are dismissed, belittled, scorned, made fun of, and ridiculed. I read an article the other day and the reporter mentioned the concept that the "truth" of any issue or situation was to be found somewhere in the "middle" - between two imaginary poles. Where did this idea come from and when did it start? This idea that objective truth is some how the product of opposing views is perhaps the most insidious, destructive idea that our society has ever been exposed to. The loss of objective truth, of observable reality is the death knell of our freedoms and our liberties. Without the ability to point to something real, to agree that something is objectively true, we have nothing...

[librechik]

8. K&R#5

what pukes!

[fasttense]

9. But, but, it happened on TV, so that means it really is real. n/t

[TechBear_Seattle]

10. Definitely K & R

You don't think it could get any worse, and then the Junta manages to prove you wrong.

[Coexist]

11. Why, oh why, is The Daily Show on hiatus?

[FourScore]

15. This really would be great material for them. n/t

[Richard Steele]

12. Coming from this Potemkin Administration, this doesn't surprise me at all. recommended

[Dhalgren]

18. "The Potemkin President" - beautiful...

[Mist]

13. They love creating their own reality--Armstrong Williams, Jeff Gannon, etc. nt

[Greyskye]

16. K&R for bat-sh*t crazy stuff you just can't make up.

:wow:

[Supersedeas]

19. apparently the barrell has a new bottom

[Zywiec]

20. Busted!!!!

[tkmorris]

21. This is just bloody insane

We need to pound the MSM with this until they report on it. It needs broader coverage. Expose the Department of Propaganda.

[nolabels]

31. Shouldn't it be a class action against MSM for broadcasting this fiction as news?

Oh......... but then again most everything they broadcast titled as news is actually fiction anyway, my bad :shrug:

[catzies]

22. "You can fool some of the people all of the time..."

"...and those are the ones you want to concentrate on."

~attributed to G.H.W. Bush, sometime in the 1990s.

[opihimoimoi]

23. ONLY in GOPSTAN can this happen....the GOP Fakes News with its own staff...

How the fuck can they sleep at night??

[Hubert Flottz]

24. K&R

Just like Nazis!

[truebrit71]

25. Good grief!! This HAS to be from the Onion no?

Someone needs to get this to KO....ASAP....

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. No and KO had it on

so it did happen!

[DeSwiss]

26. Aren't there some federal regulations....

...which dictate who can legally receive press credentials? If there are, everyone involved in issuing them for this farce should be fired.... :(

on edit: K&R!!!

[dmr]

27. Ah, so this explains why I was yelling at my TV!

It was exasperating watching and listening to that guy tooting the FEMA tooter; and why no one was asking honest-to-goodness questions. I ended up turning it off because not only did it waste my time, it was not giving anything newsworthy. Learning of their fraud explains it.

Whatever headways they think they may have made this time around: their deception negates it.

I want a refund of my tax dollars.

Does anyone know if Blackwater just happen to show up in California as they did during Katrina?

[opihimoimoi]

28. Germany 1934 to '45

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

29. And the beat goes on......... eom

[deacon]

33. And noone will be fired. FEMA needs help from an agency...well like a FEMA n/t

[flashl]

34. Neverneverland: PR spending doubled under Bush

Report: PR spending doubled under Bush

The Bush administration has more than doubled its spending on outside contracts with public relations firms during the past four years, according to an analysis of federal procurement data by congressional Democrats.

The administration spent at least $88 million in fiscal 2004 on contracts with major public relations firms, the analysis found, compared with $37 million in 2001, Bush's first year in office. In all, the administration spent $250 million on public relations contracts during its first term, compared with $128 million spent for President Clinton between 1997 and 2000. The analysis did not examine what the Clinton administration spent during its first term.

The top-spending agency during the past four years, at $94 million, was the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The biggest federal public relations contractor in that period was Ketchum, with $97 million.

"While not all public relations spending is illegal or inappropriate, this rapid rise in public relations contracts at a time of growing budget deficits raises questions about the priorities of the administration," said the report by the Democratic staff of the House Government Reform Committee.

I think its time to go back and read "Alice in Wonderland".

[Subdivisions]

35. GOD DAMN IT! I'm sick of these criminal motherfuckers! They

can all go to hell!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

36. Amazingly, NBC reported on it this morning on The Today Show! eom

[jonnyra]

37. Perception management

That is the number one objective of this rogue administration....always has been. Remember the stories during Bush's visit to New Orleans when sets were literally designed and set up...cranes, workers, lighting...everything for a TV appearance and then dismantled when the broadcast was over. Everyone knew it was going on but no one in MSM would speak to it.

Perception management is Rove's best weapon. Its how they managed to dupe a nation into twice electing (or at least keeping the election close enough they could steal it) a total psychopath into the office of the presidency. The saddest part is that Americans are so easily manipulated by such bullshit.